The International Max Planck Research School for #astronomy & #astrophysics is offering new PhD projects with an application deadline at the end of October. If you want to pursue a #phd at the @MPIfR_Bonn check out the available projects on our website […]

Does anyone have experience with laptops from frame.work? I like their concept, in particular that you can replace or upgrade parts so easily. They are a bit expensive, which would be ok if you could keep the laptop longer than other ones. But who knows whether this company still exists in 5 years?

I just finished reading 'The Ministry for the Future' by Kim Stanley Robinson. And I have to say it was quite an uncomfortable read. The first half felt more like a documentary about the near future, and very real. But then, the second half turns into a very unrealistic utopia that seems […]

The International Max Planck Research School for #astronomy & #astrophysics is offering new PhD projects with an application deadline at the end of October. If you want to pursue a #phd at the @MPIfR_Bonn check out the available projects on our website […]

Am Mittwochabend den 24.9.2025 bin ich im Planetarium Hamburg zu einer Lesung meines neuen Buches „Zwischen Urknall und Apokalypse - die große Geschichte unseres Planeten“ und im Gespräch mit meiner geschätzten Kollegin Dr. Sibylle Anderl - Resortleitern […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

Wenn sich irgendwann mal Historiker fragen, wie das alles passieren konnte, sollten sie sich diesen Artikel genau anschauen. Am Tag der Kommunalwahl in NRW machen Tagesschau und WDR ganz groß Werbung für die AfD. Das erste Drittel wird aus Sicht eines AfD Kandidaten geschrieben, und es werden […]

PSA: If you're afraid of cute #ostrich babies you should not watch the Namibia #waterhole stream right now.

Today it rained more than during all of August. So far we had 40 mm. #rain

Am I supposed to reply to people who ask for a master thesis project, but don't even bother to put my name into the email and just write ' I studied your recent work and find it very interesting.' and then continue to write that they are interested in a completely different field, that is not […]

Kann jemand eine Bank empfehlen, die Konten für Betreute macht? Ich muss ein Konto für einen von mir Betreuten eröffnen, aber haben entweder furchtbare Konditionen (z.B. Überweisungen nur per Post bei einer Direktbank), oder die Eröffnung hat engineer Hürden (z.B. dass der Betreute, der nicht […]

I'm currently at the beautiful 'Kloster Wasem' at a conference which was supposed to celebrate the retirement of Karl Menten. Instead we now commemorate his legacy in various fields of astrophysics. Today's topic are evolved stars.

I heard today possibly the dumbest excuse why we shouldn't stop using #fossil fuels: this would destabilize the oil and gas producing countries, which leads to failed states and more wars.🤦

This is pretty insane. Renting an electric car costs 50-100% more than one with an internal combustion engine, even though electric cars are only 10-20% more expensive nowadays, and they are cheaper in maintenance and tax. There is really no excuse for this.

This is an HST image OH231.8+4.2, also known as the Calabash Nebula (credit: NASA/ESA & Valentin Bujarrabal ). It is a dying star, that has ejected most of its mass into interstellar space. It will eventually form a planetary nebula. Because it contains […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

Paper resubmitted after minor revisons. Keep your fingers crossed. 🤞

Not much luck again with watching the #perseids yesterday. I saw only one, but a pretty bright one (definitely brighter than Vega). The sky was not dark enough 😔. But I saw two #bats 🦇 in our garden before it got dark.

I tried to watch some #perseids tonight. It was a bit hazy, and the moon made the sky very bright. Being right between two large cities (Cologne and Bonn) also doesn't help. I saw only one, but dozens of #satellites everywhere. And once extremely bright flash from a satellite. I prefer the […]

A few days ago, hundreds of winged yellow meadow ants were leaving their nest in our garden (just outside the terrace door) to found new colonies. That was pretty spectacular.

Spent two nights in an alpine cabin in a remote valley in East Tyrol in Austria at ~1700 m altitude. There were only a handful of people in the valley, and most of them without electricity, an no city nearby. The night sky was amazing, but the amount of […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

That's a really strong speech. I really wonder how the world would be right now, if he won in 2000. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ztx0Bch3h9s #climatechange #climatecrisis

Paper resubmitted, just in time for my vacation!

When you think #ai can't get worse. https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/elon-musk-grok-chatbot-antisemitic-posts-1235381165/

The fruits of our plum trees (Blutpflaume, or red leafed cherry plum) are ripe before we go on vacation this year. In the last two years they were still too sour before and overripe after our vacation. The trees are full of them. #gardening

If this flood of fake journal invitations continues like this in the next years, I'll be spending 90% of my time deleting these emails in 2028. #academicchatter

Yay! From the climate station of the Geological Institute of the University of Bonn across the street. 🥵 #heat #climatecrisis #hitze #klimakrise

I need a jacket soon. It's 22:00, and it already cooled down to 30°C.

A local farmer here thought it was a good idea to spread manure on the field during the hottest days of the year. Now you can choose between a heat stroke, because you can't open the window, or enjoy the nice smell.

Can anyone identify this #butterfly? Google lens thinks it's an Polygonia c-album, but that should not live here in Germany.

How reliable are the identifications from the sound ID of the #merlinapp? It picks up birds constantly that I can't see, so I'm not sure if I can confirm then or not.

Found a #hedgehog in our garden. We have also seen one last year, and (is I remember correctly) also before. So it seems like a regular visitor. It's hiding behind a pile of leaves, and you can see only hints of the spikes on the photo. I guess it makes […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

Why has nobody told me earlier that there is a metal song about Eugene Shoemaker by Nightwish? It's great. This song will be playing in my mind every time I see the moon now.

These masons built this wall like I write my code. But it doesn't fall apart, which is what counts. Seen at Burger's Zoo in Arnhem.

The most Dutch thing I have seen today (at the Nederlands Openluchtmuseum).

(Copied from the old server). What is the GLOSTAR Survey? We used the Very Large Array as well as the Effelsberg telescope to map in total 145 square degrees of the Galacic Plane at a frequency range of 4-8 GHz. We observed the radio continuum (full […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

Here is a new #introduction, since I just moved from astrodon.social. I'm a staff astronomer at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, in Bonn, Germany. My main interest ist VLBI astrometry (e.g. the BeSSeL Survey: http://bessel.vlbi-astrometry.… ) and radio surveys of the Milky Way (e.g […]