Preach!

A Decade of Gravitational Waves This is just a quick post to mark the fact that it is now ten years to the day since the first detection of gravitational waves by Advanced LIGO. The acronym LIGO stands for Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory. It wasn't until February 11th 2016 that…

Congrats to my brilliant colleague @kimberlykowal.bsky.social for this well-deserved award: “2025 Klumpke-Roberts Award is given to Dr. Kimberly Arcand” chandra.si.edu/press/25_rel...

LIFE ON MARS??!! I know you’re wary of overhyped claims of ET life. & we need to be cautious. As Sagan used to remind us, life should be the hypothesis of last resort. But this is one to watch. Legitimately a “potential biosignature” which demands follow up. 🧪 www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

“Bluesky now platform of choice for science community” by @jenlucpiquant.bsky.social My question: is that the case for astronomers now? arstechnica.com/science/2025...

BREAKING: Tsunami alerts issued for Alaska, Hawaii and all of the US West Coast after a major earthquake struck Russia's remote Far East. Follow live updates.

Brilliant

What a thumping signal!

This is exciting. The most massive black hole merger seen to date: #GW231123 #gravitationalwaves ligo.org/ligo-virgo-k...

As NASA's budget shrinks, Europe doubles down on Earth science

I think the only thing more breathtaking than Rubin’s first images was hearing their lengthy backstory from Tony Tyson. If you’re interested in how it took 30 years to create these snapshots, my story below:

🔭 The Veins of Heaven Image Credit & Copyright: P-M Hedén (Clear Skies, TWAN) apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap25071...

The Senate appropriations committee has voiced its intent to ignore the request by President Donald Trump to slash the budgets of the National Science Foundation and NASA science programs. scim.ag/4nW7XWi

The Senate Committee on Appropriations gave the first signs Congress will push back on Trump's proposed budget cuts to science and instead keep funding flat, though an unrelated issue (the location of the FBI headquarters) stalled any vote today. @alexwitze.bsky.social and I report:

This. Is. Brilliant.

Check out this newly-discovered comet zooming along.

Are you from one of these states? Then we need your help to save American science! The Senate Appropriations Committee will be marking up the President's Budget Request for science on Wednesday. People have been saying the proposed cuts "decimated" US science, but that's wrong: they are apocalyptic

Today, *every* living prior leader of NASA's science directorate have released a joint letter condemning the proposed cuts to NASA science. These individuals every administration from Reagan to Biden, and all believe these cuts are insanely destructive: www.planetary.org/press-releas...

Every living prior Associate Administrator of NASA Science: "we unanimously urge Congress to reject the proposed cuts to NASA’s budget" planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/assets/pdfs/...

US Friends! The Green Bank Observatory (GBO) is a vital instrument in the global #RadioAstronomy network (incl. pulsar science), and it is under threat with the proposed funding cuts. Please take action to keep it open: www.gogreenbankobservatory.org/take-action/ Pls share! 🔭📡🧪 📸 GBO/AUI/NSF

If any of my scientist *mutuals* wants to write an op-ed for their newspaper about science but you’re not feeling confident about your writing skills, I will happily ghost co-write the piece with you. I’m fast, and I’m pretty good. And we need people making the case for science. 🧪⚛️🔭

“These scientific advances were ‘Made in the U.S.A.’ Will they continue? America has long led in research. Budget cuts could jeopardize that dominance”, by Bruce Partridge wapo.st/44CVsWM

My latest “Expert Voices” piece for Science combines the excitement of the dawn of the Rubin Era with nervousness at the increasing degradation of the Space Environment #astronomy www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Astronomer Henrietta Swan Leavitt was born #OTD in 1868. She established the period-luminosity relation for Cepheid variable stars, an essential tool for understanding the scale of our Universe. 🧪 👩‍🔬 🔭 Image: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

“American science to soon face its largest brain drain in history” by @startswithabang.bsky.social bigthink.com/starts-with-...

Science Magazine discusses the potential impact of proposed budget cuts on our operation www.science.org/content/arti... by Adrian Cho ☄️⚛️🧪🔭

Helpful tips if you want people on social media to like and not block you! (Of course you can ignore the tips if you don’t want those things!)

We're back!

If you’d like to help NASA and are in the DC area, you can exercise your constitutional rights to assemble and speak.

NASA's science division is on life support. The President's budget request would cut science by 47%, basically ending American excellence in astro, #PlanetaryScience, Earth, and solar science. Funding would be at 1961 levels - BEFORE the Moon landings. 🔭🧪 TAKE ACTION HERE: linktr.ee/savespacesci...

Warmest congrats to former SAO Astro REU student *Dr* Osase Omoruyi, seen here with her excellent PhD advisor Dr Grant Tremblay celebrating her successful thesis defense today.

Trump proposes unprecedented budget cuts for US science in next fiscal year NASA cut by 24% NIH cut by 40% EPA cut by 55% NSF cut by 56% Analysis from @maxkozlov.bsky.social @dangaristo.bsky.social @alexwitze.bsky.social and @nature.com team www.nature.com/articles/d41...

More urgent than ever, now is the time to call up your congresspeople (see e.g. AAS guide if you want): aas.org/urge-nasa-su...

I just got the official email from the NSF about the drastic cuts and I think the correct translation is "if you are a young researcher who still wants to do science strongly consider leaving the United States if you can." which, really, is not an ideal message to be sending.

Trump's bare-bones budget proposal for FY26 is out. NASA changes would include $7b for lunar exploration and $1b for unspecified Mars programs, while slashing $2.2b from space science and $1.2b from earth science. Also, bye-bye SLS and Gateway. www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/u...

The official budget proposal for NASA is out. It is as horrible as the preliminary versions foreshadowed... 🧪🔭⚛️☄️ www.nasa.gov/news-release...

🧵 This panoramic image, combining X-rays from Chandra (orange, green, purple) & radio data (gray) from the MeerKAT telescope, provides an unprecedented view above and below the center of the Milky Way, revealing threads of superheated gas ➡️ chandra.si.edu/photo/2021/g... 🔭 🧪 #cosmology #galactic

@bot.astronomy.blue signup

This video by @neildegrassetyson.com and @davidkipping.bsky.social gives an *excellent* overview of the recent claim of possible life on an exoplanet. If one makes a big claim one receives a lot of scrutiny! David plans a more detailed follow-up video on his @CoolWorldsLab Youtube channel.

A great #RadioAstronomy position available at CSIRO as Parkes Lead Scientist! The successful candidate will oversee the scientific output of the iconic 64-metre Parkes radio telescope, Murriyang—the largest single-dish telescope in the southern hemisphere. jobs.csiro.au/job/Parkes%2...

“E.T., Phone the White House” by @caseydreier.bsky.social about the massive proposed budgets cuts to NASA: www.nytimes.com/2025/04/21/o...

Correction: that excellent @sciam.bsky.social article about possibly-varying dark energy was written by @zacksavitsky.bsky.social and *edited* by @clarakm.bsky.social

An excellent article by @clarakm.bsky.social on the latest exciting results on dark energy by DESI - @desisurvey.bsky.social It includes good quotes from @clairelamman.bsky.social and credits a cat for accidental observations.

Good news: asteroid 2024 YR4 has dropped from 3 to 1 on the Torino scale, with impact risk now significantly reduced; source: cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/sentry/

“NASA Telescopes Deliver Stellar Bouquet in Time for Valentine's Day”, with data from Chandra, Hubble, Spitzer and ALMA: chandra.si.edu/photo/2025/3...

Recordings of the plenaries from #aas245 will be available for conference registrants soon and will be publicly available in ~6 months. I think that’s standard.

At the first press briefing of today - and my last - at #aas245. First talk is “An ALMA Survey of Circumstellar Disks in Young Binaries” by Taylor Kutra (Lowell Observatory). Follow live on YouTube www.youtube.com/live/YtKUPRv.... Press kit: aas.org/meetings/aas...

“Congressman watches for potential changes at NASA under Trump administration” by @jfoust.bsky.social #aas245 spacenews.com/congressman-...

I’m at a #aas245 plenary by Maria Drout on the “Evolution, Influence, and Ultimate Fate of Massive Stars”. She says it one of the earliest fields in astrophysics and points out that neutron star mergers produce heavy elements.

Time is running out for people to visit the @startorialist.com booth at #aas245. @emilylrice.me and Debbie Kovalsky are super helpful and fun. Buy astro-themed shirts, jewelry, socks, scarves, mugs, etc for friends and family.