Corey S. Powell

You made it!

But maybe not with Enceladus

DO IT

In the artist's illustration, the quasar, RACS J0320-35, sits at our upper left, filling the left side of the image. It resembles a spiraling, motion-blurred disk of orange, red, and yellow streaks. At the center of the disk, surrounded by a glowing, sparking, brilliant yellow light, is a black egg shape. This is a black hole, one of the fastest-growing black holes ever detected. The black hole is also shown in a small Chandra X-ray image inset at our upper right. In that depiction, the black hole appears as a white dot with an outer ring of neon purple. The artist's illustration also highlights a jet of particles blasting away from the black hole at the center of the quasar. The streaked silver beam starts at the core of the distant quasar, near our upper left, and shoots down toward our lower right. The blurry beam of energetic particles appears to widen as it draws closer and exits the image.

One of the key mysteries in cosmology is how quickly supermassive black holes formed in the early universe. The answer seems to be: a lot faster than we thought.

The finding could help explain how formless gas evolved into a landscape of stars & galaxies. 🧪🔭

chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2025/r...

I know, it's agonizing to watch the process unfold in real time. I used to think we might have good evidence of life by now. I'm starting to realize that getting definitive answers even within our own solar system may take a few more decades. Quite likely not in my lifetime. It ain't easy!

Thanks. I find it impossible to stay focused on fighting the bad stuff without taking some breaks to celebrate the best of what we are capable of

Left: Cassini image of Enceladus showing its geysers. Right: This illustration shows the process of light, soluble and reactive organic compounds making their way onto ice grains emitted in jets of water from Saturn's moon Enceladus, where they were detected by the Cassini spacecraft.

Data from the Cassini spacecraft shows that there is complex organic chemistry happening in the ocean of Saturn's moon Enceladus.

It took 17 years to get the result! The finding boosts the case that life could possibly exist inside this little ice-covered world. 🧪🔭

www.esa.int/Science_Expl...

Nebula where new stars are forming. Marked is Cha 1107−7626, a planetary-mass object with a disk.

Our galaxy is full of rogue planets, worlds that live in darkness without a parent star. And now we've caught one as it forms, scooping up gas at a rate of 6 billion tons a second. 🧪🔭

www.eso.org/public/news/...

One of my favorite anecdotes from THE PREHISTORY OF THE FAR SIDE: "That doesn't sound like the Jane Goodall we know."

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.

The Andromeda Core shows the central region of the Andromeda Galaxy (also known as M31), which is the nearest large galaxy to us at around 2.5 million light years away. Andromeda is a barred spiral galaxy like our own Milky Way. It’s made up of an outlying spiral structure of dust, gas and stars connected by a dense, bar-shaped concentration of bright giant stars in the galactic core. This isn’t a simple target to capture on camera. Competition judge and Royal Observatory astronomer Dr Ed Bloomer explains: “The cores of galaxies are often extremely bright, and unless the astrophotographer is careful it can overwhelm the image and obscure that lovely detail.” However, he says, “What we have here is an image which preserves an astonishing amount of detail right towards the very heart of Andromeda, which is extremely difficult to do.”

In case you were wondering, here is the overall winner of the 2025 Astronomy Photographer of the Year award. It's a photo of the Andromeda Galaxy, showing this familiar sky object in a new, unique, and quite stunning way. 🔭🧪

www.rmg.co.uk/stories/spac...

"During a routine time-lapse observation of the solar chromosphere [the thin, reddish layer of the Sun’s atmosphere above the visible surface], I captured a serendipitous moment when an aircraft crossed the field of view. Preserving this transient frame, I employed multiple blending modes to enhance the details of the solar background. Beyond stacking individual video frames, I processed the sequence, undertook colour inversion and synthesised 100 images through combined mean and minimum blending. This dual approach effectively accentuated both bright plages [active regions in the chromosphere] and dark laments through enhanced contrast. "The composite image reveals the evolution of the Sun’s dynamic surface across a two-hour observational period, while the aircraft’s two-second transit remains frozen in time. This layered imaging rearranges time, blending celestial bodies and human technology in one photo."

"This is one of my biggest astrophotography accomplishments to date, and the largest panorama I have ever captured, with the full resolution image containing over a billion pixels from 62 images stitched together. I had envisioned this composition for a long time, capturing the twin glacial rivers with the Milky Way core off to the left of the image, as well as the famous Southern Cross and other pointers high in the centre sky."

If you need a blast of beauty (and who doesn't?) I highly recommend browsing the new Astronomy Photographer of the Year winners. They're spectacular -- and neither of these shots even made it to #1. 🧪🔭

www.rmg.co.uk/whats-on/ast...

The Kryoneri Astronomical Station was founded in 1972 in Corinthia, in the north of the Peloponnese, just 22 km southwest of the nearest town, Kiato. It is located at an altitude of 1000 meters, at the foot of Mount Kyllini, on a plot of 65 acres that was later extended to 105 acres. Its operation started in 1973 with a 15 cm diameter microscope and another smaller one for observing the polar star. Since 1975 the station has had a reflecting Cassegrain telescope with a diameter of 1.23 meters, shown here, which was built in Newcastle, England, and is now one of the largest telescopes in Greece and the Balkans.

Cutting-edge science happens all around the world. The world's greatest eye on the Moon is the 50-year-old Kryoneri telescope in Corinthia, Greece.

(The Kryoneri Observatory is also a hub for a new laser deep-space communications network.) 🔭🧪

matsani.gr/en/astronomi...

With better engineering we could have avoided SevenEves

There's a strong observational bias in the dataset, since the flashes are visible only on the unlit parts of the Moon.

The brightest lunar meteorite impacts are actually visible to the naked eye! But even the big ones are subtle: fast and overwhelmed by the glare of the Moon.

This is the newest event, observed last month. 🧪🔭

www.esa.int/Space_Safety...

This map reveals locations of lunar impact flashes detected by the NELIOTA project since 2017.

Meteorites striking the Moon release enough energy that we can see the flashes from Earth. The NELIOTA project has witnessed 193 of them (mapped here), creating a novel catalog of impact threats.

A new upgrade means we'll soon see a lot more. 🧪🔭

www.esa.int/Space_Safety...

In our household we also often sing, "What a friend we have in cheeses." And our kids are way too old for that nonsense.

YouTube video by pardalalucinado The Velvet Underground - Jesus

If you replace "Jesus" with "cheeses," there are a lot of amazing dairy songs.

youtu.be/h6FIjp8nJV4?...

A black and white photo of Albert Einstein, around age 25, sitting at a desk. He is a wearing a flannel suit and resting his right arm on the desk. Einstein is looking to the left of the photographer in this posed photo.

The first paragraph of the paper, in German. Translated to English is reads: It is known that Maxwell's electrodynamics—as usually understood at the present time—when applied to moving bodies, leads to asymmetries which do not appear to be inherent in the phenomena. Take, for example, the reciprocal electrodynamic action of a magnet and a conductor. The observable phenomenon here depends only on the relative motion of the conductor and the magnet, whereas the customary view draws a sharp distinction between the two cases in which either the one or the other of these bodies is in motion. For if the magnet is in motion and the conductor at rest, there arises in the neighbourhood of the magnet an electric field with a certain definite energy, producing a current at the places where parts of the conductor are situated. But if the magnet is stationary and the conductor in motion, no electric field arises in the neighbourhood of the magnet...

Happy 120th birthday, special relativity!

Albert Einstein introduced special relativity in the paper "On The Electrodynamics Of Moving Bodies," published in Annalen der Physik #OTD in 1905. 🧪 ⚛️ 🔭

Manuscript: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
English: www.fourmilab.ch/etexts/einst...

Dogs playing poker, eh?

I can only imagine the reaction

Muppet Monster Adventure cover image.

What about old guacamole? I still can't get that stuff off my bowl

Many years ago I had the honor of talking with George Smoot about his historic research measuring the cosmic microwave background. He ended up with a Nobel. I ended up with my first cover story (in Scientific American). He was thoughtful & generous--a source of joy & enlightenment. 🧪🔭

I appreciate the inclusion of the "not quite primordial black hole" scenario in the discussion. Very interesting!

This illustration depicts the orbital trajectory of asteroid 99942 Apophis as it zooms safely past Earth on April 13, 2029. Earth’s gravity will slightly deflect the trajectory as the 1,100-foot-wide (340-meter-wide) near-Earth object comes within 20,000 miles (32,000 kilometers) of our planet’s surface.

In related news, OSIRIS-APEX just flew past Earth & is en route to Apophis, an asteroid that will pass extremely close to us in 2029.

OSIRIS-APEX also appears to have survived planned budget cuts that would have terminated the craft & turned it into space junk. 🧪🔭

science.nasa.gov/blogs/osiris...

The tiny asteroid 1998 KY26 (center) is observed here by the Gemini South telescope, one half of the International Gemini Observatory, funded in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation and operated by NSF NOIRLab. The observations have revealed that 1998 KY26 is just 11 meters wide, almost three times smaller than previously thought, and is spinning once every 5 minutes, which is almost two times faster than expected. This image is composed of exposures taken through four filters. As exposures are taken, the asteroid remains fixed in the center of the telescope’s field of view. However, the positions of the background stars change relative to the asteroid, causing them to appear as colorful streaks in the final image. Credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/T. Santana-Ros

An artist's impression of Japan’s Hayabusa2 space mission touching down on the surface of the asteroid 1998 KY26. New observations with the Gemini South telescope, one half of the International Gemini Observatory, funded in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation and operated by NSF NOIRLab, and ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) have revealed that 1998 KY26 is just 11 meter wide, almost three times smaller than previously thought, and is spinning once every 5 minutes, which is almost two times faster than expected. The image above shows an updated size comparison between the asteroid and spacecraft. Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser. Asteroid: T. Santana-Ros et al. Hayabusa2 model: SuperTKG (CC-BY-SA)

How do you land on another world, when that "world" completes a day in 5 minutes and is no bigger than a three-story house?

Japan's Hayabusa2 spacecraft is set to find out in 2031 when it reaches asteroid 1998 KY26. 🧪🔭

noirlab.edu/public/news/...

This photo taken on Dec. 16, 2024 shows the central detector of the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) in Jiangmen, south China's Guangdong Province. The world's largest transparent spherical detector began operation in China on Tuesday, making it the world's first operational ultra-large scientific facility dedicated to neutrino research with ultra-high precision. (Xinhua/Jin Liwang)

The world's largest neutrino detector has just begun operations in Jiangmen, China. 🧪🔭

english.cas.cn/newsroom/cas...

Artist's impression of the underground Einstein Telescope, a planned third-generation gravitational-wave detector. Credit: NIKHEF

Next-generation observatories could map the entire visible universe in gravitational waves, transforming our awareness of the origin & evolution of the cosmos.

Europe is heading that way. But in the US, proposed cuts could wipe out what we have achieved. 🧪🔭

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

This newest version of the "Masses in the Stellar Graveyard" plot compares the numbers and masses of black holes and neutron stars discovered by LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (blue and orange dots) through January 2024, in just over eight years since the first detection, with those discovered by electromagnetic (EM) means (red and yellow dots) over the last ~60 years. The accelerated rate of discoveries illustrates how effective gravitational wave detectors are at revealing a side of the universe that is virtually inaccessible to EM observers. [Credit: LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA / Aaron Geller / Northwestern]

In the decade since the first sighting of gravitational waves, LIGO (working with partners in Europe & Japan) has detected 300 gravitational signals. These are now weekly events.

Soon we could map the entire space-time sky--if we continue to explore. 🧪🔭

www.ligo.caltech.edu/news/ligo202...