Northern lights tonight over Cayuga Lake in Ithaca, NY 🔭

Blue skies

Milky Way near my house 🔭

“One small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.” Neil Armstrong on July 20, 1969 🔭

Exoclimes 2025 (@exoclimes.bsky.social) was an amazing week of science, meeting old friends, making new friends and colleagues, and having fun exploring Montreal! 😊 Thanks everyone!

#ExoClimesVII is done and that’s a wrap on a great week full of science🔭🛰️🪐! On behalf of the entire LOC, thank you to all participants for making this week so special and memerable 🥹. Can’t wait to see you guys all again at ExoClimes VIII 🛸🚀 MERCI À BIENTÔT!!

Exoclimes VII has officially begun!! 👽🧑‍🚀👩‍🚀🚀🚀 Things have kicked off with some welcoming words from our fearless leaders Lisa Dang @astrolisadang.bsky.social & Romain Allart! And now off to our first review talk from Nicolas Cowan about Exoplanet atmospheric Dynamics 🪐☄️

I'm in Montreal this week for Exoclimes 🇨🇦 Excited for a great week of exoplanet science! 😀

Pluto at Fuertes Observatory 🔭 Taken through the 102-year-old Irving Porter Church Refractor Image taken by Ben Jacobson-Bell & The Cornell Astronomical Society

Today is my 7th PhD Anniversary!! 🥳🎓 Wow, how time flies 🤯 Picture from my PhD dinner 👇

Have you seen the Rubin Observatory's first images? Rubin has the largest digital camera in the world, and it's ready to revolutionize astronomy! Over the next decade, it will discover 2000x MORE galaxies than the 10 million shown below. Let's explore how its images compare to other telescopes 🔭

Today we show the power of the people ✊ Join the nationwide peaceful 'No Kings Day' protests in a city near you 👇

Rejected from a dream job yesterday 😭 This one hurts 🤕 Mood today 👇 youtu.be/eVTXPUF4Oz4?...

My current research focuses on using TESS to study the changing orbits of exoplanets 🔭 See the epic trailer for the TESS mission below! 🤯

Take Action Now to Support Astronomical Science Programs 🔭 aas.org/advocacy/get... #savescience

Urge Your Members of Congress To Support NASA Science 🔭 aas.org/urge-nasa-su...

🚨SCIENCE UNDER SIEGE: TRUMP’S FIRST 100 DAYS 🚨 In his first 100 days, Trump has declared war on science—slashing budgets, censoring facts, and meddling in research. From climate to cancer care, real lives are at risk. Here’s a thread on Trump’s assault on science so far—and why it matters: (🧵)

Happy 35th Birthday to the Hubble Space Telescope!! 🔭 I had pictures of Hubble on my wall as a kid. And now I'm an Astronomer. What a journey 🤯

“Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us... To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, & to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known." Carl Sagan #earthdayeveryday #EarthDay

*** If you’d like to support the search for life, take just one minute to urge American representatives to support NASA science. Slashing NASA’s budget in half would make these scientific discoveries near impossible. *** www.planetary.org/action-center

Has JWST found life on another world? 🔭 An analysis of exoplanet K2-18 b points to the existence of dimethyl sulfide, a molecule produced by photosynthesizing plankton on Earth—but proving that this sign is real, and that life is the only explanation, is a difficult task. arxiv.org/abs/2504.12267

𝗡𝗼, 𝗮 𝗯𝗶𝗼𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗱𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝗻 𝗞𝟮-𝟭𝟴𝗯'𝘀 𝗮𝘁𝗺𝗼𝘀𝗽𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲. K2-18b is back in the news, now with a bold claim that biosignature molecules (DMS and/or DMDS) have been 'detected at 3σ'. Most exoplanet astronomers are extremely sceptical about these claims, let's see why (1/n). 🔭🧪🪐 #exoplanet

Other scientists are more sceptical about the findings. “These new JWST observations do not offer convincing evidence that DMS or DMDS are present in K2-18b’s atmosphere,” says Ryan MacDonald (@distantworlds.space) at the University of Michigan www.newscientist.com/article/2477...

Ok one more thing. If it is DMS that’s really neat. We have a bunch of unanswered questions about DMS on Earth and being able to study it in another atmosphere might help us learn more about our own planet. There. Write that story. No sensationalism needed.

Sarah’s rules of looking for life with only chemical signatures: 1) the smaller the molecule(s) the more likely they can also be produced by abiotic processes 2) one molecule, if it can be produced by any abiotic process, will never be enough to definitively claim detection of life

One of the employees fired from NASA told me how much their career meant to them: "Prior to everything happening today, NASA has been an incredible place to work — to dream big, to innovate, to do things that I never thought I could have done.” Words by me. 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Only 1/16 of JWST proposals I was involved with were accepted 🔭 What a day (it is only 11am) 😥 Accepted proposal is co-I 😀

NASA's science budget might be cut 50% 🔭 This will effectively kill space science in the USA 🥲 And be disastrous for me personally (and might end my career) 😭 Please send a message to your local representatives to protest these cut 🙏 #standupforscience www.planetary.org/advocacy-act...

Stand up for SCIENCE! 🔭🧪 #StandUpForScience Here are actions you can take today & into the future 🧵👇

TOMORROW- Friday, February 28th is BLACKOUT FRIDAY! If you believe we are in danger of losing our Democracy forever, FIGHT BACK! Let's make our voices heard in numbers too big to ignore. JOIN US if you've had it with Comrade Krasnov. 🤬 🇷🇺 #24HourEconomicBlackout

Blue Ghost lunar lander orbiting over the surface of the Moon 🔭 Wow 🤯

NASA layoffs on hold, for now 🔭 We need to stay vigilant & keep making our voices heard spacenews.com/nasa-layoffs...

Wouldn't it just be a damn shame if EVERYONE emailed their five accomplishments, or 5 thoughts, or insults for Elon, to OPM as they requested of federal employees, thereby crashing the site? Sounds like good trouble to me. PASS IT ON.

I made this Pride flag using only NASA images and our team thought it would be cool to share on social (I work on the NASA heliophysics communications team), but it's getting all sorts of hate on the bird app and Fbook. Thought y'all might be more appreciative of it here. ☺️🏳️‍🌈💖

I truly think people don’t realize how many universities and colleges — especially public ones — may shut down if restrictions on and withholding of federal funding persists for even one presidency We are facing the demolition of American higher education

Contact your representatives if you disagree with the NASA layoffs 🔭

The Planetary Society strongly opposes the sudden, indiscriminate dismissal of more than 1,000 scientists, engineers, and explorers at NASA — the largest involuntary workforce reduction since the end of the Apollo program. Read more on our stance. ⬇️

If you’re an American, it takes just one minute to contact your representatives about the NASA layoffs, thanks to the Planetary Society: www.planetary.org/advocacy-act... 🔭

Being extra kind in meetings- whether virtual or in person- is a superpower, especially now. No one will ever fault you for being extra patient, generous, understanding, or gentle. If they do, it's a them problem. Stay kind y'all.

FYI 🔭

Happy Valentine's Day!

Sunset last night

I'm giving a talk to my daughter's school tomorrow about animals that have been to space. Always fun getting kids to guess which animals have become astronauts, and gets a good laugh when they learn about the Moon tortoises in 1968! Cats, dogs, monkeys, tortoises... am I missing anything?

Mood 💪 youtu.be/rWwfyzX2OeM?...

Hello blue skies & some clouds

We know Black history is American history thanks to generations of Black Americans who worked and persevered to deliver on the promises of justice and equality for all. MAGA can’t stop the generations of Black Americans who keep leading us to become a more perfect union. Happy Black History Month.

This is what the government did with 120K+ Japanese Americans in 1942. I know. I was there in those camps.

Your Daily Dose Of Cuteness...

Hearing that HWO (Habitable Worlds Observatory) working groups have been told to halt activities as well. 🧪🔭