Sarah Kendrew

I have become the tedious bore who, every time there's a question about something weird in our data, opens with "did you LOOK at the data?".

Step 1: Open that FITS file in DS9/python/whatever.

Take it from there. 🔭

I'm going to expand this statement to say that astronomers should actually look at their data whatever the format. Yes pipelines and high level science products are great, but you learn a lot from just spending some time exploring the counts-on-pixels images, even for spectroscopy. 🔭

Because “looking at images, not catalogs” is a dying pastime, the paper includes a tutorial on -how- to interpret images of galaxies. Qualitative information alone can get you a surprisingly long way towards a reasonable model, if you’re thinking through the links between morphology and physics.

thank you

Trump is heading for a hard reckoning over Iran It isn’t a sign of Trump Derangement Syndrome to consider the Trump administration's Iran war video obscene

I can barely express how much I loathed that Hegseth Iran video, but I had a bash

There Have Been No Approvals for New Transit Projects in the First Year of the Current Trump Administration

For the 1st time in the 1st year of a presidential administration since at least 1993, under Trump 2, the Federal Transit Administration signed 0 new contracts for major transit projects, like subways or light rail.

The US is facing a crisis of rail transit investment: www.urban.org/urban-wire/r...

The Extremely Large Telescope Interferometer The ELTI concept capitalizes on recent breakthroughs in large-format SPAD (Single-Photon Avalanche Diode) imaging sensors, combining them with the unprecedented collecting area and segmented architect...

"ELTI": a concept for using the Extremely Large Telescope as an optical interferometer. Enabled by advances in single-photon AD detector arrays, segmented sub-pupil beam combination and high-R spectroscopy. arxiv.org/abs/2603.05589 Yesss LFG 🔭 🔭 🔭

Also nice to see that major observatories are willing to give time to speculative searches for signatures of life, despite some astronomers claiming that the field is too conservative in its ambitions to search for life. 🔭

A Narrowband Technosignature Search Toward the Hycean Candidate K2-18b Using the VLA and MeerKAT K2-18b, a sub-Neptune exoplanet located in the habitable zone of its host star, has emerged as an important target for atmospheric characterization and assessments of potential habitability. Motivated...

These authors went looking for technosignatures around (in)famous exoplanet K2-18b with 2 of the world's best radio interferometers. They found none, but cool work and great to highlight that these searches are happening. arxiv.org/abs/2602.09553 🔭

Great work 👏🔭

Open Lecturer in Planetary Science position at UCL Mullard Space Science Laboratory (Dorking) The successful applicant will be expected to perform research using data from the Rosalind Franklin Mission, but also other planetary bodies, such as the Moon and the Outer Planets icy moons. ☄️🔭🧪

chemical warfare

Important work - read the full thread

Looking forward to hearing about this & more from @profdanhicks.bsky.social w/@debssutton.bsky.social at the Lancaster History Lecture on March 18th

dukeslancaster.org/whats-on/the...

Happy International What’s the time difference between the US and the UK now? day

I’m assuming this is not a novel about a poor residual fringe correction in MIRI. But we could certainly write one. 🔭

finally started Project Hail Mary* and I too sometimes am haunted by long-ago emails asking for help with unidentified spectral features at 25 micron. Was our protagonist a JWST Helpdesk responder? 🔭

(*no spoilers please!)

YouTube video by HubbleWebbESA Zoom Video: Cat's Eye Nebula

Here's another combined view by #ESAEuclid + #Hubble of the Cat's Eye Nebula

www.youtube.com/watch?v=goIs...

#Euclid #ESA #NASA #astronomy #space

yes and I don't see how 2-year contracts are compatible with building the kind of long-term stable base of skills and expertise the agency needs for the type of challenges it wants to (and should!) take on.

As the most volatile part of the research pipeline, early-career researchers absorb the brunt of any funding uncertainty.

It’s extremely encouraging to see the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee taking this so seriously and pressing #STFC on the consequences of the new funding framework.

Anyway, so freaking delighted & proud to see #MIRI take such a prominent role in one of the most exciting areas of astrophysics research right now (IMHO), and to be able to play a role in making this happen. 🔭

We only have 2 spectroscopically-observed galaxies at z > 14, so clearly we need more data. #JWST is spending some 330 hrs in Cycle 4 observing galaxies beyond redshift 10 with mid-IR spectroscopy - so we're going to be learning a lot more! scixplorer.org/abs/2025arXi...

Helton et al argue that the spectrum of GS-z14 adds to the weight of evidence that our theoretical models aren't successfully predicting galaxy evolution at very high redshifts (but there are good ideas for why that might be the case!) scixplorer.org/abs/2025arXi... 🔭

Long-winded title for a paper showing an extraordinary dataset - a 34-hr exposure of a redshift 14 (!) galaxy with MIRI LRS on #JWST. Beautiful >4-sigma detection of H-alpha in a galaxy observed when the Universe was only ~2% of its current age scixplorer.org/abs/2025arXi...

With the first Ariane 6 with four boosters, our fleet of rockets is complete 🚀

We will continue to work on upgrades to reduce costs, make our launch systems more robust and launch more often.

For example, the powerful P160C rocket motor will replace P120C on both Ariane 6 and Vega-C rockets.

"Isaacman says that for NASA to achieve this goal, it aims to hire the majority of its thousands of related contractors as agency employees instead."

The best!!

A screenshot of Google's AI Overview answer to the question "is haggis an animal". It says "Yes, the haggis is a small, furry mammal native to Scotland" and goes on to give the typical "asymmetrical legs" details.

The Scottish have won the AI Wars.

Two images of a planetary nebula in space. The image to the left, labelled “Euclid & Hubble”, shows the whole nebula and its surroundings. A star in the very centre is surrounded by white bubbles and loops of gas, all shining with a powerful blue light. Farther away a broken ring of red and blue gas clouds surrounds the nebula. The background shows many stars and distant galaxies. A white box indicates the centre of the nebula and this region is the image to the right, labelled “Hubble”. It shows the multi-layered bubbles, pointed jets and circular shells of gas that make up the nebula, as well as the central star, in greater detail.

Wowowow - our @science.esa.int Hubble's picture of the month for March is the Cat's Eye Nebula, from combined images of #Hubble and #Euclid. Euclid's wide field and low surface brightness sensitivity brings out an external shell. Incredible image. esahubble.org/images/potm2... 🔭

Incredible substorm with the lunar eclipse just now in Fairbanks, Alaska. Legendary.