Peter Gao

mission accomplished

@astroericl.bsky.social swears that it’s the best in town and he literally tried them all!

Half eaten burrito from De La Hacienda Taqueria, Santa Cruz

there was a massive traffic jam on the PCH due to a fire and I ended up at my favorite Santa Cruz burrito place literally 1 minute after its closing time, but the guy in charge said no prob bro I’ll take care of you and anyway I love Santa Cruz and I’m very full and I’m ready for ice cream

Canyonlands National Park viewed from a plane

Meandering canyons in the Utah badlands

Mesas and canyons in the Utah badlands

Capitol Reef National Park viewed from a plane

the American southwest remains undefeated

Colorado River flowing through the Utah canyonlands

entrenched meanders

an expansive but thin white cloud with gentle edges floating over the Utah desert

shelf

black and white photo of a salt flat in Nevada taken from a plane

salt flat, nevada

Half Dome from above

Half Dome from above

Half Dome from above

Half Dome from above

holy shit we flew almost directly over Half Dome

Clay Houses (Boulder), by Andy Goldsworthy

Four Rounds: Equal Weight, Unequal Measure, by Richard Serra

I love contemporary art

Last page of the book showing the cartoon rocket flying over more JWST images of galaxies and nebulae

bonus page

Book cover of Rover and Speck Splash Down! a kids book

Opening page showing a cartoon rocket flying over one of the first JWST images

Book page showing cartoon panels of the characters River and Speck, robot exploration probes. In the last panel they talk about going to K2-18b

The following page showing the two characters parachuting into an ocean on K2-18b. There is also a fun fact box about water worlds

they’re indoctrinating the children about hycean worlds

toddler has reached the adorable talking stage where instead of saying “I want” he says “I like” so when we hear “I like going potty” it’s go time

the moon cannot shine without the sun

dancing spectra

Carl Sagan: We’re all stardust

Evil Carl Sagan: We’ll all be stardust

misspelled “private communications” as “primate communications”

screenshot of email announcing the proposal call for JWST cycle 5

ready to be hurt again

Beyond Funding: How the 51 Pegasi b Fellowship Provides Transformational Support to Researchers in Planetary Astronomy - Heising-Simons Foundation Heising-Simons Foundation is investing in a cleaner, healthier transportation sector.

Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have questions or if you’re thinking of applying with Carnegie as host! The 51 Peg Fellowship was immensely impactful to my career and life in general, and has continued to pay dividends, as I explain here:

www.hsfoundation.org/news-stories...

51 Pegasi b Fellowship The 51 Pegasi b Fellowship provides exceptional postdoctoral scientists with the opportunity to conduct theoretical, observational, and experimental research in planetary astronomy.

The 51 Pegasi b Postdoctoral Fellowship is now accepting applications! Carnegie Science is one of the hosts and applicants can work at the Earth and Planets Laboratory in DC (where I am) and/or the Observatories in Pasadena. Applications are due on Oct 3rd!

www.hsfoundation.org/programs/sci...

On the Origin of Species by Darwin

Theory of Earth by Hutton

found some pretty important books

Screenshot of google maps with Manhattan selected

Zoom into the northern end of Manhattan island with some bits on the mainland highlighted

two small bits of land that are apparently part of Manhattan

A teeny tiny bit of land that is also part of Manhattan somehow

why does google map select these random bits of the mainland when I try to highlight Manhattan

are they actually part of the borough

Screenshot of the Wikipedia article for the real Maquis

TIL the Maquis, a word I thought Star Trek made up, was actually a real group of French resistance fighters in WWII

it’s interesting to note how early Simpsons has become a cultural time capsule, full of references to media and real world events most people no longer remember

does it look like this

a few days ago we had to go to a gas station to put air in our tires, and when my kid asked me where we were going I said, “we’re going to the gas station but we’re not getting gas. We’re actually getting…gas”

Bob Hazen, me, and Hakeem Oluyesi on a film set

I feel so ridiculously privileged to be the worst science communicator in this room ✨

“it’s so big it can be seen from space” doesn’t sound so impressive now that we have google maps

The dark forest hypothesis ("The galaxy seems quiet because #aliens fear being attacked if they are noisy.") is stupid. A thread apropos of absolutely nothing, totally.

it’s funny how learning new analysis methods makes me trust them less

anyway I do retrievals now

I’m actually ok with defunding Harvard as long as it’s only targeted at a certain astronomer