Laurence Datrier
@asleepywanderer.bsky.social
6.2K followers 560 following 1.4K posts
Astronomer, occasional artist, sometimes takes pictures (she/her)
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asleepywanderer.bsky.social
Since a bunch of new people now follow me thanks to my very musically talented cat, I figured it was time to post another intro.

Hi! I'm an astronomer who sometimes does various arts and crafts. I did my PhD in Physics&Astronomy at the University of Glasgow, where I was part of LIGO.

🧪🔭🐡
1/n
A photo of me in front of the LIGO Hanford sign, holding a plastic bird of prey An acrylic painting of a spiral galaxy A pencil drawing of Pluto on brown paper A digital painting of Thor's helmet nebula
Reposted by Laurence Datrier
stellerarts.com
hi #PortfolioDay

I’m Laci, planetary astrophysicist turned full-time artist. I love merging science + art through vibrant space paintings!

website: stellerarts.com
restocks: stellerarts.myflodesk.com/subscribe
30x30” oil painting of the Pillars of Creation. There is a partial checkerboard pattern across most of the piece, which weaves together 2 JWST images. The red orange squares are mid-infrared light. The purple blue squares add in near-infrared light bringing thousands of stars into view. Close up of 30x15” oil painting. This section of a star-forming region looks like the skull of a dragon or Leviathan in dark brown set against a lavender background. The background fades into pink and a peachy orange moving from left to right. 24x24” oil painting of the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant. A vibrant circular-shaped explosion of magenta, orange, lime green, yellow, and light blue against a background of deep teal with peach stars. The painting is based on a composite image of x-ray, visible, and infrared light. At noon, 4 o clock, and 8 o clock are subtle triangles singling each type of light. A 24x24” oil painting of the Ring Nebula. Most of the piece is a vibrant ring of complex details beginning with a blue-green center transitioning into orange, yellow, peach, then red. Outside the ring is a deep blue and black. This is the planetary nebula from JWST in near-infrared light. At 11 o clock is a small hexagon and 5 o clock has a larger hexagon. The hexagons are from another JWST image in mid-infrared light. The colors are inverted in the hexagons and the center area (now in red) has more structure at longer wavelengths.
Reposted by Laurence Datrier
vickypaintsspace.bsky.social
Ohhh apparently it's #PortfolioDay again!

I'm Vicky, I paint space and use genuine space dust in my original pieces!

Light pollution is such a HUGE issue, that I've made it my life's mission to bring to stars to everyone!

I dabble in astrophotography occasionally too.💜💫

🔭🧪🐡🖌🎨📷
My painting of The Milky Way over Lining Crag. My painting of the Moon. My painting of the Cat's Eye Nebula. My painting of the Aurora over mountains.
asleepywanderer.bsky.social
QRPing for the #sciart feed for good measure
🐡
chopshopstore.bsky.social
New #crowdfund for #embroidered #patches. These designs have lived as posters for years and were recently converted to enamel pins. Now they're making the leap to patches. Back the campaign and if we hit our goals, we'll add four more designs to the set. www.backerkit.com/c/projects/c...
Reposted by Laurence Datrier
chopshopstore.bsky.social
New #crowdfund for #embroidered #patches. These designs have lived as posters for years and were recently converted to enamel pins. Now they're making the leap to patches. Back the campaign and if we hit our goals, we'll add four more designs to the set. www.backerkit.com/c/projects/c...
asleepywanderer.bsky.social
Milngavie
merriam-webster.com
What’s the word where you’re from that, when pronounced exactly as it looks, identifies a tourist immediately?
Reposted by Laurence Datrier
whereisyvette.bsky.social
Are you interested in working on astronomical transients/ radio astronomy, all while exploring the beautiful Pacific Northwest on your weekends? I'm hiring a postdoc! Come work for me!

aas.org/jobregister/...

Please get in touch if you have any questions!

🔭🧪🎢
Postdoctoral Positions in Time-Domain Astronomy | American Astronomical Society
The department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Oregon invites applications for a postdoctoral scholar to work with Prof. Yvette Cendes in the field of time-domain astrophysics.  This inc...
aas.org
asleepywanderer.bsky.social
Found a legend in Walmart today

🔭
Cans of Ligo sardines
Reposted by Laurence Datrier
thisismyglasgow.bsky.social
Glasgow pubs can look very inviting on wet and windy nights like tonight. This particular one is the he Islay Inn on the corner of Argyle Street and Radnor Street in the West End of the city.

#glasgow #glasgowpubs #islayinn #argylestreet #architecture #nightphotography #glasgowatnight
asleepywanderer.bsky.social
(apologies to everyone who followed me for art and/or science and is instead getting the most mundane nonsense ever 8 days or so. It's been a busy year)
asleepywanderer.bsky.social
Me to the pistacchio I didn't manage to pry open
Frodo saying "All right, then. Keep your secrets"
asleepywanderer.bsky.social
That brief feeling of complete calm when all the unit tests pass after a major update
asleepywanderer.bsky.social
Back when we also all had to apologise to artists who worked on dystopian movies/video games/etc. because it turns out that yes, the graffiti really *is* that corny
Reposted by Laurence Datrier
Reposted by Laurence Datrier
mychal3ts.bsky.social
🎶 Take a look, it's in a book 🎶

🥹 After nearly 20 years... Reading Rainbow is returning to motivate, help, and encourage kids to become avid readers with new episodes, new friends, new projects, and of course... new books! Make sure to follow the rainbow 📚🌈

#FollowTheRainbow
asleepywanderer.bsky.social
Mia, thank you for enchanting my timeline on so many platforms for so many years with your photos.

I love that fourth photo because it's so close to the actual colour of the auroras I've seen!

If you can, consider donating a coffee or two ☕
angrytheinch.bsky.social
Friends.
These are lots of my all-time favorite images. I'm letting them go, frankly out of desperation.
You can download them all and make prints or use as backgrounds on your devices.

Pay whatever you think they're worth ❤️
buymeacoffee.com/angrytheinch

drive.google.com/drive/folder...
Reposted by Laurence Datrier
angrytheinch.bsky.social
Friends.
These are lots of my all-time favorite images. I'm letting them go, frankly out of desperation.
You can download them all and make prints or use as backgrounds on your devices.

Pay whatever you think they're worth ❤️
buymeacoffee.com/angrytheinch

drive.google.com/drive/folder...
asleepywanderer.bsky.social
Sharing with the #sciart feed!
🐡🔭
astronerdika.bsky.social
Mirror, mirror, reflecting our [LASER] beam...
What is the loudest [gravitational wave] signal that we've seen?

It’s #GW250114!

(Yes, it’s been two weeks since it was announced, but I can still celebrate! 🎉 )

#EinsteinWasRight #HawkingWasRight
@ligo.org @egovirgo.bsky.social
An infographic created by @astronerdika titled “MIRROR, MIRROR, reflecting our LASER beam… what’s the LOUDEST signal gravitational wave we’ve seen?” explaining the gravitational-wave discovery GW250114 and how the observation confirms Hawking’s area law. The visual shows the mirrors in a gravitational-wave interferometer speaking about the loudest event they have seen. There are several illustrations as follows:

1. A simplified diagram of a laser interferometer. A red laser beam from a labeled “LASER source” hits a beam splitter, travels down two perpendicular arms, reflects off round mirrors, and recombines at a labeled “detector.” A label near the top-right mirror reads: “the DETECTOR, signal seen by LIGO Hanford & LIGO Livingston.”

2. An illustration of a binary black hole merger, with two black circles spiraling inward. They are labeled ~34 solar masses and ~32 solar masses. Surrounding spiral lines represent gravitational waves. A nearby caption reads: “the SOURCE, Discovered in 2025, on January 14, at 08:22:03 UTC.”

3. A prominent speech bubble with white text on a purple background states: “GW250114 is the loudest & clearest signal we’ve seen!” A smaller note below reads: “as of January 2025.”

4. Another speech bubble reads: “AND we saw that Hawking was right too!”

5. Visual explanation of Hawking’s Area Law. Two small circles labeled “this BH” + “this BH” are shown to the left of a “<” symbol, pointing to a larger circle labeled “the surface area of the merged BH.” Below there is the explanatory sentence: “GW250114’s remnant event horizon area is larger than the sum of the individual areas.”

6. A section titled “the PAPERS” lists two arXiv references: https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.08054 and https://www.arxiv.org/abs/2509.08099

Note: This infographic plays off the classic line from Snow White, “Mirror, mirror on the wall…” Here, the “mirrors” are the ones inside the laser interferometer, reflecting light to detect passing gravitational waves.
Reposted by Laurence Datrier
astronerdika.bsky.social
Mirror, mirror, reflecting our [LASER] beam...
What is the loudest [gravitational wave] signal that we've seen?

It’s #GW250114!

(Yes, it’s been two weeks since it was announced, but I can still celebrate! 🎉 )

#EinsteinWasRight #HawkingWasRight
@ligo.org @egovirgo.bsky.social
An infographic created by @astronerdika titled “MIRROR, MIRROR, reflecting our LASER beam… what’s the LOUDEST signal gravitational wave we’ve seen?” explaining the gravitational-wave discovery GW250114 and how the observation confirms Hawking’s area law. The visual shows the mirrors in a gravitational-wave interferometer speaking about the loudest event they have seen. There are several illustrations as follows:

1. A simplified diagram of a laser interferometer. A red laser beam from a labeled “LASER source” hits a beam splitter, travels down two perpendicular arms, reflects off round mirrors, and recombines at a labeled “detector.” A label near the top-right mirror reads: “the DETECTOR, signal seen by LIGO Hanford & LIGO Livingston.”

2. An illustration of a binary black hole merger, with two black circles spiraling inward. They are labeled ~34 solar masses and ~32 solar masses. Surrounding spiral lines represent gravitational waves. A nearby caption reads: “the SOURCE, Discovered in 2025, on January 14, at 08:22:03 UTC.”

3. A prominent speech bubble with white text on a purple background states: “GW250114 is the loudest & clearest signal we’ve seen!” A smaller note below reads: “as of January 2025.”

4. Another speech bubble reads: “AND we saw that Hawking was right too!”

5. Visual explanation of Hawking’s Area Law. Two small circles labeled “this BH” + “this BH” are shown to the left of a “<” symbol, pointing to a larger circle labeled “the surface area of the merged BH.” Below there is the explanatory sentence: “GW250114’s remnant event horizon area is larger than the sum of the individual areas.”

6. A section titled “the PAPERS” lists two arXiv references: https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.08054 and https://www.arxiv.org/abs/2509.08099

Note: This infographic plays off the classic line from Snow White, “Mirror, mirror on the wall…” Here, the “mirrors” are the ones inside the laser interferometer, reflecting light to detect passing gravitational waves.
Reposted by Laurence Datrier
ligo.org
Yesterday's Astronomy Picture of the Day #APOD featured #GW250114! This artwork imagines the ultimate front-row seat as two black holes spiral together on their way toward producing the strongest gravitational-wave signal we've detected so far

apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap25092...

🎨A Simonnet 🔭🐚
This artwork imagines the ultimate front-row seat for GW250114, a powerful collision between two black holes observed in gravitational waves by the US National Science Foundation LIGO. It depicts the view from one of the black holes as it spirals toward its cosmic partner.
Reposted by Laurence Datrier
asleepywanderer.bsky.social
The finished product!
As always, the most difficult part was knowing when to stop 😅
The same watercolour painting of a hobbit hole as the previous post, but with more depth and contrast
Reposted by Laurence Datrier
scixcommunity.bsky.social
A natural evolution of ADS, SciX brings its powerful capabilities into new domains. Expanded coverage, intuitive search, smart recommendations, and tools for collaboration. SciX makes research more discoverable, connected, and accessible than ever before. https://scixplorer.org/scixblog/scix-launch
Reposted by Laurence Datrier
scixcommunity.bsky.social
We have lift-off! Science Explorer, or #SciX to its friends, is excited to be your new home for open, connected, and trustworthy science. Explore. Share. Discover at scixplorer.org #OpenScience #ResearchInfrastructure #SpaceScience #EarthScience #PlanetaryScience
asleepywanderer.bsky.social
I remember buying the 25th anniversary edition of the DVD so I feel very attacked by this post
ptklein.com
The Rocky Horror Picture Show opened on US screens 50 years ago today. Initially a major box office bomb, cult cinema outsiders and queer audiences quickly took up the film’s mantle and turned it into a unique and exciting way of engaging with the movies. Remember kids, don’t dream it—be it!!