James Fawcett

🔊Announcing a new Physics/Astro PhD scholarship scheme in Edinburgh, for students from a Black heritage, inc mixed Black background. Please help me spread the word. The scholarship covers all tuition fees, living costs & research travel. #blackinSTEM 🔭👩‍🔬⚛️

ℹ️: www.ph.ed.ac.uk/studying/pos...

Gutted to have missed that! 😍

A view from Holyrood Park, with the foreground trees and buildings silhouetted aside from warmly lit up windows. In the sky, from ground level upwards, we see light pollution, then a stripe of green light, then a blotch of purple light. The plough asterism is visible in the centre of the sky. The sky becomes darker the further up the image we go.

Smidge of Aurora tonight…

This week, we submitted a ‘Budget Representation’ to HM Treasury calling for a fairer funding settlement for the UK's science and discovery centres that are INELIGIBLE for the infrastructure funds provided by DCMS, DSIT or DfE for comparable organisations.

Social media advert for the event, with the logo, dates, and a picture of a mobile phone showing the activity as it will look during the event. It's got an attractive simple design and there are four challenge buttons. This activity is all about visually observing the sky.

Join us during the global 100 Hours of Astronomy. Try our simple stargazing challenges and add your marker to our UK/Ireland map. Come to 100hours.online during the event and we'll explain it all. You just need to look up!

Amidst shameful media neglect of genocide in #Gaza, there has been a consistent exception: the UK’s Channel 4 News.

Today’s report on the daily killings by Israelis of the starving queuing for food aid.

Wait for the UN assessment at the end.

This is a difficult but essential watch. Pls share.

Back in the dome at Dynamic Earth today for #RubinFirstLook.

@spacedoot.bsky.social and @notverymedieval.bsky.social ran a brilliant watch party in challenging circumstances 👏…and the size of those images…wowzers! 🤯

Now to figure out how to do this for #Euclid ‘s big data drop next year…😀

Thanks Scott! 🙏 Yeah luckily we’re all good.

🔴 🏆

ESOblog: Accessibility in Astronomy Pt. 1: Feeling your way through the cosmos Accessibility in Astronomy Pt. 1: Feeling your way through the cosmos

Astronomy is often described as a visual science, but a purely visual approach to communicate it leaves out a significant part of the population. In this ESO blog post we talked with two experts to learn how we can do better with tactile activities.

www.eso.org/public/blog/...

🔭 🧪

Yay! Congrats, Nina! 🥳

Happy birthday, Nina! 🥳

Promising hints of life found on distant planet K2-18b Scientists find new but tentative evidence that a faraway world orbiting another star may be home to life.

An astonishing headline reporting on new observations from a team led to Nikku Madhusudhan claims they’ve found ‘hints of life’ on a planet orbiting a dwarf star some 124 light years away. What’s going on? (1/n) www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... 🔭 🧪

An important point. I’m sure there are a lot of ways scientists and science communicators can do better, but as long as organized and funded political disinformation campaigns are rampant and unconstrained, we’re fighting a real uphill battle.

What a heartbreaking photograph - the impact of satellite constellations on the night sky.

Taken above the Pinnacles in Nambung National Park, Western Australia.

Credit: Joshua Rozells

What a fun week! 🚲

So my Dad has been in touch with me twice this week…

He does this through the modern medium of email (🤷‍♂️).

First email subject line - “Venus”. 🔭

Couple of days later, it’s followed by a second email with a subject line of simply “Pies”. 🥧

Gotta hand it to him, he knows how to get my attention.

Thanks to the team at Dynamic Earth, Edinburgh’s Science Centre & Planetarium, you can catch a small glimpse of Euclid’s beautiful new #Q1DataRelease images in their seasonal “What’s Up?” stargazing planetarium show this week! 🤩

The left of a mosaic of photographs from Euclid’s Early Release Observations in the background, containing stars, galaxies and glowing dust. “ONE WEEK UNTIL…” is written in large font in the foreground.

The right of a mosaic of photographs from Euclid’s Early Release Observations in the background, containing stars, galaxies and glowing dust. “Q1 DATA RELEASE” is written in large font in the foreground. Also shown is the Euclid Consortium logo and “#EUCLIDUK”.

Are you ready for it…?

Make room in your calendar for 19th March at 11:00, when stunning results with contributions from UK scientists will be revealed. 🚨 🗓️

#Euclid #Q1Release #Astronomy #Cosmology

Little smiles: @esa.int just introduced rock legend Dr Brian May as "Astrophysicist and stereoscopic imager"- no mention of his celebrity past 😂. Now how to get my hands on a stereoscope so I can see these fab images of Mars' moon Deimos, over the surface of Mars, in its full 3D glory!! 🤔🔭

Just in! 📸 The first images from yesterday’s #HeraMission flyby of Mars and its moon Deimos. 👇 www.esa.int/Space_Safety...

Satellite space junk might wreak havoc on the stratosphere Hundreds of defunct satellites plunge toward Earth every year. Scientists are studying how the chemical stew left in their wake impacts the atmosphere.

Important story about what we’re doing to the upper atmosphere as Musk’s satellites rain into it www.sciencenews.org/article/sate...

We're looking for a physics engagement officer here in Oxford - lots of delivery, part of a great team and working mostly with local 11-15 year olds. It's a half time position, and suits flexible working. Details below, or ask if you have any questions: my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...

Full marks to fellow cosmologist George Efstathiou

'removing Musk's fellowship could be seen as political interference...But Prof Efstathiou said "If somebody has a disregard for the truth and says things that are blatantly false, then that speaks to their ethical standards. That's not political"'

Mars climate scientist here. The oceans won't just return. We don't have a good explanation for how Mars had oceans when it did have a thick atmosphere in the paleo record billions of years ago. Everything in the last few months should prove that Musk is an idiot and knows nothing about anything.

How’s this for a Monday morning? 🤩 A team of #HumansOfEuclid discovered an Einstein ring 💍 in nearby galaxy, NGC 6505. Only possible with the unique capabilities of this wonderful telescope!

Presenter-led planetarium show 🪐

(I really hope I haven’t jinxed this) #astronomy #chasingthemoon #liverpoolfc #LIVTOT

A cropped in view of the top of the Liver Building in Liverpool. Above the building is a clear blue sky, with a waxing gibbous Moon in view at the centre of the image.

Swapping Edinburgh for Liverpool today this #NationalAstronomyWeek. Not so much of a #planetaryparade this time of day…but maybe a potential title parade coming this May! #YNWA #LFC 😉 🔴