Bryan Hilbert

NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory Observations of Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS (C/2025 N1) We report on the observation and measurement of astrometry, photometry, morphology, and activity of the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS, also designated C/2025 N1 (ATLAS), with the NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin ...

It's paper day! The first science paper with data from @vrubinobs.bsky.social's survey camera, the mighty LSSTCam, is a VERY quick turnaround of Rubin's observations thus far of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS. ☄️
Chandler et al., submitted 🔭
A 🧵

Adopt A Station - Rescue Public Media Help preserve independent journalism and community programming across America by adopting a public media station. Congress has voted to rescind public media's funding.

This is a great resource

adoptastation.org?fbclid=PAQ0x...

4.6 Billion Years On, the Sun Is Having a Moment In the past two years, without much notice, solar power has begun to truly transform the world’s energy system.

In the past two years, with surprisingly little notice, renewable energy has suddenly become the obvious, mainstream, cost-efficient choice around the world.

Asteroid Samples Suggest a Solar System of Ancient, Salty Incubators - Eos The discovery of salty mineral evaporites on Ryugu indicates that watery environments may have been widespread in the early solar system.

Lots of salt out there.

Read more in the June issue of Eos: bit.ly/Eos-Jun2025

YouTube video by Jake Andrew Kurlander Simulated Solar System Discoveries of LSST

The @vrubinobs.bsky.social will discover ~70% of all of its small body discoveries in it's first 2 years! A video animation of our discovery predictions - Further details sorcha.space

Here's NASA astrophysics, if I read the president's proposed budget correctly. 🔭

Trump Has Cut Science Funding to Its Lowest Level in Decades (Gift Article) The lag in funding extends far beyond D.E.I. initiatives, affecting almost every area of science: chemistry, computing, engineering, materials and more.

NSF Physics was cut by 85%, basically wiping out most of its capacity for supporting research.

NSF Astronomy was cut by 53%

Undergrad education was cut by 71% and research on learning by 79%

Graduate education was cut by 100% to ZERO.

#GiftLink ⚛️🔭

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Senate overturns EPA rule on seven highly toxic air pollutants If also passed by the House as expected, the action will be the first time Congress has weakened protections under the Clean Air Act.

Because they felt that air pollution isn't killing enough Americans, the Senate voted to overturn an EPA rule that limits toxic air pollutants emitted by industrial facilities, marking the first time Congress has weakened protections under the Clean Air Act.

White House Proposal Could Gut Climate Modeling the World Depends On Potential funding cuts for NOAA and its research partners threaten irreparable harm not only to climate research but to American safety, competitiveness, and national security.

NEW: The total loss of NOAA’s office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research —a nerve center of global climate science, data collection and modeling — represents a setback for climate preparedness that experts warn the nation may never recover from.

By @abrahm.bsky.social

FDA making plans to end its routine food safety inspections, sources say Food safety inspections would be left to state and local authorities under the plan being developed by the FDA.

The Trump administration is reportedly preparing to end routine food safety inspections.

Trump White House budget proposal eviscerates science funding at NASA “This would decimate American leadership in space.”…

First draft of the White House budget request for NASA. A 50% cut to science. A possible closure of Goddard Space Flight Center with its 10000 employees. No funding for Roman Space Telescope. Congress will most likely fight some of these cuts, but still, not good. Thanks Project 2025.

The US may be reversing course on child labour Acute strain on the jobs market has encouraged some states to consider reducing restrictions on employing minors

Mind-blowing column by @sarahoconnorft.ft.com (with a hell of a final paragraph)

Here’s Elon cutting pediatric brain cancer research 👇🏻

Johns Hopkins Plans Staff Layoffs After $800 Million Grant Cuts Local and international health research efforts are already winding down as the university braces for even more potential cuts.

The Trump administration has terminated $800 million in grants to Johns Hopkins University, spurring the nation’s top spender on research and development to plan layoffs and cancel health projects

As Staffing Cuts at NWS Lead to Suspended Weather Balloon Launches in Western Alaska, WindBorne Systems Steps Up to Fill Atmospheric Data Gaps Following the announcement from the National Weather Service (NWS) that it is suspending its weather balloon launches in Kotzebue, Alaska indefinitely

This is exactly what they're trying to achieve by destroying government services that benefit the public. A VC-backed startup intervenes to gather data that the National Weather Service was previously collecting, and before we know it, we will be paying them for what was once funded by our taxes.

New initiative at @spacetelescope.bsky.social: a #JWST summer school! Get your applications in for this first-ever event, on the topic of high-redshift transients with #JWST. Some great speakers already lined up! Details at the link below. 🔭🧪👇

Hundreds of small asteroids found in the main belt using JWST Astronomers used a new technique to find the building-sized rocks, the smallest ever seen at that distance

There may be tens of BILLIONS of small (10 - 100 meter) asteroids out in the main belt past Mars, but they're too small to be seen from with our telescopes… until now. Astronomers used JWST data in a unique way to find over 130 of them!

badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/hundreds-o...

🔭 🧪

Georgia Nonprofit That Produces Life-Saving Food For Kids Has Federal Contract Cut An estimated 300,000 children globally are expected to lose access to a nutrient-dense peanut butter that’s specially formulated to treat severe acute malnutrition.

An estimated 300,000 children globally are expected to lose access to a nutrient-dense peanut butter that’s specially formulated to treat severe acute malnutrition.

BREAKING: House Republicans just passed their budget resolution 217-215 that would virtually guarantee deep cuts to Medicaid and food stamps, all to fund a major tax break for the ultrawealthy... and still add trillions to the national debt.

The spiral structure in the inner Oort cloud viewed by a distant observer along the Galactic node direction (intersection of the Galactic and ecliptic planes). The distribution of bodies was obtained from the Galaxy simulation in Nesvorny ́ et al. (2023). To show things clearly, here we isolated the inner Oort cloud from the more spherical outer Oort cloud by plotting bodies, 34,000 in total, with a < 5,000 au. If the outer Oort cloud were plotted in the figure, it would appear as a large, roughly spherical envelope of the spiral. The classical Kuiper belt with r < 100 au is not shown here – it would appear as a doughnut-like central concentration of bodies aligned with the ecliptic plane.

The spiral structure in the inner Oort cloud viewed by a distant observer along the Galactic plane. The distribution of bodies was obtained from the Galaxy simulation in Nesvorny ́ et al. (2023). To show things clearly, here we isolated the inner Oort cloud from the more spherical outer Oort cloud by plotting bodies, 34,000 in total, with a < 5,000 au. If the outer Oort cloud were plotted in the figure, it would appear as a large, roughly spherical envelope of the spiral. The classical Kuiper belt with r < 100 au is not shown here – it would appear as a doughnut-like central concentration of bodies aligned with the ecliptic plane.

Far beyond Pluto, trillions of cold comets circle the sun in a lazy swarm called the Oort Cloud. A new simulation indicates what this comet-cloud looks like: a loose spiral that resembles a miniature galaxy. 🧪🔭

arxiv.org/abs/2502.11252

I am a member of the NIRCam team at Space Telescope Science Institute, working on instrument calibration. I also dabble in outer solar system research.

Yes

@bot.astronomy.blue signup

Line drawing of JWST on a background of the Stephan's Quintet observed by JWST using MIRI

#JWST Pipeline Build 11.2 provides improvements for multiple observing modes and fixes a number of outstanding known issues. Get the details: ow.ly/oUsu50V4gfp

Kamala was right. And it only took him less than 30 days to roll over for Putin.

2 new JWebbinars coming up, hosted by our @spacetelescope.bsky.social #JWST teams! Details and sign up info below. 🔭

Reminder that NASA (& other) civil servant salaries are published online (openpayrolls.com), as well as details of grants. These are not obscure “government secrets” (grants.gov)

State Dept. Plans $400 Million Purchase of Armored Tesla Cybertrucks

The State Department has suddenly awoken to the incredible opportunity that is $400 million of expensive and impractical armored Cybertrucks www.nytimes.com/live/2025/02...

This framing is their framing, and NYT took the bait. The correct and accurate framing is: “Deep cuts to medical research threatens progress on cancer and heart disease research, costs the economy $80B, and threatens 300,000 jobs across red and blue states”

CDC Posts, Then Deletes, Data on Bird Flu Transmission Between Cats and People (Gift Article) The data, which appeared fleetingly online on Wednesday, confirmed transmission in two households. Scientists called on the agency to release the full report.

SCOOP: Cats that became infected with bird flu might have spread the virus to humans in the same household and vice versa, according to data that briefly appeared online in a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention but then abruptly vanished.

www.nytimes.com/2025/02/06/h...