Dr. Gerard van Belle

What to know about the 3I/ATLAS comet and why people keep talking about aliens : Short Wave The comet 3I/ATLAS is taking a long holiday journey this year. It’s visiting from another solar system altogether. Those interstellar origins have the Internet rumor mill questioning whether 3I/ATLAS ...

You can catch yours truly waxing poetic about 3I/ATLAS (and bemoaning 1I/`Oumuamua getting discovered too early for me to have done my Ph.D. on it) alongside John Tonry talking about its discovery in this episode of NPR's Short Wave: www.npr.org/2025/12/02/n...

World Con 2026, Academic Track, Call for Papers is now Live.
Please do share.
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A thread of directed acyclic graphs (DAGs) that look like record covers... because that's EXACTLY what the world needs

1. Huey Lewis and the News: link.springer.com/chapter/10.1...

The latest installment in our series on book rebinding, where the Library's advanced book conservation interns are taking you through all the steps of rebinding a book from the Library's Thomas Jefferson Library Collection! Scroll back in our feed to see Act I, and check back next week for Act III.

#preach

Wow

Delighted to be featured on APOD!

We are hiring a new Assistant Professor in Astrophysics at Trinity College Dublin!! ☘

Job ad here: aas.org/jobregister/...
Deadline: Jan 02 2026

Please share widely! 🪐🔭

A perfect moment of Zen for a Friday

this GIF always gets a like, no matter what

Our special November issue, celebrating 30 years of exoplanets, is now here! https://bit.ly/483MH9I
#astronomy #exoplanets

Home movie night!

they're forward looking!

"[S]tubborn and principled often look the same, especially to those who are unprincipled."

YouTube video by LivingColourVEVO Living Colour - Cult Of Personality (Official Video)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xxg...

The fallacies behind the cult of Loeb How media hype and misunderstanding fuel pseudoscientific fascination  Introduction The word “cult” is used here in the sense given by...

The most insightful discussion I seen on the Loeb and his insertion into the 3I/Atlas apparition:

tinieblasyestrellas.blogspot.com/2025/11/the-...

Yup. Not even enough for health care, those two remaining souls will need to bring in another 0.25 FTE in grants to qualify.

It is *half-time* support for each of two astronomers

Lowell Observatory slashes research funding in the midst of financial struggle Flagstaff’s Lowell Observatory plans to cut nearly all its research funding and reduce the number of paid science staff to just two positions next year.

Flagstaff’s Lowell Observatory plans to cut nearly all its research funding and reduce the number of paid science staff to just two positions next year.

Inside this stadium, UA is making large mirrors for the most powerful telescope to to be built The Richard F Caris Mirror Lab in Tucson is actually attached to the UA football stadium, with some parts being below seats and extending eastward. There’s a giant red furnace below, and scaffolding h...

The Richard F Caris Mirror Lab in Tucson is actually attached to the UA football stadium, with some parts being below seats and extending eastward. There’s a giant red furnace below, and scaffolding holds up a 28-foot wide circular mirror.

Wow! It's hard to remember a time when Kevin Marvel *wasn't* in this role for the AAS.

Best wishes in your next challenge, Kevin!

Yup, the T&T is the point - parties for kids are essentially a distraction from that important task!

I love how Rep. Joe Neguse reframed this question.

A bunny on a gray, rainy day looks down a storm drain, where a clown bunny with a red nose and ears looks out at him from below. It is a bunny Pennywise, from the Stephen King novel, and it offers the other bunny a red balloon through the grate on the drain

Daily bunny no.3124 offers you a balloon

w00t w00t

I've just added +1 to that total!

What happens when the US stops funding the science behind SpaceX? The US could once again spend hundreds of millions of dollars - public and private - and end up no further along than the last generation of overreaching programs that never flew.

my Bloomberg story on SpaceX's use of government technology projects to build its world-leading space tech has been syndicated, so now it's easy for anyone to read for free: www.al.com/news/2025/10...

Super flawed and prone to failure, but if its lasted until now, it'll last forever ?

Looking for an informal guide to all 27 Dutch political parties taking part in next week's elections? Look no further! My good friend Harmony Folz has you covered.... #verkiezingen

harmonyfolz.com/dutch-politi...

Spot on