Lee Billings

On moonshots and Minneapolis Space exploration can bring people together and reflect deep societal divisions.

I've been really struggling to write about space while living through the ICE occupation in Minneapolis this winter. I was shocked to find myself thinking, "Who cares about sending people to the moon?"

That feeling is more historically resonant than I thought. 🧪🔭
www.sciencenews.org/article/moon...

"Fundamental science is a long game, and government departments and agencies can sponsor long-term projects, whether the goal is mapping the entire U.S. coastline or the entire human genome." Or building an advanced space telescope 🔭 to find out if humanity is truly alone in the cosmos.

Thread: imagine you're a historian surveying 16th century copies of the world's most famous ancient astronomy book, and you see one where somebody with handwriting VERY similar to GALILEO (!?) has transcribed... a psalm.

"Galileo, a prayer? That's something that doesn't work," Ivan Malara thought.

Hyperion author Dan Simmons dies from stroke at 77 I went into Hyperion blind, decades ago, knowing almost nothing about it. I was never the same.

rip dan simmons arstechnica.com/culture/2026...

We have a hidden column on the NASA Exoplanet Archive called 'Number of exomoons' and I AM SO READY TO BUST IT OUT WHEN NEEDED.

NASA shakes up its Artemis program to speed up lunar return Launching SLS every three and a half years or so is not a recipe for success."

NASA just made huge changes to the Artemis Program.

arstechnica.com/staff/2026/0...

The more I think about this, the more it shifts from “lol that’s hilarious” to “if the space phone rings, for god’s sake you must not answer.” Mind-melting “what goes ‘bump’ in the Great Beyond?” eldritch cosmic horror vibes.

“Bro its me Rubin hit me back y u no answer my texts im seein some crezzy shiz out here mang”

x800k

🤣

Rubin Observatory has started paging astronomers 800,000 times a night Asteroids, exploding stars, and feasting black holes swarm in the first-ever batch of nightly alerts from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile

Now on @sciam.bsky.social: Wake up, astronomers—the sky is calling.

@vrubinobs.bsky.social has unleashed its first rapid-fire alerts of new celestial activity. 800k of 'em—a nightly number that will soon rise to a million+!

By @meghanbartels.bsky.social

www.scientificamerican.com/article/rubi...

SpaceX's 1 million satellites could avoid environmental checks The environmental impact of SpaceX's planned gargantuan mega-constellation is still being grappled with, but the FCC isn’t required to study it

SpaceX's 1 million AI satellites could cause "massive ozone depletion" and change the night sky forever - but the FCC has no requirement to check before approving them.

Astronomers are now scrambling to submit their concerns.

Story by me in New Scientist

www.newscientist.com/article/2516...

The surprising new physics of squeaky basketball shoes A new study explains why basketball shoes make a high-pitched squeaking noise when they rub against the hardwood. The ridges on the sole hold the key

Now on @sciam.bsky.social: Why do basketball sneakers squeak so much?

Come for the surprising explanation based on a new study; stay for the demo showing how, in principle, shoes could be made to squeak out Darth Vader's "Imperial March" on the court!

www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-...

Trump’s order to release evidence for aliens obscures the scientific search for extraterrestrial life The president on Thursday ordered the release of federal files related to UFOs and aliens, although no evidence of extraterrestrials visiting Earth is known to exist

Now on @sciam.bsky.social: What’s behind Trump’s order to declassify U.S. government documents about aliens and UFOs? How are scientists actually searching for ET? What happens next?

Here’s what some real experts have to say.

www.scientificamerican.com/article/trum...

Could aliens in another galaxy see dinosaurs on Earth? How big would a telescope need to be to see Earth’s dinosaurs from 66 million light-years away? Think big—and then think bigger

Here’s a fun thought experiment, via @sciam.bsky.social: How big of a telescope would aliens need to see dinosaurs on Earth, from 66 million light-years away? @philplait.bsky.social’s back-of-the-envelope answer might surprise you.

www.scientificamerican.com/article/coul...

Not Earth-like Yet Temperate? More Generic Climate Feedback Configurations Still Allow Temperate Climates in Habitable Zone Exo-Earth Candidates Earth's climate is influenced by over a dozen feedbacks, but only three dominate its long-term climate behavior. Models of the exoplanet habitable zone (HZ) assume that this is similar for other Earth...

What if Earth-sized HZ worlds don’t have exactly Earth-like climate feedbacks? Climate Chaos, Snowballs, run-aways - but also many temperate yet not-Earth-like worlds! Congrats to Chaucer Langbert on this cool study!
arxiv.org/abs/2602.10369 @uarizonalpl.bsky.social @stewardobservatory.bsky.social

me: i hate myself

my therapist: why are you being so mean to yourself?

me: no you don't understand I'm just quoting Charles Darwin

Let me repeat what Katie says: YOU. CAN'T. REPEAL. A. SCIENTIFIC.FINDING. That's not how it works.

How did an entire star vanish in the galaxy next door? A black hole may be to blame A “disappearing” star in the Andromeda galaxy is the closest and best candidate for a newborn black hole that astronomers have ever seen

Now on @sciam.bsky.social: “I got goosebumps when I saw it disappearing into darkness.”

Based on studies of a mysterious vanishing star in the galaxy of Andromeda, astronomers have found what may be the closest and best candidate for a newborn black hole.

www.scientificamerican.com/article/did-...

This Comet Stopped Spinning. Then It Started Rotating Backward.

Back in 2017, astronomers watched as a comet drastically slowed its rotation from 26 to 40 hours.

Newly unearthed Hubble observations show it didn’t just slow, but stopped - then started going backwards.

Super fun study this. Story by me in the NYT.

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/11/s...

Why do we do astrophysics? At time of writing, large language models (LLMs) are beginning to obtain the ability to design, execute, write up, and referee scientific projects on the data-science side of astrophysics. What implic...

David Hogg has written a white paper on doing astrophysics in the age of LLMs. It looks to be thought-provoking. My initial reaction is that either LLMs will destroy the field or they will force a reckoning with and re-imagining of the current system that often prioritizes output over quality. 🧪

"Everything is gambling now": How betting is taking over America Gambling culture is enveloping American sports, politics, media and trading.

As I've said many times, this is an awful thing that we are doing to ourselves for no discernible reason.

Update on the post below: in a letter sent to Chile's Environmental Assessment Service on 6 February, AES Andes requested the withdrawal of INNA from evaluation.

This formally confirms that INNA is not going ahead.

🔭 🧪

From AIP FYI: "The FCC is fast-tracking a SpaceX proposal to launch more than one million data center satellites, which is now open for public comment" www.fcc.gov/document/sb-...

SpaceX has added some more details about the second stage failure:

"off-nominal condition caused by a failed ignition due to a gas bubble in the transfer tube ahead of the planned deorbit burn"

Source: www.spacex.com/launches/sl-...

U.S. physicists have bid farewell to the nation’s last remaining particle collider, which spun gold into revolutionary discoveries After 25 years, Brookhaven National Laboratory’s Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider—the U.S.’s largest particle collider—has ceased operations, but its science lives on

Now on @sciam.bsky.social: The Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider—the last great U.S. particle collider—is no more. But its end also signals a new beginning for the nation’s particle physics community.

www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-...

NASA’s latest telescope is a feat of early-career leadership The Pandora satellite provides career training grounds while observing exoplanets.

The Pandora satellite provides career training grounds while observing exoplanets

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Snakes on a train? King cobras may be riding the rails in India A new study suggests king cobras may be accidentally boarding trains across India

So snakes keep turning up in places they should not be in India and it turns out they may be accidentally hoping a ride on trains. (And yes, I am pretty proud of this headline.) 🧪

Epstein files show a complicated relationship with science and journalism Jeffrey Epstein aggressively sought access to publishers, mentions of Scientific American and other media in Department of Justice files show

Epstein files show a complicated relationship with science and journalism

Jeffrey Epstein aggressively sought access to publishers, mentions of Scientific American and other media in Department of Justice files show

www.scientificamerican.com/article/epst...

Have we solved the mystery of a long-lost Soviet spacecraft, Luna 9? Scientists have spent decades searching for the final resting place of Luna 9, the first spacecraft to soft-land on the moon. Now they’re on the cusp of finding it

Now on @sciam.bsky.social: 60 years ago, the USSR's Luna 9 became the first-ever spacecraft to soft-land on the moon. But no one knew Luna 9's exact landing site. Now, machine-learning, better cameras, and old-fashioned sleuthing may be about to find it. 🧪

www.scientificamerican.com/article/wher...

Space-Based Data Centers Could Power AI with Solar Energy—At a Cost Space-based computing offers easy access to solar power but presents its own environmental challenges

With SpaceX / xAI and Google both proposing orbital data centers powered by sunlight in space, it's worth once again highlighting the significant sustainability and economic costs facing such projects.

www.scientificamerican.com/article/data...

BREAKING: This is Richard Carrington, the first person to document solar flares on the Sun & suggest their influence on aurora at Earth. The largest solar storm on record, the Carrington Event, bares his name. But, there has been no photograph available of Carrington – until now!