Dr James O'Donoghue 🪐

We have a PhD opportunity at the University of Reading focused on analysing Jupiter and Saturn auroral observations!

Title: Investigating Earth-like responses to the Solar Wind in Gas Giant Upper Atmospheres

Supervisor: me!

Full description/application portal:
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Thank you for having us! Great audience

Dr James O'Donoghue speaks to the audience at the Early Careers Event.

Dr Affelia Wibisono discusses science communication.

Thanks to everyone who has joined us in person and online for our Early Careers Event. 👏

It's been a hugely successful day!

This afternoon saw several speakers, including @interplanetary.bsky.social and Dr Affelia Wibisono, talking about their experiences in science communication. 🪐🔭🗣️

The SWPC forecast, speeds over 1400 km/s

HUXt forecast, speeds topping out around 850-950 km/s

Most forecast centres (including us!) got that first CME arrival bang on. The big differences are for the subsequent CMEs.

SPWC predict >1400 km/s at Earth. HUXt around 850-950 km/s. It must be different assessments of the CME initial speeds; the models themselves aren't that different.

One of the first X-ray photographs, an exposure of the left hand of Rontgen's wife. You can see her four finger, the dark mass of a ring on her ring finger, and the faint shadow of the soft tissue.

Wilhelm Röntgen discovered X-rays #OTD in 1895 when he noticed that emanations from a Crookes tube caused a platino-barium screen to fluoresce. The rays exposed photographic plates but were blocked by bone and metal.

This early plate shows his wife's hand. 🧪 ⚛️

Image: Wellcome Trust

Light speed is fast, but space is vast...

Me, standing behind my table of wares at a recent craft show. I'm standing, facing the camera, hands folded in front of me, wearing a dark gray button-down shirt. My name badge is hanging at mid-chest from a chain of beads that look like planets. In the foreground, trays of colorful bracelets. To my right, stands with necklaces. Behind me, a sign with photos of planets says "Emily's Space Craft."

In somewhat terrifying but hopefully positive personal news, I've decided to purchase an extremely expensive 10x10 booth in the exhibit hall at the American Geophysical Union meeting in December. I'll be selling my gemstone and wire jewelry and art. I hope you'll come find me there.

Ignore the link to really.no, I was typing that there was really no excuse, but I deleted that bit... and apparently the URL stayed 😅

Sorry to hear that! It is clearly a mysterious shape to see in an atmosphere for several reasons!

Always wanted to show it like this. You can just about see the sine wave which marks the boundary between the hexagon and the rest of the planet, though it's very subtle.

That's lovely!

Let's unravel the mystery of Saturn's polar hexagon.

A jet stream speeds around the pole at 320 km/h (200 mph). That’s common among planets, but what's not is that it oscillates up and down *very* stably. Each low point of this sine wave becomes a corner of a hexagon, when projected onto a sphere:

This is what democracy looks like. #NoKings

Well done, matey!

Everyone writing about Perseverance today should be asking how many of the scientists and engineers who were involved in this discovery no longer work for NASA bc of Trump.

You'll get lucky with something else, I'm sure!

Lunar Eclipse - An hour after rising! #astronomy #astrophotography @stormhour.com @photohour.bsky.social

Worst video ever, but go check out the lunar eclipse going on right now 🙂

The complete Total Lunar Eclipse as captured by me in September 2016.

Good luck UK Lunar Eclipse hunters. The Moon rises in the east in one hour!

Join us for International Observe The Moon Night in-person (registration required) or online!🔭

Held and organized by the @uniofreading.bsky.social alongside Reading Astronomical Society, @royalastrosoc.bsky.social, Troodos Observatory (Cyprus) and supported by STFC
www.reading.ac.uk/news/2025/Un...

Why on Earth is the planet’s day getting shorter? August 5 was a whole millisecond shorter. Strap in for the full explanation.

August 5 was a whole millisecond shorter. Strap in for the full explanation.

Yeah, haven't seen any reports just yet about that. Earthquakes appear to change LOD on the microsecond level, rather than millisecond, so it's a really small signal to detect. Looks like we could only do so by looking at Quasars(?!), which is just a wonderful connection

Time nerds! This is def. one for you!

Today was/is one of the shortest days of the year.

@interplanetary.bsky.social has got you covered as to many of the reasons why this is likely happening.

Bonus - how quasars, and #RadioAstronomy lead to precision timing, orientation, etc. that gives us GPS!

Oh my god, it was such a pleasure to dig into, but so hard to contain myself! If I had more time, I would've made it shorter. Must stop making time puns, there's no time for it today...

Why on Earth is the planet’s day getting shorter? August 5 was a whole millisecond shorter. Strap in for the full explanation.

It's about time that I wrote this:

theconversation.com/why-on-earth...

💯.

Tiny black dot on Saturn. Early this morning, I photographed a rather rare astronomical event, a shadow transit of Saturn’s largest moon Titan across its parent planet. This is a composite of two frames. Questar telescope /Olympus camera. Observed from metro Chicago. #astrophotography

Does Avi not believe rocks are present outside the solar system

Our global petition to save NASA science closes this Thursday, and we’re just shy of 15,000 signatures! Every name counts, this petition will be hand-delivered to members of Congress. Add yours today, Save NASA Science.
planet.ly/petition

The auroral oval seen from space during the early morning on June 1 - captured by the NOAA-21 satellite flying over North America