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Laurence Datrier

@asleepywanderer.bsky.social

Astronomer, occasional artist, sometimes takes pictures (she/her)

6,230 Followers  |  560 Following  |  1,379 Posts  |  Joined: 11.05.2023  |  1.7633

Latest posts by asleepywanderer.bsky.social on Bluesky

I'm also pleased to report my graphic design skills have very slightly improved since then

15.10.2025 00:20 β€” πŸ‘ 8    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
A poster for a guest lecture on Tuesday 3rd November 2015, "gravitational wave astronomy: listening to ripples in spacetime, by Dr Angus Bell and Margot Phelps"

A poster for a guest lecture on Tuesday 3rd November 2015, "gravitational wave astronomy: listening to ripples in spacetime, by Dr Angus Bell and Margot Phelps"

Our first lecture of the year will be by Dr Angus Bell and Mrs Margot Phelps, who will be telling us all about gravitational waves and the Advanced LIGO detectors! Snacks and refreshments will be provided after the lecture.

"Gravitational Wave Astronomy - listening to ripples in spacetime

Almost exactly 100 years ago Einstein predicted that movements of mass or energy would create a curvature in space-time that would propagate at the speed of light. Since the late 1960s, scientists have been building instruments to try and detect these ripples in space-time, which are known as gravitational waves. For the first time we now have instruments with a high enough sensitivity to give us real confidence in seeing a signal within a few months observation time and we started observing almost 1 month ago! At this very exciting time for the field, we will review the history of gravitational waves, the principles involved in detection and how the amazingly sensitive instruments we use to look for them were built. We will also discuss some possible sources of gravitational waves, what a signal might look like and what the astrophysical implications might be when we detect them (or if we don't!!)."

Our first lecture of the year will be by Dr Angus Bell and Mrs Margot Phelps, who will be telling us all about gravitational waves and the Advanced LIGO detectors! Snacks and refreshments will be provided after the lecture. "Gravitational Wave Astronomy - listening to ripples in spacetime Almost exactly 100 years ago Einstein predicted that movements of mass or energy would create a curvature in space-time that would propagate at the speed of light. Since the late 1960s, scientists have been building instruments to try and detect these ripples in space-time, which are known as gravitational waves. For the first time we now have instruments with a high enough sensitivity to give us real confidence in seeing a signal within a few months observation time and we started observing almost 1 month ago! At this very exciting time for the field, we will review the history of gravitational waves, the principles involved in detection and how the amazingly sensitive instruments we use to look for them were built. We will also discuss some possible sources of gravitational waves, what a signal might look like and what the astrophysical implications might be when we detect them (or if we don't!!)."

Little blast from the past today! Ten years ago I was advertising a lecture on gravitational waves (as the Astrosoc president at Glasgow uni), not knowing they had been detected by @ligo.org already. The abstract reads very differently now!

(Maybe @uofgravity.bsky.social will enjoy this too)

πŸ”­πŸ§ͺ

15.10.2025 00:19 β€” πŸ‘ 34    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0
30x30” oil painting of the Pillars of Creation. There is a partial checkerboard pattern across most of the piece, which weaves together 2 JWST images. The red orange squares are mid-infrared light. The purple blue squares add in near-infrared light bringing thousands of stars into view.

30x30” oil painting of the Pillars of Creation. There is a partial checkerboard pattern across most of the piece, which weaves together 2 JWST images. The red orange squares are mid-infrared light. The purple blue squares add in near-infrared light bringing thousands of stars into view.

Close up of 30x15” oil painting. This section of a star-forming region looks like the skull of a dragon or Leviathan in dark brown set against a lavender background. The background fades into pink and a peachy orange moving from left to right.

Close up of 30x15” oil painting. This section of a star-forming region looks like the skull of a dragon or Leviathan in dark brown set against a lavender background. The background fades into pink and a peachy orange moving from left to right.

24x24” oil painting of the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant. A vibrant circular-shaped explosion of magenta, orange, lime green, yellow, and light blue against a background of deep teal with peach stars. The painting is based on a composite image of x-ray, visible, and infrared light. At noon, 4 o clock, and 8 o clock are subtle triangles singling each type of light.

24x24” oil painting of the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant. A vibrant circular-shaped explosion of magenta, orange, lime green, yellow, and light blue against a background of deep teal with peach stars. The painting is based on a composite image of x-ray, visible, and infrared light. At noon, 4 o clock, and 8 o clock are subtle triangles singling each type of light.

A 24x24” oil painting of the Ring Nebula. Most of the piece is a vibrant ring of complex details beginning with a blue-green center transitioning into orange, yellow, peach, then red. Outside the ring is a deep blue and black. This is the planetary nebula from JWST in near-infrared light. At 11 o clock is a small hexagon and 5 o clock has a larger hexagon. The hexagons are from another JWST image in mid-infrared light. The colors are inverted in the hexagons and the center area (now in red) has more structure at longer wavelengths.

A 24x24” oil painting of the Ring Nebula. Most of the piece is a vibrant ring of complex details beginning with a blue-green center transitioning into orange, yellow, peach, then red. Outside the ring is a deep blue and black. This is the planetary nebula from JWST in near-infrared light. At 11 o clock is a small hexagon and 5 o clock has a larger hexagon. The hexagons are from another JWST image in mid-infrared light. The colors are inverted in the hexagons and the center area (now in red) has more structure at longer wavelengths.

hi #PortfolioDay ✨

I’m Laci, planetary astrophysicist turned full-time artist. I love merging science + art through vibrant space paintings!

website: stellerarts.com
restocks: stellerarts.myflodesk.com/subscribe

14.10.2025 21:15 β€” πŸ‘ 128    πŸ” 28    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
My painting of The Milky Way over Lining Crag.

My painting of The Milky Way over Lining Crag.

My painting of the Moon.

My painting of the Moon.

My painting of the Cat's Eye Nebula.

My painting of the Cat's Eye Nebula.

My painting of the Aurora over mountains.

My painting of the Aurora over mountains.

Ohhh apparently it's #PortfolioDay again!

I'm Vicky, I paint space and use genuine space dust in my original pieces!

Light pollution is such a HUGE issue, that I've made it my life's mission to bring to stars to everyone!

I dabble in astrophotography occasionally too.πŸ’œπŸ’«

πŸ”­πŸ§ͺπŸ‘πŸ–ŒπŸŽ¨πŸ“·

14.10.2025 14:01 β€” πŸ‘ 68    πŸ” 25    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 1
Preview
Space Exploration Mission Patches Community Achievement: Space Shuttle Mission Patch If we reach $3,250 we will produce an 7th patch based on the results of our current poll.

Hey! We are only $14 away from unlocking the #spaceshuttle #embroideredpatch! | #spaceArt #sciArt

13.10.2025 20:34 β€” πŸ‘ 5    πŸ” 3    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

QRPing for the #sciart feed for good measure
🐑

09.10.2025 07:07 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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New #crowdfund for #embroidered #patches. These designs have lived as posters for years and were recently converted to enamel pins. Now they're making the leap to patches. Back the campaign and if we hit our goals, we'll add four more designs to the set. www.backerkit.com/c/projects/c...

09.10.2025 03:33 β€” πŸ‘ 17    πŸ” 10    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 1

Milngavie

08.10.2025 22:19 β€” πŸ‘ 4    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0
Postdoctoral Positions in Time-Domain Astronomy | American Astronomical Society The department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Oregon invites applications for a postdoctoral scholar to work with Prof. Yvette Cendes in the field of time-domain astrophysics.Β  This inc...

Are you interested in working on astronomical transients/ radio astronomy, all while exploring the beautiful Pacific Northwest on your weekends? I'm hiring a postdoc! Come work for me!

aas.org/jobregister/...

Please get in touch if you have any questions!

πŸ”­πŸ§ͺ🎒

08.10.2025 18:14 β€” πŸ‘ 36    πŸ” 23    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0
Cans of Ligo sardines

Cans of Ligo sardines

Found a legend in Walmart today

πŸ”­

08.10.2025 03:05 β€” πŸ‘ 23    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Glasgow pubs can look very inviting on wet and windy nights like tonight. This particular one is the he Islay Inn on the corner of Argyle Street and Radnor Street in the West End of the city.

#glasgow #glasgowpubs #islayinn #argylestreet #architecture #nightphotography #glasgowatnight

04.10.2025 19:20 β€” πŸ‘ 79    πŸ” 6    πŸ’¬ 4    πŸ“Œ 0

(apologies to everyone who followed me for art and/or science and is instead getting the most mundane nonsense ever 8 days or so. It's been a busy year)

04.10.2025 19:18 β€” πŸ‘ 21    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0
Frodo saying "All right, then. Keep your secrets"

Frodo saying "All right, then. Keep your secrets"

Me to the pistacchio I didn't manage to pry open

04.10.2025 19:17 β€” πŸ‘ 669    πŸ” 84    πŸ’¬ 8    πŸ“Œ 2

That brief feeling of complete calm when all the unit tests pass after a major update

03.10.2025 15:09 β€” πŸ‘ 19    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Back when we also all had to apologise to artists who worked on dystopian movies/video games/etc. because it turns out that yes, the graffiti really *is* that corny

03.10.2025 05:40 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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These alien planets are astronomers’ favourites: here’s why Space scientists look back on 30 years of exoplanet discoveries β€” from rows of massive β€˜super-Earthsβ€˜ to worlds with perfectly synchronized orbits.

This week (!) is the 30th anniversary of the announcement of 51 Pegasi b, the first exoplanet found orbiting a star like our Sun - since then, we've found over 6,000!

To celebrate, @alexwitze.bsky.social and @nature.com collected some astronomers' favourite planets:

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

02.10.2025 20:55 β€” πŸ‘ 200    πŸ” 54    πŸ’¬ 4    πŸ“Œ 11
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🎢 Take a look, it's in a book 🎢

πŸ₯Ή After nearly 20 years... Reading Rainbow is returning to motivate, help, and encourage kids to become avid readers with new episodes, new friends, new projects, and of course... new books! Make sure to follow the rainbow πŸ“šπŸŒˆ

#FollowTheRainbow

29.09.2025 15:06 β€” πŸ‘ 5064    πŸ” 2004    πŸ’¬ 238    πŸ“Œ 607

Are you in Louisville on Thursday? Do you wanna hear me talk about waves?

C’mon out:

30.09.2025 22:42 β€” πŸ‘ 16    πŸ” 4    πŸ’¬ 4    πŸ“Œ 0

Mia, thank you for enchanting my timeline on so many platforms for so many years with your photos.

I love that fourth photo because it's so close to the actual colour of the auroras I've seen!

If you can, consider donating a coffee or two β˜•

30.09.2025 19:16 β€” πŸ‘ 9    πŸ” 3    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
Post image Post image Post image Post image

Friends.
These are lots of my all-time favorite images. I'm letting them go, frankly out of desperation.
You can download them all and make prints or use as backgrounds on your devices.

Pay whatever you think they're worth ❀️
buymeacoffee.com/angrytheinch

drive.google.com/drive/folder...

17.01.2025 08:57 β€” πŸ‘ 429    πŸ” 135    πŸ’¬ 13    πŸ“Œ 7

Sharing with the #sciart feed!
πŸ‘πŸ”­

30.09.2025 06:49 β€” πŸ‘ 18    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
An infographic created by @astronerdika titled β€œMIRROR, MIRROR, reflecting our LASER beam… what’s the LOUDEST signal gravitational wave we’ve seen?” explaining the gravitational-wave discovery GW250114 and how the observation confirms Hawking’s area law. The visual shows the mirrors in a gravitational-wave interferometer speaking about the loudest event they have seen. There are several illustrations as follows:

1. A simplified diagram of a laser interferometer. A red laser beam from a labeled β€œLASER source” hits a beam splitter, travels down two perpendicular arms, reflects off round mirrors, and recombines at a labeled β€œdetector.” A label near the top-right mirror reads: β€œthe DETECTOR, signal seen by LIGO Hanford & LIGO Livingston.”

2. An illustration of a binary black hole merger, with two black circles spiraling inward. They are labeled ~34 solar masses and ~32 solar masses. Surrounding spiral lines represent gravitational waves. A nearby caption reads: β€œthe SOURCE, Discovered in 2025, on January 14, at 08:22:03 UTC.”

3. A prominent speech bubble with white text on a purple background states: β€œGW250114 is the loudest & clearest signal we’ve seen!” A smaller note below reads: β€œas of January 2025.”

4. Another speech bubble reads: β€œAND we saw that Hawking was right too!”

5. Visual explanation of Hawking’s Area Law. Two small circles labeled β€œthis BH” + β€œthis BH” are shown to the left of a β€œ<” symbol, pointing to a larger circle labeled β€œthe surface area of the merged BH.” Below there is the explanatory sentence: β€œGW250114’s remnant event horizon area is larger than the sum of the individual areas.”

6. A section titled β€œthe PAPERS” lists two arXiv references: https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.08054 and https://www.arxiv.org/abs/2509.08099

Note: This infographic plays off the classic line from Snow White, β€œMirror, mirror on the wall…” Here, the β€œmirrors” are the ones inside the laser interferometer, reflecting light to detect passing gravitational waves.

An infographic created by @astronerdika titled β€œMIRROR, MIRROR, reflecting our LASER beam… what’s the LOUDEST signal gravitational wave we’ve seen?” explaining the gravitational-wave discovery GW250114 and how the observation confirms Hawking’s area law. The visual shows the mirrors in a gravitational-wave interferometer speaking about the loudest event they have seen. There are several illustrations as follows: 1. A simplified diagram of a laser interferometer. A red laser beam from a labeled β€œLASER source” hits a beam splitter, travels down two perpendicular arms, reflects off round mirrors, and recombines at a labeled β€œdetector.” A label near the top-right mirror reads: β€œthe DETECTOR, signal seen by LIGO Hanford & LIGO Livingston.”
 2. An illustration of a binary black hole merger, with two black circles spiraling inward. They are labeled ~34 solar masses and ~32 solar masses. Surrounding spiral lines represent gravitational waves. A nearby caption reads: β€œthe SOURCE, Discovered in 2025, on January 14, at 08:22:03 UTC.” 3. A prominent speech bubble with white text on a purple background states: β€œGW250114 is the loudest & clearest signal we’ve seen!” A smaller note below reads: β€œas of January 2025.” 4. Another speech bubble reads: β€œAND we saw that Hawking was right too!” 5. Visual explanation of Hawking’s Area Law. Two small circles labeled β€œthis BH” + β€œthis BH” are shown to the left of a β€œ<” symbol, pointing to a larger circle labeled β€œthe surface area of the merged BH.” Below there is the explanatory sentence: β€œGW250114’s remnant event horizon area is larger than the sum of the individual areas.” 6. A section titled β€œthe PAPERS” lists two arXiv references: https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.08054 and https://www.arxiv.org/abs/2509.08099 Note: This infographic plays off the classic line from Snow White, β€œMirror, mirror on the wall…” Here, the β€œmirrors” are the ones inside the laser interferometer, reflecting light to detect passing gravitational waves.

Mirror, mirror, reflecting our [LASER] beam...
What is the loudest [gravitational wave] signal that we've seen?

It’s #GW250114!

(Yes, it’s been two weeks since it was announced, but I can still celebrate! πŸŽ‰ )

#EinsteinWasRight #HawkingWasRight
@ligo.org @egovirgo.bsky.social

26.09.2025 00:56 β€” πŸ‘ 64    πŸ” 19    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 2
This artwork imagines the ultimate front-row seat for GW250114, a powerful collision between two black holes observed in gravitational waves by the US National Science Foundation LIGO. It depicts the view from one of the black holes as it spirals toward its cosmic partner.

This artwork imagines the ultimate front-row seat for GW250114, a powerful collision between two black holes observed in gravitational waves by the US National Science Foundation LIGO. It depicts the view from one of the black holes as it spirals toward its cosmic partner.

Yesterday's Astronomy Picture of the Day #APOD featured #GW250114! This artwork imagines the ultimate front-row seat as two black holes spiral together on their way toward producing the strongest gravitational-wave signal we've detected so far

apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap25092...

🎨A Simonnet πŸ”­πŸš

25.09.2025 08:16 β€” πŸ‘ 81    πŸ” 17    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

The finished product!
As always, the most difficult part was knowing when to stop πŸ˜…

24.09.2025 05:16 β€” πŸ‘ 35    πŸ” 5    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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A natural evolution of ADS, SciX brings its powerful capabilities into new domains. Expanded coverage, intuitive search, smart recommendations, and tools for collaboration. SciX makes research more discoverable, connected, and accessible than ever before. https://scixplorer.org/scixblog/scix-launch

29.09.2025 16:51 β€” πŸ‘ 16    πŸ” 12    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 2
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We have lift-off! Science Explorer, or #SciX to its friends, is excited to be your new home for open, connected, and trustworthy science. Explore. Share. Discover at scixplorer.org #OpenScience #ResearchInfrastructure #SpaceScience #EarthScience #PlanetaryScience

29.09.2025 16:00 β€” πŸ‘ 7    πŸ” 8    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 1

I remember buying the 25th anniversary edition of the DVD so I feel very attacked by this post

27.09.2025 04:05 β€” πŸ‘ 14    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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The Edge of Space-Time by Chanda Prescod-Weinstein: 9780593701683 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books A fresh, charming, socially conscious tour of the mysteries of space-time, from the award-winning author of The Disordered Cosmos In her highly acclaimed debut, distinguished cosmologist and particle...

I don't know about the rest of the book but I will confidently say that the ending of The Edge of Space-Time is actually pretty great and I am proud of it

Which is good because first pass pages are in, which means I have to read the book for the nth time

Please preorder!

26.09.2025 21:45 β€” πŸ‘ 153    πŸ” 30    πŸ’¬ 5    πŸ“Œ 3

The finished product!
As always, the most difficult part was knowing when to stop πŸ˜…

24.09.2025 05:16 β€” πŸ‘ 35    πŸ” 5    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
A watercolour painting of a hobbit hole, with a separate "no admittance except on party business" sign

A watercolour painting of a hobbit hole, with a separate "no admittance except on party business" sign

I hadn't painted in a *while*, but here's a WIP of a birthday card for a friend!

23.09.2025 18:44 β€” πŸ‘ 61    πŸ” 5    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 1

@asleepywanderer is following 20 prominent accounts