Is there life on Mars? For decades, America was in pole position to find out with its multi-mission Mars Sample Return program. But MSR is now officially dead. And in the race to find alien life on Mars, it’s now China’s to lose. Me @technologyreview.com www.technologyreview.com/2026/02/26/1...

Would love your thoughts on this article I just wrote" The Great Debate: Check Work Email On Weekends Or Not? This is a bit outside of the weather, climate and science things I normally write about in Forbes, but it is certainly relevant to many of us. www.forbes.com/sites/marsha... --

11423 representatives - one for every 30,000 persons. Once you exceed the capacity of a room, there is no reason to cap at an arbitrary number, which will always lead to lopsided representation.

While we wait for additional pieces to gain various approvals, I want to shout out some folks: Marco Micheli, Julien de Wit, Artem Burdanov, and Dave Tholen, who performed independent positional measurements, Bryan Holler for image processing, and Davide Farnocchia for orbit determination. 1/

I can't say enough about #JWST (which I'd link if they had an account?) and the folks at @stsci.edu, who made the faintest-ever observations of a solar system object a breeze, using only about 5 hours of integration on each of two observing sessions. 2/

So, yeah. It's not going to hit the Moon. But, importantly, we demonstrated that as a species we have the capability to discover, characterize, and track tiny objects, even if they're halfway to Jupiter. And I suspect that a lot more YR4-like objects could be found by @vrubinobs.bsky.social. \end

Hey, so, we have some news about something that won't be happening in 2032.

Ah crap I’m late for couch

“By royal command the pastry chefs have worked all night in the half bakery to make sure that——” “The half bakery?” questioned Milo. “Of course, the half bakery,” snapped the king. “Where do you think half-baked ideas come from?

There’s a full Moon today! Let’s celebrate with some Moon art! The March full Moon is sometimes called the Crow Moon. #FullMoon #Moon #linocut

This is a good example of the alternate civic sphere they have built. Their own institutions credentialing almost entirely for signal instead of skill. It’s not strange historically. Think being a member of a faith to become a professor at religious institutions.

[Cliff Claven voice] "You know, a selenelion is sometimes called a “horizontal eclipse” from the ancient Greek moon goddess Selen and sun god Helios, where one can see the eclipsed moon in the west and the risen sun in the east at the same time due to atmospheric refraction of both bodies."

Reminder:

🌕➡️🔴 Lunar eclipse alert! Depending on where you are (mostly: Central/Eastern Asia, Oceania, most of North/Central America), you may be able to see a TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE ("blood moon") overnight! You can find information about timing and viewing locations here: www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/luna...

Follow-up comment on how bad it is on the ground at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. 🔭

Anonymized chat from a telecon right now on the scale of destruction at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and how the best news source about it is the volunteer Greenbelt News Review (www.greenbeltnewsreview.com). ☹️ 🔭

Too few of you know of America’s greatest cultural creation youtu.be/GTJ3LIA5LmA?...

WORLD LEADERS SHOCKED AS PRESIDENT CRAZYPANTS DOES SOMETHING CRAZY NEWS AT 11.

Yes, I will be up stupidly early to try to catch the total lunar eclipse Tuesday morning. Here's a preview from the NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio.

In light of what is happening in Kansas, I want to reup this @sciam.bsky.social article on the world's first trans clinic destroyed in Nazi Germany. www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-...

“You finished those DC metro stations?” “Sure thing boss, beautiful, moodily lit and oddly unsettling, just like you asked.” “What?”

Researchers just made a “Wemby”-sized breakthrough in solving the mystery of why basketball sneakers squeak against the floor—and to demonstrate their new knowledge, the team used sneaker squeaks to play Darth Vader’s theme from Star Wars. 🏀 spklr.io/6041D0YWZ 📷: Adel Djellouli/Harvard University

Wow, they just upgraded the forecast from 1-2 feet to a runaway snow-albedo feedback and 60 million year-long low-latitude global glaciation

When you’re stocked up on eggs, bread, and milk for the snowstorms, why not try to create a Dark Breakfast item?

This is true, but it’s also true that NASA since Apollo has delivered two Voyagers, five Mars rovers, the Hubble Space Telescope, a fleet of Earth-observing satellites, near-earth asteroid detection, and continuously inhabited the International Space Station for 25 years. Among other things.

The County Council of Baltimore adopted a bill this past week that prohibits the construction of any new ICE detention centers inside the county. Here is the emergency zoning act, should anyone want to use the language for your own jurisdiction. countycouncilweb.s3.amazonaws.com/Bills%202026...

Per capita medalspercapita.com

NASA plans to roll back Artemis 2 as soon as Tuesday to repair the upper stage's helium pressurization system. "The quick work to begin preparations for rolling the rocket and spacecraft back to the VAB potentially preserves the April launch window." www.nasa.gov/blogs/missio...

Artemis II delays remind me that even elegant plans depend on robust testing and clear data. Mechanism analysis? @thebrycepowell.bsky.social May we let curiosity guide ethics and progress.

There’s an eclipse in here!

As the parent of a trans kid, this makes me incredibly sad. My kid has *always* been the person they are now. There was not some other version that ceased to exist. I didn't lose the child I gave birth to, I gained deeper knowledge when that child decided to trust me with their reality.

BREAKING: The Department of Education has ended its directive that attempted to restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in schools nationwide. This is a victory for academic freedom and education equity.

Dr. Ross Beyer studies planetary surfaces, working on ways to quantitatively analyze the meter-scale topography and surface roughness via remote sensing. This work has been used to help plan landing sites on Mars and the Moon. 🧪 🔭 #Geoscience #Space #Science #SETI #NotJustAliens

I just realized that today is Chinese New Year, the 1st day of Ramadan, AND Fat Tuesday. That means the Chinese new moon lined up with the Ramadan crescent and also fell exactly the right amount of time before the Easter full moon. An extremely rare lineup of 3 major moon-based traditions!

1. Never incentivize people to not take their meds. 2. Never incentivize people to lie to or withhold from their doctors. 3. Never assume that a disability is the same every day. 4. Err on the side of giving too many benefits, not too few. The consequences are asymmetrical.

What could go wrong using AI to help stage a few listing photos?

NASA will attempt a second Artemis 2 wet dress rehearsal on Thursday: www.nasa.gov/blogs/missio...

Me as a child: it must be very hard to become a CEO and be very hard work once you get the job Guy obviously on drugs speaking at a conference: the next five years of the economy should be about a dream I had where a dog spoke to me

This past Wednesday a U.S. Marshal shot and killed Julian Bailey in the Mayfair neighborhood of Ward 7. This shows us yet again that DC must end cooperation between MPD and federal forces. Tomorrow at 6 PM join Julian’s family for a vigil and remembrance in his honor.

My mother was 18 when Black women were able to vote openly. 23 when Roe v. Wade passed. 24 when women were allowed bank accounts in their own names I was 29 when I lost my right to an abortion. I am 33 & about to lose my right to vote A pox on every Trump supporter. Hell ain’t hot enough for you.

Coming so soon after the Superb Owl Sunday. It truly is an auspicious week.

LLMs are terrible for science. please use your highly trained and very capable brains.

"That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives." —Carl Sagan Voyager 1 captured the "Pale Blue Dot" image #OTD in 1990. 🧪 🔭 🔵 Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Bovino advanced all the way to within eyesight of Paisley Park, but his supply lines were stretched too thin and ultimately his frozen troops were encircled by Will Stancil and wine moms with whistles

never get involved in a land war in Minnesota