Tom Megeath

See that small, moving splotch?

That's 3I/ATLAS, a comet that formed in a different star system, photographed from Mars orbit by the ESA Exomars Trace Gas Orbiter.

A comet from a DIFFERENT SOLAR SYSTEM photographed by a ROBOT ORBITING MARS

last Friday

Not to mention that non-defense is about 1.5% of the federal budget and has an enormous ROI. (as measured in dollars, technology, health, safety, and pure knowledge).

Observation of undepleted phosphine in the atmosphere of a low-temperature brown dwarf The atmospheres of low-temperature brown dwarfs and gas giant planets are expected to contain the phosphine molecule, PH3. However, previous observations have shown much lower abundances of this molec...

The phosphine molecule, PH3, has been proposed as a biosignature in rocky planets. In @science.org, Burgasser et al. report phosphine in a brown dwarf atmosphere. "We therefore caution against the use of phosphine as a biosignature". #stellarastro #exoplanet ☄️
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

when encountered, they are very much smaller in life.

#SciX is created by the #ADS team & operates out of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory under a NASA Cooperative Agreement. Created and developed by scientists, for scientists, SciX builds on decades of open research infrastructure and collaboration: https://bit.ly/CfASciXNews

A screenshot of a post by the Jane Goodall Institute on LinkedIn stating that they learned that Dr. Goodall passed away due to natural causes in California while on her speaking to her current speaking tour there.

The world has lost its most powerful advocate for nature and hope. Yet many remain who will continue her legacy and I know she will continue to inspire generations more.

I read somewhere that 5 out of 6 pandas are rooting for the Bills, and if they win there will be ……

pandemonium.

Dusty, barred spiral galaxy NGC 1365. Interestingly, the dust bar isn't nearly as prominent as it is in visible light. In the center is a modest active galactic nucleus (AGN). The circumnuclear dust is also quite striking. This time, I was happy to receive the PHANGS team's reduction of the data. Makes it much easier because their mosaic was much better matched and aligned. Red (screen layer mode): MIRI F2100W Orange: MIRI F1130W Cyan: MIRI F770W Extra overall brightness in grayscale: MIRI F1000W North is not up.

JWST MIRI NGC1365 - From Judy Schmidt (geckzilla.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/2nECEP6

i own a copy and read it in high school but apparently its weirdness didn’t make a strong impression on my teenage mind.

Happy 100th anniversary to Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin’s extraordinary thesis!

Led Blimp

A focus on a star forming region seen in infrared light. Hundreds of white dots, big and small ones, can be seen everywhere in the image as they are stars! A lot of gas can be seen in the image, covering almost every part of it. This gas is what is helping the new stars to be formed there. In the upper left part, multiple jets can be spotted: they are stars being born at this very moment! A lot of background galaxies can also be spotted in the whole image

The JWST had a new look into the IC348 star forming region last year, and here's my processed image of that observation! 🔭

IC348 is located some 1,000 light years away from us and is made of hundreds of new stars born there.

HD: flic.kr/p/2ruCvCz

The uselfulness of useless knowledge, as Abraham Flexner called it. I remember a talk on neural networks in the 80s which seemed to my freshman brain as mostly useless, except as a means to understand brains.

Morning on University Parks trail, part of Toledo‘s Metropark system.

How We Came To Know Earth | Quanta Magazine Climate science is the most significant scientific collaboration in history. This series from Quanta Magazine guides you through basic climate science — from quantum effects to ancient hothouses, from...

Climate science is the most significant scientific collaboration in history, and its lessons are a massive human achievement. “How We Came To Know Earth,” our new series, is a guide to the modern understanding of fundamental climate science. www.quantamagazine.org/series/clima...

A max-min-influencer.

I don’t have much bandwidth lately- so i’ve been simply amplifying your vote. I think you are rising to become a legitimate mineral influencer.

as an astronomy teacher, i love the graphics and careful, descriptive explanations. Beautiful work.

I grew up in Las Cruces, and I miss the sky, mountains, chile rellenos, and radio stations stuck in the classic rock era. And White Sands where i saw unbelievable sunsets. But I also developed an affinity for water and left.

feeling a bit awkward posting this, but I first noticed this motif in a painting by Botticelli in the Uffizi. Not subtle even to my untrained eye.

a clockwork prune

although i am not a Bills fan, i am a Bills fan fan. They are the best of fans.

Best glory I’ve ever seen from a plane! It’s an optical phenomenon that occurs when light interacts in and around tiny droplets of water in the clouds, in the direction opposite the sun. More complex than a rainbow. Here’s a link to some more info: www.zmescience.com/science/phys... #optics #physics

How many bombs did we drop on Vietnam?

I saw them at the Black Swamp festival last night (following AJ Lee and Blue Summit) and their show was amazing. Incredible, virtuosic, next level bluegrass.

5500 light years from us, new stars are being born ✨ This stunning new #jwst image showcases 2 of the brightest & most massive stars known - weighing in at over 60x the mass of our Sun! Data like this are helping us understand how stars are born. Read more: science.nasa.gov/missions/web...

NASA to needlessly kill Juno mission to Jupiter this month The Juno spacecraft, orbiting and imaging Jupiter since 2016, is still succeeding. Without a further extension, the mission now faces death.

NASA to needlessly kill Juno mission to Jupiter this month

NASA's Juno mission has been scouting out Jupiter and its icy moons since 2016.

The next mission won't arrive until 2030.

So why kill Juno when we're still learning so much from it?
bigthink.com/starts-with-...
#space #astro #nasa #juno

so SpaceX has secretly landed Mars. I have to admit, the new cybertuck is an improvement.

I recently went to Hanoi, and this McDonalds near Hoam Kiem lake surrounded by little flags with red stars snd hammer and sickles broke what little understanding I had of how our world operates. (i did not sample the food).