Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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David Shiffman, Ph.D. 🦈 @whysharksmatter.bsky.social · 8h

Welcome to Bluesky, new nerds! Check out this thread to see hundreds of scientists on here introducing themselves. And give them a follow! 🧪

David Shiffman, Ph.D. 🦈 @whysharksmatter.bsky.social · Aug 20

Scientists of Bluesky, introduce yourselves by replying to this post and I’ll share it and help you get some followers!

I’m David, I’m based in DC and study shark ecology and conservation policy. I’m the author of “Why Sharks Matter.”

🧪🦑🌎🐠🦈

Me securing a shark getting measured for a research workup

Posing with some friends as part of my Why Sharks Matter book tour.

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Chara @astrochara.bsky.social · 8h

It was my pleasure to watch the collab between Hoshimi Madoka and Juufuutei Raden…even if I understood nothing…

#星見まどか #儒烏風亭らでん

Chara @astrochara.bsky.social · 9h

It's certainly being rad'd alright.

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Melina Thévenot🏳️‍⚧️ @melina-iras07572.bsky.social · 15h

I did create an image of this system. #JWST MIRI (F1000W F1500W).
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ME...

In the middle: Two point sources, one blue is the white dwarf, one brown is the brown dwarf candidate. Surrounding are blue stars and brown galaxies.

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Chris Rowan @allochthonous.bsky.social · 22h

⚒️ The Proterozoic Earth had radically different ocean and atmospheric chemistry, was ruled by bacterial mats, and was possibly being shaped by not-plate-tectonics, or at least different-plate-tectonics.

Calling it boring is such a depressing failure of the imagination.

Compton Scatterbrained @comptonscatter.bsky.social · 1d

“That name, man,” Riedman says of the boring billion. “We’ve got to kill it. Kill it with fire.”

Gave me a smile to see they interviewed you about your work too.

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Heidi B. Hammel @hbhammel.bsky.social · 1d

Actually a good article once you get past the click-bait headline. The article itself correctly refers to astronomical image processing as "a careful scientific and artistic process that transforms invisible light in space into visible wavelengths humans can see" www.fodors.com/news/news/ho...

Everyone Is Lying to You About What Space Really Looks Like

Fodor's provides expert travel content worth exploring so you can dream up your next trip. The world is a weird and wonderful place—we want to show you around.

www.fodors.com

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Chara @astrochara.bsky.social · 1d

The planet is HD 209458 b (kind of). Cloud pattern follows the "shallow heating" model from journals.aps.org/prl/abstract..., where the heating is deposited at altitude corresponding to pressure of 1000 Pa (0.01 bar).

Repeated Cyclogenesis on Hot-Exoplanet Atmospheres with Deep Heating

Supercomputer simulations of the weather on a hot Jupiter reveal a previously unseen storm pattern in which cyclones are repeatedly generated and destroyed.

journals.aps.org

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Chara @astrochara.bsky.social · 1d

A study on drawing a hot Jupiter's nightside.

The dayside is overexposed. The nightside is pinkish from the combination of blackbody radiation and absorption from Na/K/H2O, similar to brown dwarfs.

#art #astronomy #space #planet #exoplanet #HotJupiter

This image depicts a hot Jupiter's crescent, being illuminated by a host star located off-screen to the bottom left. The dayside, being overexposed, is pure white, and the atmosphere shows up as a white glow surrounding the dayside. The nightside is dull pinkish, with cooler clouds showing up as darker regions. The two large hemispherical storms appear on the image as well.

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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 1d

One of the terrible things about the conservative elites’ attacks on higher education is that they are giving their constituents the impression that the universe isn’t big, complicated, and fascinating — that it really does take this many people to work out how even a small fraction of it works

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Kelsey Johnson @profkelsey.bsky.social · 1d

Procrastination takes may forms. Tonight as a service to the astronomical community I offer help with your JWST proposal titles.
#JWST 🧪🔭✨

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John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 1d

To be clear:

LA County has declared a state of emergency BECAUSE OF the federal government.

The Feds, LA County is (correctly) saying, have CAUSED the emergency.

This is a striking political moment of internal collapse. Local govts feeling compelled to protect their ppl from … their own govt.

Los Angeles County declares state of emergency over immigration raids

Los Angeles County officials voted on Tuesday to declare a state of emergency over ongoing federal immigration raids.

abcnews.go.com

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Astrobiology @astrobiology.bsky.social · 2d

Ancient Mars Climate With a Polar Ocean and Ice Sheet Dynamics
astrobiology.com/2025/10/anci... #Astrobiology #Mars

Ancient Mars Climate With a Polar Ocean and Ice Sheet Dynamics - Astrobiology

In this article, we study the conditions required to maintain a stable ocean on Mars 3 Ga using a new suite of simulations.

astrobiology.com

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Celeste Labedz @celestelabedz.bsky.social · 2d

A lot of comments on Mars rovers or Moon landings, but it's important to remember that the planet NASA studies most is Earth. This is less about cutting flashy things like moonwalks and more about keeping communities in the dark on climate, weather, agriculture, pollution, natural hazards, and more.

Reuters @reuters.com · 3d

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to lay off about 550 workers reut.rs/4302N2L

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to lay off about 550 workers

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said on Monday it will cut nearly 550 jobs as part of a restructuring, not related to the current U.S. government shutdown.

reut.rs

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András Gáspár @andrasgaspar.bsky.social · 2d

The JWST Cycle 5 "Procrastination Monitor", i.e. Molly's proposal counter submission form, is up an running. Please fill it out if you have data to add to it. And do share! #JWSTCycle5

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

JWST Cycle 5 Proposal Procrastination Monitor

An anonymous way to monitor JWST proposal submission times In the email from proposal-submission@stsci, the subject line will be like, "JWST Phase I Proposal 3434 submission 4 received". Here, 3434 =...

docs.google.com

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Chara @astrochara.bsky.social · 2d

Two fictional warm neptunians. I would've made this an art of real exoplanets, but frankly I don't actually *know* that many exoplanets...

The right one "Skanbou" is closer in / hotter. The left one "Kellun" is further out / cooler.

#astronomy #space #planet #exoplanet #art

This artwork depicts a foreshortened image of two planets: hazy, featureless-looking neptunians with different colours. The right one is closer to the star and hotter, and has yellowish/greenish haze over subtle cloud deck of potassium chloride. The left one is further from the star and cooler, and features brownish haze.

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Chara @astrochara.bsky.social · 2d

Today's arXiv day brought us a really cool paper that analyzed the two stars of 55 Cancri. It detected the known planets around A, and found TWO new planets around the B.
arxiv.org/abs/2510.11523

Here's my quick art of Harriot, one of the planets around A.

#astronomy #space #exoplanet #planet #art

A depiction of the extrasolar planet 55 Cancri A f, or Harriot. It is depicted as a beige-coloured hazy giant planet with some bright high-altitude clouds. A fictional irregularly-shaped moon transits in front of it.

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kaibootsu @kaibootsu.bsky.social · 2d

#2kkitober intermission. some dreamer headcanons i have
#fanart

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arianne20131.bsky.social @arianne20131.bsky.social · 3d

I did prefer staying alone before most of the time... Nowadays I wish I had someone to hang around with

#touhou

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Matthew Kenworthy @mattkenworthy.bsky.social · 2d

Gibson et al. “TESS Discovers a Second System of Transiting Exocomets in the Extreme
Debris Disk of RZ Psc” showing 24 exocomet transits and the existence of a broken power law for the sizes of these exocomets, unlike Beta Pic’s exocomet distribution #exoplanet #astrodon #astrosci

TESS light curve of RZ Psc, showing several dog tooth-like dips indicating exocomet transits.

Plot os radius of exocomet versus cumulative number count - the RZ Psc shows a distinct change in slope at 2.5km, whilst the Beta Pic distribution from des Etangs shows a single straight power law.

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Meg Schwamb @megschwamb.bsky.social · 4d

starlinked

Andy Rivkin @asrivkin.bsky.social · 4d

In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand.

Visit Planner timed out.

barbylon @barbylon.bsky.social · 4d

In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand.

The valve stuck open.

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triple cheeseburger @triplchii.bsky.social · 3d

what if we collected all the strong sweaty tank top engineer/mechanic anime girls and put them in a room and got them to construct or design something

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kbethany.bsky.social @kbethany.bsky.social · 3d

Not sure about the others but Dartmouth basically told them to eff off…

www.msn.com/en-us/news/p...

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BlaParky @blaparky.bsky.social · 4d

#hololive #ほしまちぎゃらりー
#Holoctober Day 13: Free Theme

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Doc Vivi Leandra - Real-Life Scientist VTuber 🧬🖥️ @docvivileandra.bsky.social · 4d

saw someone say plasma weapons are "more realistic" than laser weapons and I want to scream, people who assess "realism" based entirely on vibes are a plague

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Chara @astrochara.bsky.social · 4d

Planetes’s anime was awesome. Starting with it then reading the manga right after to switch from a exciting conclusion to a solemn reflection was also a wonderful experience.

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