Prof. Erika Hamden

#NASAWebb provides high-resolution details of Herbig-Haro 49/50—an outflow from a nearby still-forming star and background galaxies. Webb reveals the fuzzy object at the tip of the outflow in the Spitzer image is actually a distant spiral galaxy: https://bit.ly/4mXuQHW 🔭 🧪

YouTube video by Museum of Science How the Moon Formed in a Day

How did the Moon form? 🌕💥🧪

Astrophysicist @erikahamden.bsky.social breaks down the giant impact theory, which suggests an object the size of Mars collided with early Earth, liquefying the surface and launching debris that formed ...

Watch the full interview here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2Zl...

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.

Which would you choose: 5 pounds of diamonds or 5 pounds of gold? 💎🪙

Astrophysicist @erikahamden.bsky.social breaks it down: Diamonds are made of carbon, one of the most common elements in the universe. Gold is forged in incredibly rare events like neutron star collisions.

NASA, JAXA XRISM Satellite X-rays Milky Way’s Sulfur - NASA Science An international team of scientists have provided an unprecedented tally of elemental sulfur spread between the stars using data from the Japan-led XRISM

My latest paper on interstellar sulfur was highlighted recently in a NASA press release 🥳

science.nasa.gov/centers-and-...

At the center is a comet that appears as a teardrop-shaped bluish cocoon of dust coming off the comet’s solid, icy nucleus, which is almost white, all against a black background. The comet appears to be heading to the bottom left corner. About a dozen short, light blue diagonal streaks are scattered across the view, which are from background stars that appeared to move during the exposure because the telescope was tracking the moving comet.

Hubble observations of interstellar visitor 3I/ATLAS show that it looks like a comet. It has a teardrop-shaped cocoon of dust coming off a solid icy nucleus. The nucleus is roughly no wider than 3.5 miles (5.6 kilometers): go.nasa.gov/3UenJhD 🔭 🧪

Hey, wanna see a weird Mars rock?

Here you go

A reminder that LPL, along with Steward Observatory, is a host for 51 Peg b Fellowships. Whether it's exoplanet or legacy planetary science you are interested in, be sure to contact me or our faculty!

‪On Venus, every day is your birthday, thanks to some wild planetary physics. 🪐🎉

As @erikahamden.bsky.social explains, the planet spins backward, and so slowly that one day lasts 243 Earth days. But a year on Venus? Just 225 Earth days. So its year finishes before a single day ends.

🧪

Okay I finished the @erikahamden.bsky.social book Weird Universe. I’m not sure I understood it all, especially the part about dark energy, but I definitely learned a ton. Get a copy. Read it. And then let’s go outside and stare at the wonder that is our universe.

LOL! It's easy to get scammed in intergalactic real estate, you should only work with reputable agents!

That's so awesome! Flew by I think is acceptable!

Congratulations on the book! 🥳 This article was so fun to read. Time to pick up a copy of Weird Universe! And I might have to bring it to the next SPIE conference you attend so that you can sign it, of course! 🪐 -Emily

YES! I would love to sign it!!

A red background with geometric patterns with text promoting the 2025 Michael Kidger Memorial Scholarship in Optical Design.

Chuan Luo, PhD candidate at the University of Arizona, has been awarded the 2025 Michael Kidger Memorial Scholarship in Optical Design. 🎊

The $7,500 award honors Kidger’s legacy + supports excellence in lens, illumination, and computational optical design.

spie.org/membership/...

An emissary from interstellar space Discovered only a week ago, comet 3I/ATLAS is only the third known visitor from outside the solar system. U of A astronomer Carson Fuls explains what makes the comet special – and why we can only gues...

A recently discovered extraterrestrial "visitor" is hurtling toward the inner solar system at 130,000 miles per hour and has quickly captured the attention of astronomers and space enthusiasts around the world, including here at LPL. news.arizona.edu/news/emissar...

That's such a good idea!

Scientists behind threatened NASA missions explain what’s at stake Here is what they have to say, in their own words.

What’s really at stake if NASA’s science budget gets slashed and entire science missions are canceled?

We asked the scientists leading those missions, and their stories reveal what we all stand to lose.

Here’s what they told us: www.planetary.org/articles/sci...

LPL’s Dani DellaGiustina explains the impact of the proposed APEX cancellation.

'Weird Universe' awaits for fans of internet-famous U of A astrophysicist University of Arizona astrophysicist Erika Hamden takes readers on a romp through a "Weird Universe" in her debut popular science book.

A lovely article about "Weird Universe" on Tucson Daily Star!! tucson.com/news/local/e...

Space Law with AJ Link Moiya asks AJ to explain how law works in space. Like, who owns it? Who can send things there? Can you get away with draining your wife's bank account if you're above the atmosphere? Listen here for h...

@spacelawshitpost.me taught me the basics of space law on the latest Pale Blue Pod! Listen to find out if a billionaire could buy the moon 🌙

art19.com/shows/pale-b...

Please join us in congratulating Samuel Myers, who today successfully defended his Ph.D. Dissertation, Understanding the Limits of Simple Thermal Models for Characterizing Near-Earth Asteroids.

Congratulations, Sam!

📸: Sam is pictured with his Ph.D. advisor, Dr. Ellen Howell

Weird Universe w/ Erika Hamden In this episode of Talk Nerdy, Cara is joined by astrophysicist, University of Arizona Associate Professor, and Director of the Arizona Space Institute, Erika Hamden. We discuss her new book, “Weird U...

I got to appear on the fabulous "Talk Nerdy" with Cara Santa Maria, talking about space and my new book, "Weird Universe"!- listen for a fun and wide ranging discussion! www.carasantamaria.com/podcast/erik...

We could meet and act together to do something about it?

yay! It was so fun!!!

Selfie of Moiya smiling and holding up a copy of Weird Universe by Dr. Erika Hamden

Have you read @erikahamden.bsky.social’s new book Weird Universe? It’s so fun! Erika came on Pale Blue Pod to talk about it

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/p...

The Rubin asteroid discoveries are amazing, but note that very few are Near Earth Objects. The observing cadence isn't optimal for such objects so there is still a big niche for ground based dedicated discovery, like Catalina Sky Survey and Spacewatch.

A sprawling, textured field of galaxies scattered across the deep black of space. It is filled with the delicate smudges and glowing cores of galaxies of many shapes, sizes and colors, as well as the bright multi-colored points of stars. The image focuses on a collection of interacting galaxies connected by delicate streams of stars. At top center lies a large elliptical galaxy that is dense and smooth, like a polished stone glowing with golden light. Like delicate spider silk or stretched taffy, these stellar bridges link the large elliptical to the few larger galaxies beneath, evidence of past collisions. All throughout the image, thousands of galaxies gather in clusters or are spread throughout, like glittering gems strewn on a table. Some are sharp-edged and spiral, like coiled ribbons; others round and diffuse, like polished pebbles. Still others are just smudges of various colors against the black of space. The background is peppered with pinpoint stars in reds, yellows, and blues, crisp against the velvet black.

A cosmic tapestry of glowing tan and pink gas clouds with dark dust lanes. In the upper right, the Trifid Nebula resembles a small flower in space. Its soft, pinkish gas petals are surrounded by blue gas, and streaked with dark, finger-like veins of dust that divide it into three parts. It radiates a gentle, misty glow, diffuse and soft like the warmth of breath on a cold hand. To the lower left, the much larger Lagoon Nebula stretches wide like a churning sea of magenta gas, with bright blue, knotted clumps sprinkled throughout where new stars are born. Both nebulae are embedded in a soft tan backdrop of gas that is brighter on the left than on the right, etched with dark tendrils of dust and sprinkled with the pinpricks of millions of stars.

A sprawling, textured field of galaxies scattered across the deep black of space. It is filled with the delicate smudges and glowing cores of galaxies of many shapes, sizes and colors, as well as the bright multi-colored points of stars. To the lower left is a region filled with the hundreds of golden glittering gems of a distant galaxy cluster. In the foreground, below and right of center, two blue spiral galaxies look like eyes beneath the entangled mass of a triple galaxy merger in the upper right. A few bright blue points of foreground stars pierce the glittering tapestry. All throughout the image, thousands of galaxies gather in clusters or are spread throughout, like glittering gems strewn on a table. Some are sharp-edged and spiral, like coiled ribbons; others round and diffuse, like polished pebbles. Still others are just smudges of various colors against the black of space. The background is peppered with pinpoint stars in reds, yellows, and blues, crisp against the velvet black.

Introducing...your sneak peek at the cosmos captured by NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory!

Can you guess these regions of sky?

This is just a small peek...join us at 11am US EDT for your full First Look at how Rubin will #CaptureTheCosmos! 🔭🧪

#RubinFirstLook
ls.st/rubin-first-look-livestream

a man with long hair and a beard is standing in the snow with the words `` winter is coming '' . ALT: a man with long hair and a beard is standing in the snow with the words `` winter is coming '' .

The summer solstice has passed, and now we enter into my favourite half of the year

U of A space sciences now ranked #4 in the world in US News ranking as we climb past Princeton and MIT since last time. I take rankings with a huge grain of salt but the US News subject ones are citation focused so not so bad. Harvard, 0.1 ahead, needs to look out. www.usnews.com/education/be...