Only the second use of ‘wizard’ in ApJS ever
09.03.2026 20:17
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Only the second use of ‘wizard’ in ApJS ever
Instant classic new paper from @dalcantonjd.bsky.social and friends. First sentence: "The Universe is a very odd place filled with strange and wonderful things." ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2026ApJS... 🔭
I also love how Judy Schmidt is now formally (and rightly) recorded in the published astronomical literature as being a wizard.
The Royal Astronomical Society is gravely concerned at the drastic cuts to support for UK astronomy outlined by the Science and Technology Facilities Council.
Read our statement 👉 ras.ac.uk/news-and-pre...
Do you have updates on when local residents invited to park in the Keswick garage will be required to move their cars?
Webb reveals a planetary nebula with phenomenal clarity, and it is spectacular arstechnica.com/space/2026/0...
Watch as the most detailed infrared view of the Helix Nebula from #NASAWebb is put into context using the famous visible light image from Hubble and previous infrared imaging from the retired Spitzer Space Telescope: news.stsci.edu/4qPKTsL
A region of space is filled with stars and clumps of glowing orange and tan dust. A small portion of the sky at the center of the image is outlined with a white box. Lines extend from the corner of the box to the inset panel at the top right showing a magnified version of the outlined portion of the image. In the inset, there are smatterings of dim whitish-blueish stars and about seven glowing red orbs across the center in a line. Also across the center of the inset is a green glow. The background of the image is filled with stars and galaxies of various shapes and colors.
#NASAWebb researchers found iron-rich dust and complex carbon molecules in Sextans A, a nearby galaxy with similar properties to those in the early universe. Why the finding is surprising: https://news.stsci.edu/4st0ccz #AAS247 🔭
The source of the flu hype appears to be NHS and politicians, but journalists parroted without question.
How do you write these two paragraphs and not think: “Hang on, flu beds hit 5,400 in 2022, and they had RSV and COVID peak at the same time”.
That’s all you need to recognise this as bollocks.
Some may see parallels with today in the tale of a Boston based astronomer driving himself mad and becoming increasingly isolated from the astronomical community by making increasingly wild claims, mostly via the popular press. I couldn’t possibly comment.
Last Christmas
I gave you my heart
Not really my heart
Just somebody's heart
This year
If the cops should appear
Please tell them that you don't know me
A large, semi-transparent pink, purple, and blue circular object with irregular edges and layers is set against the black background of space. At the center is a very small white star that looks like a dot. The irregular circle, known as the Little Gem Nebula, takes up most of the view. Thicker pink regions appear as arcs above and below the central star, and along the edges. These pink regions have finger-like protrusions and knots of denser gas, which point to the central star. More pink is between 9 o’clock and 6 clock, and near 12 o’clock. There is a little pink near 3 o’clock. There is a semi-translucent purple area in the center. A blue area extends more clearly beyond the purple, running to the edges except where the pink is most prominent. There is one clear white dot toward the top left.
Woosh! This is the Little Gem Nebula, a Sun-like star that has cast off its outer layers of gas and dust, captured by Hubble. The wind from the central star propels the outflows, forming bright blowouts in its outer layers.
Credit: NASA, ESA. Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt 🔭 🧪
In the centre is an elliptical galaxy, seen as an oval-shaped glow around a small bright core. Around this is wrapped a broad band of light, appearing like a spiral galaxy stretched and warped into a ring, with bright blue lines drawn through it where the spiral arms have been stretched into circles. A few distant objects are visible around the ring on a black background.
⭕ A stunning cosmic lens!
A distant background spiral galaxy appears to be wrapped around a closer foreground elliptical galaxy, forming an Einstein ring.
Captured by the NASA/ESA/CSA James #Webb Space Telescope. Read more 👉 www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed...
🔭 🧪 ☄️
#AAS245 Join the PRIMA team! As Phase A is beginning, there are many opportunities to get involved and help make a Far-IR space mission a reality for the 2030s!
A handy guide to help with working with European collaborators, and when they go on vacation. Which should maybe come with a trigger warning for folk who regularly try to work with French collaborators during summer…
i.redd.it/r74iahb6cl8e...
Space Warps from Euclid
A few months ago I posted about a joint initiative between Euclid and Galaxy Zoo that involved engaging members of the public in a project involving galaxy morphology. Well, a new "collab" (as you young people call such things) has just been announced on social media, and I…
Optimist: The cup is half full
Pessimist: The cup is half empty
Astronomer: This is a high metallicity sightline
Hubble hypnotizes with this detailed portrait of the Southern Pinwheel galaxy. All phases of the stellar life cycle are on display, from the youngest stars in glowing pink nebulas, to bright blue clusters, and the bubble-like remnants of supernovas. Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI. 🔭 🧪
Radio/ISM astronomers: we should be ashamed. For years, I've seen papers and talks referring to the dense-gas-tracing molecule N2H+. Only today have I discovered it has the name DIAZENYLIUM. Why don't we call it that‽ That's fantastic! Sounds like a compound of mithtil!
In today's episode of "WTF America", our handyman just found a couple of apparently-live (albeit blank?) rifle cartridges in our living room wall.
Here’s the plot you all *really* wanted to see. Staggering numbers of JWST proposals submitted for Cycle 3, probably boosted by “easy” resubmissions of unsuccessful Cycle 2’s, which was < 1 yr ago. 🧪🔭
