Karin Sandstrom

The Hidden Life of Stars: Embedded Beginnings to AGB Endings in the PHANGS-JWST Sample. I. Catalog of Mid-IR Sources We present a multiwavelength catalog of mid-infrared-selected compact sources in 19 nearby galaxies, combining JWST NIRCam/MIRI, HST UV-optical broadband, H$α$ narrow-band, and ALMA CO observations. W...

My recent PhD paper, titled “The Hidden Life of Stars: Embedded Beginnings to AGB Endings in the PHANGS-JWST Sample. I. Catalog of Mid-IR Sources”, is out!

The paper presents a catalog of JWST MIRI 10 µm and 21 µm sources across 19 nearby galaxies.
arxiv.org/abs/2509.16459

YouTube video by IAU Office of Astronomy for Education Blowing Bubbles in Galaxies - A Zoo of Bubbles from JWST: E. Koch at the OAE’s 6th Shaw-IAU Workshop

Galactic bubbles like never before! @eric-koch.bsky.social introduced BubbleZoo, a citizen science project cataloging JWST’s mesmerizing voids in galaxies, at the JWST session on galaxies at the 6th Shaw-IAU Workshop! 🔭 #astroedu

www.youtube.com/watch?v=726s...

Sitting here at UCLA medical center while some of the best doctors in the world have their research grants cancelled in between saving people’s lives. Preventing them from doing their work and training the next generation of doctors is in nobody’s best interests.

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 page of text headed 'Editorial'.

This month we highlight a score of Black astronomers trying to pursue their ambitions without fear, and Black In Astro, an organization supporting predominantly early-career Black people working in the space sciences. Editorial: www.nature.com/articles/s41... #BlackSpaceWeek #EquityInSTEM 🔭

Molecular hydrogen in the extremely metal- and dust-poor galaxy Leo P - Nature Observations from the JWST MIRI-MRS instrument reveal the detection of rotational emission from molecular hydrogen near the only O-type star in the 3% solar metallicity galaxy Leo P, providing confirm...

Delighted that the first paper from our Cy2 JWST program was published today, reporting the discovery of molecular hydrogen in the 3% Solar metallicity galaxy Leo P. This was a very fun project with @karinsandstrom.bsky.social strom.bsky.social and fabulous co-authors! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Congratulations!!

NSF, NASA and NIH budgets per year, inflation adjusted from 2000-2025 along with the proposed cuts. NSF includes research component only. Massive cuts across all sectors, well below support spanning 25 years.

How bad will it be? Catastrophic.

Proposed cuts to #NSF, #NIH, and #NASA will set the US R&D landscape back 25 yrs+, cause economic and job loss now, and undermine innovations to come.

But, this is the WH's *proposed* budget.

Speak up now before it is too late.

(inflation adjusted $-s below)

N.J. astrophysicist announces astonishing interstellar discovery — 10 hours after giving birth The cloud of hydrogen is shaped like a crescent and “literally glowing in the dark" like fluorescent stickers on a child's bedroom ceiling.

Talk about a double whammy! Baby and big science result in the space of 10 hours - great work, Blakesley Burkhart www.nj.com/news/2025/05... 🔭

The CfA SPARK program offers a one-year postbaccalaureate research opportunity where you will contribute to current and on-going CfA research, and develop essential skills designed to strengthen your graduate school applications and prepare you for a successful career in astrophysics

Adam’s argument is great 😂, but also if you want equal spacing between each point you have to go hexagonal.

The Resolved Structure of a Low Metallicity Photodissociation Region Photodissociation Regions (PDRs) are key to understanding the feedback processes that shape interstellar matter in galaxies. One important type of PDR is the interface between HII regions and molecula...

Very excited about this paper led by Ilyse Clark resolving an extragalactic, low metallicity photodissociation region for the first time! 5x more CO-dark H2 column than the comparable Milky Way PDR! arxiv.org/abs/2504.06247

Call it anecdotal, but my Canadian friends who are cancelling their US travel are not doing it because of tariff worries at all; they’re doing it because the US government is currently actively threatening Canada’s sovereignty and economy and they’re all justifiably furious

LET’S DO THIS UCSD

#standupforscienceUCSD

The mass firing of both new hires and recently promoted senior staff within #NOAA, including mission-critical and life-saving roles at the National Weather Service (#NWS), is profoundly alarming.
1/11

The first measles death in the US in a decade -- the tragic, preventable death of a child whose parents chose not to protect them with vaccination -- should spark an immediate nation-wide campaign to ensure all children are protected against preventable diseases. Anything less is unconscionable.

Undergraduate research opportunities are incredibly valuable, both for the students and for the progress of the work. And having undergraduate research experience is a massive help for grad school admission. REU cancellations harm students’ preparedness & career prospects, and slow research progress

YouTube video by San Diego Community College District Q and A with Chancellor Smith on Non-Participation in Immigration Enforcement

Very much appreciate the clear directives from the chancellor of our district. Very much aware of how abnormal this all is.

youtu.be/j6qvbVESLKI?...

The Rewriting of a Pioneering Female Astronomer’s Legacy Shows How Far Trump’s DEI Purge Will Go The federal webpage for an observatory named for the late astronomer Vera Rubin was edited to omit any recognition of the fact that science remains a male-dominated field or that the observatory was…

As of Jan. 15, a biography of Vera Rubin on the observatory’s website included a section titled, “She advocated for women in science.”

That language was gone Monday morning. Some of it was later restored — but not all of it.

By @lisalsong.bsky.social

This is hitting my research group as well. NSF postdoc fellow can't get stipend paid in time to pay rent this month.

Trump funding freeze a blatant violation of Constitution, federal law: Legal experts The Constitution, federal law and court decisions make it clear: President Donald Trump's order to pause federal funding is against the law, legal experts tell ABC News.

It would be fantastic if major federal institutions would acknowledge that the executive branch cannot legally unilaterally cancel or redistribute congressionally appropriated funding on ideological grounds and thus they have no legal obligation to comply with such directives

LAWLESS NSF:
Every NSF employee who is following the director on this funding freeze and fishing expedition is in violation of US code.

per the post below, this language has been reauthorized twice, most recently by Biden in 2022 as the CHIPS Act.

www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/...

🧪

The Annual Ranglas Lecture Annual Ranglas Lecture: The Glory of Violence in the Iliad

I'll be talking about the Iliad in San Diego Feb 4th. www.eventbrite.com/e/the-annual...

JWST N628 Stamp issued🔭
#extragalactic🧪https://shorturl.at/Xqrtk
Easy to forget that this is an actual place, a place w/ billions of ✨ and planets where we cannot travel.
Astronomy has guided humanity through the cosmos Humbling to reflect on the role we will play as our presence grows beyond Earth

NEW: #NASAWebb has spotted a reverberating light echo spreading across space. As a light pulse travels through space, it illuminates previously unseen material, revealing intricate structures resembling wood grain: webbtelescope.pub/422ET6Z #AAS245 🔭 🧪

OMG THIS SHOULD BE SHOUTED FROM THE ROOFTOPS!!!

Students!!! Heed this advice, please!!! 🙏

Happy holidays everyone! As a present, have some Herschel far-IR maps and dust SED fitting results for 1578 nearby galaxies! Now live on IRSA: irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/data/Hersche... And described in detail in: ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2025ApJS...

Webb mail: US Priority Mail stamps to again star deep space images in 2025 For the second year in a row, the USPS is giving priority status to James Webb Space Telescope images.

surreal 🔭🧪
#PHANGS-JWST NCG628 imaging is being turned into a US POSTAGE STAMP ✉️ !!
✨The imaging has truly taken a life of its own. Grateful for the amazing village of collaborators, comms folks, USPS for bringing the universe to people's doorsteps.✨ #extragalactic
www.space.com/usps-james-w...

Well this is awesome: about.usps.com/newsroom/nat...