James Tuttle Keane

The government may be shut down, but that won't stop our Save NASA Science Day of Action. Nearly 300 advocates are joining me here in D.C. on Monday to #SaveNASAScience

More: planetary.org/dayofaction

US’s trajectory in space science leadership in a nutshell

"ESA plans to release imagery by next week. NASA will not be able to release any of its data, or even comment on it, until the U.S. federal government ends the shutdown."

Looking up how to apply for funding to put a TV screen outside my office just so that I can have the Kilauea stream going at all times.

CNSA has released an image of Tianwen-2 in deep space using a robotic arm, giving us a proper look at the spacecraft and return capsule for delivering samples from near Earth asteroid 469219 Kamoʻoalewa. Tianwen-2 has been in space for 125 days, is 45 million km from Kamoʻoalewa.

Pretty cool photo

Some notes on probability judgement – Notes from a data witch For the love of fuck, literally nobody thinks that 20% of the population is transgender. Please stop sharing that ridiculous YouGov statistic

Against my better instincts, I have written some notes on how human probability judgements work and what you should expect from surveys that ask people to guess what proportion of the population is transgender. I hope never to speak of this matter again

In the last 6 days, 9 asteroids passed inside the Moon’s orbit. Estimated sizes: ~1–38 m. All were discovered this month, a reminder that countless small, faint NEOs slip by unnoticed until they make a close pass.

Especially if those giant impacts cause mantle plumes!

This also works for planetary science…

YouTube video by Ragnar Visage Eruption 8 february 2024

Lately, photographer Ragnar Visage started sharing video footage of past Iceland eruptions and I feel like no one sees it. Check out this video and his channel. So mesmerizing! ⚒️🧪 #Geology 🌋

youtu.be/aSOdrS2R3jA?...

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.

The post author presenting the work at EPSC-DPS

If folks at #EPSCDPS enjoyed my talk about Mimas, its giant impact basin, and how it connects to its young ocean, the paper JUST came out at Earth and Planetary Science Letters: kwnsfk27.r.eu-west-1.awstrack.me/L0/https:%2F...

This is disgusting and insulting to the entire astronaut corp and NASA as an institution. Attitudes like this are why Challenger happened. This regime doesn't value human life, only the illusion of progress. We're also not in a space race, and even if we were, that doesn't justify risking safety.

Comet 3I/ATLAS streaks across a dense star field in this image captured by the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS) on Gemini South at Cerro Pachón in Chile, one half of the International Gemini Observatory, partly funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and operated by NSF NOIRLab. This image is composed of exposures taken through four filters — red, green, blue and ultraviolet. As exposures are taken, the comet remains fixed in the center of the telescope’s field of view. However, the positions of the background stars change relative to the comet, causing them to appear as colorful streaks in the final image.

A new image of interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS yielded some serendipitous art.

The Gemini South telescope observed the comet through four color filters. While tracking its motion, the telescope split the light from surrounding (unmoving) stars into little rainbows. 🔭🧪

noirlab.edu/public/image...

The Day of Action to Save NASA Science Join us in Washington, D.C., to advocate for NASA science.

Live in the U.S.? We’re organizing in-person meetings for you to speak directly with your elected officials in Washington, D.C.
October 5–6, join us and nearly a dozen partner organizations for the Day of Action to save NASA’s space science.
Make your voice heard. www.planetary.org/advocacy/day...

OK, we've let go of about 20% of the NASA workforce, the Administration seems to want to force this 24% NASA overall budget cut & 47% science budget cut down the agency's throat by any means necessary, the lander is still the long pole in the tent & we're going to the Moon in 2 years? Sure, Sean.

I am heartbroken and enraged that our hospital systems are abandoning trans people. Truly, disgusted that they are bowing down to our fascist government. I know some places are fighting, and I'm grateful for those doctors.

For me, this echoes what happened with abortion around the country.

A fundamental issue in our society right now is that people are unable to distinguish the difference between being uncomfortable vs unsafe (perpetuated for years by media)
Are you among an unfamiliar group of people? Are you in a big city? Are you really unsafe or are you just feeling uncomfortable?

Didn’t know funding for Presidential Awards for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching was also cut.

The Trump regime is systematically crippling & blinding US science wherever science can provide independent information to the US public which the fossil fuel lobby doesn’t like.
A kind of self-harm for which the US will pay dearly for decades to come. Destruction is fast, recovery slow & costly.

Sign on to Defend EPA Peer-Reviewed Climate Science | WorkForms From requests, feedback to data collection and more. Turn your insights into action with customizable WorkForms.

Sign AGU’s letter to defend climate science.


The Trump administration has proposed overturning the EPA’s endangerment finding — the science-based determination that greenhouse gases threaten public health.

Juno is an AMAZING mission. The camera onboard was never supposed to last this long (the radiation around Big J should've zapped it a while back) but it just keeps on ticking. Killing this mission while it's still working and producing great science is a crime.

The Administration’s #GoldStandardScience order undermines research integrity & threatens public trust in science.

Read AGU President Brandon Jones’ latest #FromtheProw, & stand with us:

Yes!! GO AGU!!!

Opinion | The Playbook Used to ‘Prove’ Vaccines Cause Autism (Gift Article) Data can easily be manipulated to show a causation that doesn’t exist.

This excellent piece describes the deceptive practices used by quacks to advance false claims. Beware! www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Text detailing how MSU isn’t accepting grad applications for astronomy on their website

Sign of the times- Michigan State, one of the biggest astronomy programs in the USA, is not accepting ANY applications for its graduate program this year 😖

🔭🧪🎢

Superb observation by the SWOT altimetry satellite of the July 30 #tsunami. Data acquired ~1h after the M8.8 Kamchatka earthquake show the waves propagating across the Pacific with a great agreement with @rocangel.bsky.social's model!
[more here](www.aviso.altimetry.fr/fr/missions/...)
#CNES #CLS

NASA Planning for Unauthorized Shutdown of Carbon Monitoring Satellites - Eos Despite warnings that their actions are illegal, Duffy and other senior NASA officials have continued to secretly direct NASA employees to draw up plans to end at least two major satellites missions s...

NASA is making plans to shut down two Earth observing satellites that provide key data to climate scientists and farmers, despite lawmakers telling them it’s illegal to do it. Story by @astrokimcartier.bsky.social

eos.org/research-and...

Please join us in congratulating Samantha Moruzzi, who today successfully defended her Ph.D. Dissertation, Geophysical Evolution of Sputnik Basin on Pluto.

Congratulations, Samantha!

📸: Samantha is pictured with her advisor, Dr. Jeff Andrews-Hanna.