Now on @sciam.bsky.social: Reflect Orbital’s plan to deliver “sunlight on demand” using thousands of giant orbital mirrors is just the latest in a growing list of disruptive commercial activities in space. By @raminskibba.bsky.social. 🧪🔭 www.scientificamerican.com/article/alar...

🔭 🧪

Tianwen-1 Mars orbiter successfully observed the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS in early October at a distance of ~29 million km, CNSA has just announced. www.cnsa.gov.cn/n6758823/n67...

The speed with which salmon have returned to the Klamath - like the Elwha - after dam removal is overwhelmingly hopeful. And in both cases thanks to decades of tireless advocacy by local Tribes.

🚨new shape just dropped🚨 (by @dodecalemma.bsky.social with graphics by me) www.scientificamerican.com/article/math...

Now on @sciam.bsky.social: Astronomers are agog over this all-day gamma-ray burst. A cosmic explosion known as GRB 250702B is by far the longest gamma-ray burst astronomers have ever seen—if it’s even one at all. By @whereisyvette.bsky.social. www.scientificamerican.com/article/long...

Now on @sciam.bsky.social: After a leaked memo and a dust-up with NASA’s interim chief, Jared Isaacman’s renomination to lead the space agency portends potentially profound changes for U.S. space science and exploration. By @danvergano.bsky.social. www.scientificamerican.com/article/nasa...

Terry Wallace's Facebook post continued.

This needs to be shared more widely. It's on Facebook, which AFAIK doesn't allow direct links to its posts. Terry clearly wants it to be shared, so I don't feel bad about posting it in multiple screenshots. Terry Wallace was the director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

On Sunday, humans marked 25 years of continuous presence in Earth orbit, via the International Space Station. For @sciam.bsky.social, @astrojonny.bsky.social looks at the surge of commercial space stations that might keep this trend going to 2050. www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-...

A personal reflection on the destructive erosion of ethics, norms and respect for law at NASA: 🧪🔭 🧵

I recommend this article by @meghanbartels.bsky.social and @leebillings.bsky.social for folks who are looking for *factual* information about why 3I/ATLAS is of interest to planetary astronomers: www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-...

NASA: o hey u guys are back early astronomer: galaxy's haunted NASA: what? astronomer: *loading a pistol and going back to the telescope* galaxy's haunted This is my summary of @philplait.bsky.social's latest spooktacular column for @sciam.bsky.social. www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-...

100% seconding this. Like, yeah, "that 'blue' thing's not actually blue!" can be a cool way to communicate various complexities of the physics and perception of color. But most of the time it's comes off as snarky, in a "well akshully" smarty-pants way that's a huge turn-off for the average person.

If you're interested in our exciting new arms race, there's no better follow than @armscontrolwonk.bsky.social. His podcast is great too. I was going to say it was too infrequent, but since the policy is "launch a missile, get a pod [about your country]" let's hope it doesn't get any more frequent.

Now on @sciam.bsky.social: At least one nuclear-weapons expert (one of many, I’d reckon) is baffled by Trump’s call to “immediately” resume U.S. nuclear tests. An enlightening convo with @armscontrolwonk.bsky.social, courtesy of @danvergano.bsky.social. www.scientificamerican.com/article/trum...

Hurricane Melissa and the knotty problem of hurricane categories: 🧪 www.scientificamerican.com/article/does...

Russia's nuclear missile is a very bad idea, by @danvergano.bsky.social

Now on @sciam.bsky.social: Vladimir Putin claims Russia has conducted a successful flight of a nuclear-powered cruise missile, Burevestnik. @danvergano.bsky.social explains how that missile might work—and why its existence leaves many experts perplexed. 🧪 scientificamerican.com/article/russ...

These images of Hurricane Melissa show the Category 5 storm in all its power

A nearly perfect alignment of factors has enabled Hurricane Melissa to become one of the most intense Atlantic storms ever recorded

my Bloomberg story on SpaceX's use of government technology projects to build its world-leading space tech has been syndicated, so now it's easy for anyone to read for free: www.al.com/news/2025/10...

@bot.astronomy.blue signup

It's never aliens. By @astrojonny.bsky.social www.scientificamerican.com/article/did-...

Now on @sciam.bsky.social: The infant universe may have run hot. Theorists say the early cosmos may have exponentially expanded in a blaze of heat rather than a chill of emptiness—thanks to a mysterious particle called the axion. By @sipappas.bsky.social. www.scientificamerican.com/article/did-...

Now on @sciam.bsky.social: Did astronomers photograph UFOs orbiting Earth in the 1950s, years before human activity there? New peer-reviewed studies suggest the answer is “yes,” but skeptics say these conclusions are premature. By @astrojonny.bsky.social. www.scientificamerican.com/article/did-...

Now on @sciam.bsky.social: “Quantum echoes” rippling through Google’s quantum computer chip Willow could lead to advances in molecular chemistry and the physics of black holes. By @dangaristo.bsky.social. www.scientificamerican.com/article/goog...

Now on @sciam.bsky.social: With the successful eleventh test flight of its Starship megarocket, SpaceX is on the cusp of a new era in spaceflight. www.scientificamerican.com/article/spac...

Now on @sciam.bsky.social: Quantum tunneling is a big deal—literally. Here’s @dangaristo.bsky.social explaining the science behind yesterday’s announcement of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics. www.scientificamerican.com/article/this...

Now on @sciam.bsky.social: This year’s physics Nobel goes to 3 researchers who demonstrated quantum tunneling on a superconducting chip. By bringing this microscopic effect into the macroscale world, they laid important foundations for quantum computing. www.scientificamerican.com/article/2025...

Now on @sciam.bsky.social: A fresh look at old Cassini data shows surprising chemical complexity brewing within Enceladus. This time we've found oodles of chonky organic molecules that could be precursors to (or byproducts of) even chonkier biomolecules. www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-l...

In my latest piece for The Planetary Report, I argue that we’ve largely lost the rhetorical ability to defend the unquantifiable values of space exploration—beauty, curiosity, discovery—in the face of an unrelenting focus on utilitarian pragmatism. www.planetary.org/articles/a-c...

This is a great article by my friends and colleagues Nadia and Lee.

Now on @sciam.bsky.social: NASA’s next-gen Habitable Worlds Observatory may be our best chance to find alien life. But can a nation busy ripping itself apart unite to launch a mission to solve life’s cosmic mysteries? By @nadiadrake.bsky.social (and me). www.scientificamerican.com/article/are-...

"Millennia ago a piece of the sky fell toward East Africa, streaking overhead, born of an ancient collision..." www.scientificamerican.com/article/insi... Shiid-birood, a fabled iron meteorite taken amid reports of violence, revealed tantalizing mysteries before vanishing into a shady underworld

We posted some of our favorite #SciAmInTheWild submissions and honestly, these make me so dang happy: www.scientificamerican.com/article/anno...

Lol’d at the NYT piece’s framing of SpaceX’s lunar lander as “riskiest”—something which is certainly true for Artemis III. But meanwhile SLS and Orion are what make Artemis I-IV launches cost >$4 billion *apiece*. That’s unsustainable—*riskily* so—and is why NASA went to SpaceX in the 1st place.

We've reached 6,000 confirmed exoplanets! I talked with @aussiastronomer.bsky.social about where things go from here. (A great graphic by @unamandita.bsky.social visualizes the amazing jumps in planet finds since the first ones were confirmed in the 1990s.)

Tomorrow! NASA HQ 3 PM. Free & open to the public.

Good thread.

So what I glean about this Mars announcement is that chemicals were found on Mars that on Earth are due to life, and no one knows any other way to make them on Mars. However, this is very far from knowing they *were* made by life. Reminds me of phosphine on Venus; "we don't know" doesn't mean life.

To sum up: we have 🪨 A cool rock from #Mars that may or may not hold evidence of ancient life 🛰️ An internal fight over whether NASA should spend its money on science or human exploration, and on what planet 🤔 A totally uncertain future for this amazing rock 🧪

If an exciting Mars rock isn't your cuppa, try this news from (much) farther afield. Now on @sciam.bsky.social: The best-yet measurement of gravitational waves from merging black holes confirms theories from Einstein and Hawking. By @clarakm.bsky.social. www.scientificamerican.com/article/best...

In the middle of the “second space race,” NASA scientists say we may be looking at the closest evidence yet of ancient life on Mars 🔭🧪 My story for @sciam.bsky.social with edits from @leebillings.bsky.social www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-t...

Fundamentally the #Mars announcement NASA is making today boils down to: there could have been some chemical reactions in these ancient rocks that could have been mediated by living organisms. The word "could" is doing a LOT of heavy lifting there. 🧪

Now on @sciam.bsky.social: The Mars rock that made headlines last year is still worth getting excited about. A new study says the case remains strong for potential biosignatures in the "Cheyava Falls" rock studied and sampled by the Perseverance rover. www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-t...

Today is the peak of Atlantic hurricane season. And yet, there's not even a hint of a hurricane anywhere in sight. What gives? Some cool weather stuff here: 🧪 www.scientificamerican.com/article/atla...

Did you know there was a play called Oxygen in 2001 taking jabs at the Nobel Prize Committee? Did you know CO2 is the Story of Everything? Our physics editor @leebillings.bsky.social talked to @peterbrannen.bsky.social about it earlier this summer! www.scientificamerican.com/article/carb...

If we’re going to find life, TRAPPIST-1e might be our best bet. By next year, we should know for sure if this alien planet has an atmosphere. But already there is excitement at hints this is not a barren world. Story by me in @sciam.bsky.social www.scientificamerican.com/article/jwst...

Now on @sciam.bsky.social: For the 1st time, we’ve seen hints of an atmosphere around a potentially habitable exoplanet. If confirmed, this would be a monumental discovery, opening a new era in the search for life beyond Earth. By @astrojonny.bsky.social. www.scientificamerican.com/article/jwst...