Dr. Erica Hammerstein

A poster for Astronomy on Tap East Bay. There are two speakers: Dr. Huei Sears and Prof. Raffaella Margutti. Huei's talk is titled "Hello, it's me (the CMB)," and Raf's talk is titled "Exploring the 4th Dimension." The event is at Two Pitchers Oakland in Oakland, Ca on Tuesday, June 10.

I am SO excited to be presenting on Adele + the CMB at AoT East Bay this June with Prof. Raf !!!

Erica Hammerstein (@gymleadererica.bsky.social) has been the leading charge on organizing and relaunching this, + I'm so so so excited to be a part of it !! hope to see u there on June 10 : )

🧪🔭☄️👩‍🔬🦖🦕✨

22.05.2025 00:39 — 👍 26    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 2

New feature on work led by Yuhan Yao !! ft. work from @gymleadererica.bsky.social (+ others offline) too!

12.05.2025 19:36 — 👍 2    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

Not one, but two massive black holes are eating away at this galaxy - Berkeley News UC Berkeley astronomers found a stealth black hole that is a companion to the massive black hole in the galaxy’s core. One day, the two might merge and produce a ripple of gravitational waves.

For the first time, a tidal disruption event (where a supermassive black hole tears apart a star) has been detected outside the centre of its host galaxy. This suggests that galaxy has two supermasive black holes, with the second likely being left over from a merger with another galaxy 🧪🔭

12.05.2025 19:35 — 👍 111    🔁 32    💬 8    📌 5

NASA's Hubble Pinpoints Roaming Massive Black Hole - NASA Science A sneaky black hole betrayed its presence to NASA's Hubble Space Telescope in a newly identified tidal disruption event.

!!! new on work led by U.C. Berkeley postdoc, Yuhan Yao 🦖

incl. comments from @gymleadererica.bsky.social et al.

"Like a scene out of a sci-fi movie, astronomers using NASA telescopes have found 'Space Jaws.'"

🧪🔭☄️ #womeninSTEM #highenergyastro

science.nasa.gov/missions/hub...

08.05.2025 17:26 — 👍 32    🔁 8    💬 0    📌 2

A hand in front of a telescope dome, with fingernails painted with a nail polish reminiscent of the inferno colormap from matplotlib, including colors of purple, orange, and yellow.

A grid of squares using colors from the matplotlib colormap.

this nail polish is giving matplotlib inferno

{polish is butterfly wings by penelope luz}

#nailpolish #womeninstem #matplotlib #inferno #python

12.04.2025 19:36 — 👍 24    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 0

Clips from the show “Schitt’s Creek” depicting Moira and David trying to make a recipe: David: “what does clean the data mean?” Moira: “you clean the data” Moira: “here’s what you do. You just clean the data” David: “if you say clean one more time…” Moira: “it says clean the data!” David: “you clean the data then!”

me trying to relearn how to work with radio data

#womeninstem

11.04.2025 18:12 — 👍 10    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

It’s just really disheartening talk to hear, especially when it’s a senior scientist who supervises plenty of early career researchers. I’m glad to have had supervisors who have made me feel like colleagues, even when I was in grad school. (4/)

30.03.2025 07:59 — 👍 2    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

And I can’t help but feel like this is the type of attitude that supports the idea that postdocs and grad students don’t deserve living wages, as if to say, “Don’t worry, postdocs shouldn’t get paid money, they’re basically grad students and we all know *they* don’t deserve to afford to live.” (3/)

30.03.2025 07:59 — 👍 4    🔁 1    💬 1    📌 0

It was clearly meant to reinforce power structures that hinder a collaborative and inclusive scientific community and disparage early career researchers. (2/)

30.03.2025 07:59 — 👍 2    🔁 1    💬 1    📌 0

I had an experience recently where a senior scientist in a group of postdocs expressed that “postdocs are basically just glorified/grown up grad students” and it made me uncomfy. Whether that statement is true or not is beside the point. (1/)

30.03.2025 07:59 — 👍 3    🔁 1    💬 1    📌 0

Two hands with several colorful friendship bracelets on the wrists. The pinkies are linked.

A pile of several colorful friendship bracelets. Three are offset to the front, to show prominence, that say “SN 2012Z,” “SIRAH,” and “I ♥️ Science.”

A hand reaching toward a pile of colorful friendship bracelets. On the wrist of the hand there are three red, white, and gold bracelets that say “Astroph,” “UVEX,” and “Rutgers.”

Two hands typing on a laptop. On the screen is a image search engine result showing the Swift Observatory. On the hands are 4 bracelets which say “TDE,” “Neil Gehrels,” “Brad Cenko,” and “Swift.”

🎶 “so make the friendship bracelets, take the moment and taste it” 🎶

I’m at the “Celebrating 20 Years of Swift Discoveries” conference & to make nod to another famous Swift, I made friendship bracelets to share! It’s been a very fun way to introduce myself and bring some joy. :)

🔭🧪☄️ #womeninSTEM

25.03.2025 06:25 — 👍 45    🔁 8    💬 4    📌 0

Elevator panel with buttons for floors 1 through 8, and additional buttons for “yes” and “no”

Wasn’t sure whether the hotel I was staying at was haunted or not, but I guess they have a ouija board in the elevator so that answers that

05.03.2025 05:02 — 👍 3    🔁 1    💬 1    📌 0

a quick summary of Vikram Ravi's AAS talk -- the Platypus looks like an FBOT and a TDE; v cool transient !!

#highenergyastro 🔭

26.01.2025 19:19 — 👍 14    🔁 5    💬 1    📌 0

I could style it. Jean jacket. Cowboy boots.

23.01.2025 23:45 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

Okay but the potato one???

23.01.2025 23:42 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0