Dr. Nick Attree

A white, glowing egg-shaped object lies in the centre of the black-and-white image, on a dark, starry background. Glowing streaks spread upwards from the object. In the top left, a yellow arrow marked ‘Sun’ points straight down, and a blue arrow marked ‘Velocity’ points towards the 7 o’clock direction. In the bottom left, an inset shows the same object on a lighter grey starry background, filled with ragged-edged, concentric egg shapes gradiented black-to-white.

Our first glimpse of comet 3I/ATLAS from Juice's science camera 😍☄️

The precious data from the mission's November observations of the interstellar comet arrived on Earth last week. Teams are now digging in to discover what they reveal.

Stay tuned for updates!

More 👉 www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed...
🔭 🧪

My officemate! 🙂

Well this is just fantastic!
Gondor should be a very wet land, as should the western slopes of the mountains around Mordor! Mirkwood should be a desert!

In the year of my birth, the first email was sent at IAA 😅

My mind immediately went to this. Which is ...not on Earth!
Luckily @esa.int goes there too! 😄

I should point out that this is not even in the centre of the city! Just a neighbourhood which is very convenient, but hardly uncharacteristic

15 minute cities are great. Spain has basically nailed it already. Here in a mid sized Spanish city, I am within 15 mins of my work, my son's school, 3 supermarkets and dozens of grocers, butchers, bakers etc, 3 banks, post office, and probably hundreds of tapas bars and cafes! Ideal

just typed the phrase pickled dict. Thanks for that #Python...

looking forward to reading this (This Way Up is sitting patiently on my bedside table waiting for me).
I never realised how confused GB's administrative regions are until living in several other European countries with their neat hierarchies of division, with associated postal codes etc.

Call for Editors at the Open Journal of Astrophysics

The number of papers submitted to the Open Journal of Astrophysics continues to rise, as demonstrated by this nice graphic which shows the stats for new submissions for the last five years: It's very clear that the thicket is getting thicker! […]

Sun shines through gaps between palm trees with a beach and bright blue sea.

Selfie of a man in sunglasses on a bright white snowfield. A large radio dish sits on top of the mountain behind.

Day trips from #Granada.
Last weekend...and today...! ⛱️ to 🏔️ #Almuñécar #SierraNevada
That's the 30 m IRAM radio telescope behind me 📡, with the Observatorio sierra Nevada also right next to the piste! 🔭

I use a worryingly high number of these (especially living in Europe, everyone uses American English), but I'll be dead in the ground before I use 'zee' over 'zed'!

Otherwise it's just sparkling donuts? 😂
Actually, I should try and get "swiss churros" to fit the name of my next collaboration with Bern!

Do swiss churros get dipped in cheese? 🫕

Congrats to @spacemarschall.net on your inaugural lecture! Looking forward to the future of space exploration!🚀🛰️☄️🪐

It's snowy up on them there hills!

Some special guests at the institute today (including my son!). Their projects look rather familiar too

Astrophysics Wrapped 2025: Year-in-Review of Every Astrophysics arXiv Paper from 2025 Over the past few years, Astrophysics has experienced an unprecedented increase in research output, as is evident from the year-over-year increase in the number of research papers put onto the arXiv. ...

This is interesting: Astrophysics wrapped 2025, including stats on citations, journals, authors' locations, missions used, etc. 🔭
arxiv.org/abs/2602.12303

This is fantastic space art (/science)! And I hadn't even realised Shoemaker finished on the surface of Eros! Another small body we left our stuff lying around on

First launch of an Ariane 6 with 4 boosters. The type of rocket that will launch @cometinterceptor.bsky.social !

To add your pronouns, scroll over to the Posts and like the post with your desired pronouns. (If you’re looking for rebounds like she/her or he/him or any ones with “/“ in them you have to scroll down to the bottom of the thread.)

The pronoun labeler, which was by far the most useful labeler on the site, was deleted by its creator. But thanks to @ripperoni.com there’s a new one available. I highly recommend it. It’s a great way to share your pronouns or see someone else’s pronouns at a glance.

bsky.app/profile/pron...

✨🔭 11 de febrero | Día Internacional de la Mujer y la Niña en la Ciencia

#TodasHacemosCiencia

Exactly the same! I don't think people in the UK have any idea how difficult/expensive it is moving an EU partner there

Hopefully soon! 🙂

Ooo ISSI's got some fancy new decoration!

A satellite‑derived map showing accumulated rainfall over the Iberian Peninsula from 1 to 7 February 2026. Western Portugal and parts of northwestern Spain appear in deep red, indicating more than 250 millimetres of rainfall. Surrounding areas are shown in shades of blue, representing lower rainfall totals. Cities including Lisbon, Vigo, Madrid and Marbella are labelled. A legend at the bottom right displays rainfall values from 0 to over 250 millimetres.

A radar‑based comparison image of the Tagus River region in Portugal using Copernicus Sentinel‑1 data from 27 December 2025 and 7 February 2026. Flooded areas are highlighted in bright red, spreading along the river and its tributaries northeast of Lisbon. The surrounding landscape appears in grey‑blue tones. Coastal areas and inland terrain are clearly visible, with a scale bar indicating 10 kilometres and a date label in the lower right corner.

Three winter storms — Kristin, Leonardo and Marta — soaked the Iberian Peninsula in early 2026.
🌧️ Rainfall maps show areas in Portugal and Spain receiving 250+ mm in a week.
🌊 Copernicus Sentinel‑1 radar reveals major flooding along Portugal’s Tagus River, comparing Feb 2026 to pre‑storm conditions.

A man stands at a podium in front of a screen showing slides saying the long and winding road to planetesimals.

A group of people look at a lit up optical bench, a black lined worktop full of complicated looking scientific instruments.

Welcoming Jürgen Blum from my old institute @tu-braunschweig.de to @iaacsic.bsky.social to give a Severo Ochoa colloquium on planetesimal formation. This morning we had some nice discussions and a look at the light scattering lab

It still seems unreal to me that humans will soon be flying back to the moon! They will be returning to Earth at a speed of 40.000 km/h, the fastest ever reentry of a crewed spacecraft.

This remastered video shows a similar reentry from the #Artemis 1 mission back in 2022 at 9x speed. 🔭🧪