Me

Remember our mantra:

Don't Engage, Just Block.

@plasmonica.bsky.social is organizing a summer school on "Plasmonic and Nano-optics" (march 23-27 in Florence, Italy), with a bunch of amazing lecturers and speakers, plus me.

Come and join us!
www.plasmonica.it/2026school/

We've been working on a new galaxy model for Gaia Sky. It is a compromise between 'looking good' and 'rendering fast'.

ESA Awards Contract for Reusable Rocket Stage Recovery Vessel - European Spaceflight ESA has awarded a contract to Ingegneria Dei Sistemi to design a reusable rocket stage recovery vessel as part of Avio’s €40 million reusable upper stage project.

ESA has awarded a contract to Ingegneria Dei Sistemi to design a reusable rocket stage recovery vessel as part of Avio’s €40 million reusable upper stage project.
europeanspaceflight.com/esa-awards-c...

How we sharpened the James Webb telescope’s vision from a million kilometres away The only Australian hardware on board the legendary telescope is starting to fulfil its duties.

Thrilled to have two years' of work out, in a pair of papers led by @gradientrider.bsky.social and @maxecharles.bsky.social.

We've built a data-driven calibration of the James Webb Interferometer to near its fundamental limits for high-res imaging - explainer at @aunz.theconversation.com!

This $10 billion telescope was taking blurry pictures. Sydney students fixed it The extraordinary James Webb Space Telescope had a major problem before two young scientists unlocked its full potential.

Really happy with the write-up in the @sydmorningherald.bsky.social of our work with JWST interferometry, with quotes from me, @spiralstar.bsky.social, and @gradientrider.bsky.social, and above all a great photoshoot with @maxecharles.bsky.social showing his tattoo of the instrument!

“Restructuring” because the Whitehouse and their allies choose destruction of all the good parts of the United States federal government because it won’t make them a personal profit. Also, they hate science, people who do good things for everyone instead of for them only, and actual reality.

I can’t think of a better reason to finally join Bluesky - my first first-authored paper is out! It being published in @science.org is surreal. This was a community effort in every sense, led by an incredible team with @rosvall-lab.bsky.social @mathcancer.bsky.social @juncowren.bsky.social

Shared with permission from Carl Stahle, Retired, Vice President of Goddard Retirees and Alumni Association, NASA Goddard Space
Flight Center

Link in the document text: www.commerce.senate.gov/services/fil...

(Original LinkedIn post: www.linkedin.com/posts/carl-s...)

@roguenasa.altgov.info

☄️ 🔭 #3I/ATLAS comet update!

On 3 October, our ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) turned its eyes towards interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS as it passed close to Mars.

Read more: esa.int/Science_Expl...

Thousands of NASA employees to bid farewell to the NASA they knew As October begins, thousands of longtime NASA employees are leaving the agency. 4000+ will exit by January 9, 2026, changing NASA forever.

Via @bigthink.com - Thousands of #NASA Employees bid farewell to the NASA they knew bigthink.com/starts-with-...

Shutdown Continues With No Immediate End in Sight spacepolicyonline.com/news/shutdow...

image of the night sky showing a starfield with several dark and bright stars that are quite elongated due to the long exposure time.

the stars of the constellation corona borealis are annotated in green. a faint smudge, perhaps comet 3I/Atlas is marked with a red circle.

I think Perseverance may have spotted interstellar comet 3I/Atlas last night from Mars!

After stacking 20 images from Mastcam-Z, I found a faint smudge of light in the constellation Corona Borealis close to the location where the comet was expected. 🔭

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/Simeon Schmauß

Elon Musk’s SpaceX Took Money Directly From Chinese Investors, Company Insider Testifies The newly unsealed testimony marks the first time direct Chinese investment in the company has been disclosed, raising new questions about foreign ownership interests in one of America’s most importan...

NEW: In newly unsealed testimony, a SpaceX insider revealed that Elon Musk’s company had directly received money from Chinese investors, raising questions about foreign ownership interests in one of the United States’ most important military contractors.

"If we lose hope, we're doomed."

We must continue Dr. Jane Goodall's mission and all fight for the future of the planet.

Ed's right. Again.

Portal Space Systems brings its solar thermal propulsion system up to full power during test Portal Space Systems says it has successfully tested its solar thermal propulsion system at operational temperatures inside a vacuum chamber.

A Seattle-area startup called Portal Space Systems has successfully tested the solar thermal propulsion system for its Supernova transorbital spacecraft, marking a first for the space industry. www.geekwire.com/2025/portal-...

Simple (exaggerated) rendition of a supernova occurring in a galaxy. Text: Zooniverse project. Supernova Host Herding

Are you interested in galaxies? Supernovae? Want to help us learn more about how the environment of a galaxy may influence the types of supernovae we see? We welcome you to dive into our Zooniverse project: Supernova Host Herding! www.zooniverse.org/projects/boo...

The Destruction of NASA’s Mission” Whistleblowers reveal OMB’s Unconstitutional Plot to Gut the Agency
www.commerce.senate.gov/services/fil... #NASA #IAC #IAC2025

This mosaic of two wide angle photos from the Perseverance rover shows the Martian surface stretching into the distance beyond two foreground hills. The rover tracks can just be seen winding into the distance. In this view clouds are unusually well defined as they float well above the tan dust that eternally colors the Martian skies. In the original photos the area near the Sun is 'burned out' by the limitations of the camera sensor. I have addressed this by manually painting over the overexposed areas to reconstruct something of the brightness contours as they probably would have appeared to a human observer. I have also 'warped' the lower corners to fill the rectangular format. Artist's prerogative :-)

A recent vista from Mars obtained by the Perseverance Rover on its 1635th Martian day, or 'Sol', Clouds far above the eternal dust pall are unusually well shown in this afternoon view. This is a mosaic of two wide angle color Navcam images.

For all the great space events on tap this week, the potential government shutdown at 12:01 am Wednesday is top of mind.
What’s Happening in Space Policy September 28-October 4, 2025 spacepolicyonline.com/news/whats-h...

And, if anyone was wondering about the "science leaving Twitter for Bluesky" trend... the first 24h of this paper on altmetric:

EarthCARE is a inexhaustible source of beautiful imagery of some of the most spectacular phenomena nature has to offer, so I've started a Gallery page on the EarthCARE Science web site, showing for example convective motions in the trainbands of Typhoon Ragasa... www.earthcarescience.net/gallery

Yesterday Curiosity took pix of jagged peaks in the distance with its ChemCam. I stitched them together, did some work on them, and... just look at that view... I've been doing this since Sojourner landed & this is one of my fave images ever... Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL/S Atkinson

A $100-Million Mission to Another Star Just Disappeared An abandoned plan to visit another star highlights the perils of billionaire-funded science

Ever wonder what happened to that $100 million interstellar spaceship program? Me too. www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-...

Image extracted from the Euclid Flagship simulations catalogue. Each dot represents a galaxy: blue points mark galaxies at the centers of dark matter clumps, while red points denote satellites within them. Collectively, they trace the large-scale mass distribution of the Universe, forming clumps, filaments, and voids. Credits: Jorge Carretero & Pau Tallada (Port d’Informació Científica / Euclid Consortium). Image processed with the software Splotch.

1/ 🔭 The #Euclid Consortium just released the largest virtual Universe ever built, comprising 3.4 billion galaxies. It shows what @esa.int's Euclid will see as it maps the cosmos. 🌌✨
www.euclid-ec.org/public/press...

The project was led by @ice-csic.bsky.social and Port d'Informació Científica.

Image collected by WATSON on the Perseverance rover of "Cheyava Falls," a rock on Mars containing potential biosignatures

I've been asked a few times over the last few days what I think the chances are that the "leopard spots and poppy seeds" on Mars will turn out to be actual evidence of life. People are naturally skeptical given the history of possible signs of life on other planets. Strap in: long thread ahead...

Groundbreaking new image! The EHT reveals the dynamic environment around black hole M87*.

The 2021 image shows a distinct shift in polarization patterns, tracing changes in magnetic fields near the event horizon.

eventhorizontelescope.org/new-eht-imag...

Speak Out While You Can : As you ponder protests, policies, and how everyone should respond,

Speak Out While You Can
As you ponder protests, policies, and how everyone should respond, re-read this part of the Executive Order that erases NASA’s union rights. It redefines what NASA is – despite whatever wording is in its charter nasawatch.com/activism/spe...