Author | Lightnews

Reposted by Paul Leyland

Astrobites @astrobites.bsky.social · Oct 1

From Diana Solano-Oropeza @dsolanooropeza.bsky.social : Turns out there’s more than one way to “plate” a planet! 🔭✨☄️
astrobites.org/2025/10/01/s...

Super-Earth, Super-Tectonics?

Turns out there's more than one way to "plate" a planet!

astrobites.org

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Paul Leyland @brnikat.bsky.social · Sep 28

Not sure a telescope is ideal for watching a meteor shower ...

Looking at the moon, star clusters, planets, double stars, sure.

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Paul Leyland @brnikat.bsky.social · Sep 22

I think he meant to write "Vega".

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Paul Leyland @brnikat.bsky.social · Sep 21

That may be true but here in Europe at least virtually all credit card transactions are made with chip&PIN and I don't believe they are especially sensitive to magnetic fields.

Computer disks on the other hand ...

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Reposted by Paul Leyland

David Blanchflower BSc @davidbflower.bsky.social · Sep 20

New evidence proves North Sea asteroid impact. 🔭 🧪 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

New evidence confirms Yorkshire North Sea asteroid impact

Geologists say an asteroid hit the North Sea near Yorkshire more than 43 million years ago.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Paul Leyland @brnikat.bsky.social · Sep 13

No reason why we can't do both. Or all three if you regard orbital and Martian colonies as separate.

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Paul Leyland @brnikat.bsky.social · Sep 12

What is OU in this context? Open University? Oxford University? Something else?

I was a long-term member of OUAS --- Oxford University Astronomical Society --- but that was decades ago and it may have changed its name since then.

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Reposted by Paul Leyland

David Blanchflower BSc @davidbflower.bsky.social · Sep 12

Sky & Telescope magazine are now charging to look at articles on their website. However this means I will no longer be posting any links to their site. A bit disappointed. I've enjoyed reading their articles and weekly sky guide. 🔭 🧪

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Reposted by Paul Leyland

Daniel Pomarède @pomarede.bsky.social · Sep 11

Cosmology: The Moon is our Future

The limits of cosmology, by Joseph Silk
arxiv.org/abs/2509.08066 🧪 #Cosmology

A screenshot of the abstract of the paper, reading: The Moon is our future. It may seem like a chimera with a projected cost in excess of 100 billion$, and counting, dispensed on ARTEMIS with little to show to date. However it is the ideal site for the largest telescopes that we can dream about, at wavelengths spanning decimetric radio through optical to terahertz FIR. And it is these future telescopes that will penetrate the fundamental mysteries of the first hydrogen clouds, the first stars, the first galaxies, the first supermassive black holes, and the nearest habitable exoplanets. Nor does it stop there. Our lunar telescopes will take us back to the first months of the Universe, and even back to the first 10 second after the Big Bang when inflation most likely occurred. Our lunar telescopes will provide high resolution images of exoplanets that are nearby Earth-like 'twins' and provide an unrivalled attempt to answer the ultimate cosmic question of whether we are alone in the universe. Here I will set out my vision of the case for lunar astronomy over the next several decades.

This paper was presented at Lemaitre2024, International Conference on Black Holes, Gravitational Waves and Space-Time Singularities (June 17-21, 2024, Castel Gandolfo, Specola Vaticana)

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Paul Leyland @brnikat.bsky.social · Sep 11

Behind a paywall. Is it available elsewhere?

Reposted by Paul Leyland

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · Sep 6

Thanks to @slavkobogdanov.bsky.social for pointing me to this really cool 🔭 history paper! arxiv.org/abs/2509.04127

New Arabic records from Cairo on supernovae 1181 and 1006

The remnant of the historical supernova SN 1181 is under discussion: While the previously suggested G130.7+3.1 (3C58) appears too old (3000-5000 yr), the unusual star IRAS 00500+6713 with a surroundin...

arxiv.org

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Reposted by Paul Leyland

Stefan 🥼 @stefank1117.bsky.social · Aug 27

I hope everybody understands how f**king dangerous and terrifying this is.

Stefan 🥼 @stefank1117.bsky.social · Aug 25

Breaking: President Trump has signed an executive order to establish specialized National Guard units that will address "public order issues."

“Public Order” — we’ve heard this before.

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Reposted by Paul Leyland

Aut. Stuart Miller 📖✍️🤓 @authorstuartmiller.bsky.social · Aug 27

Credit: @sandcrawler1990.bsky.social

This image speaks for itself...

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Paul Leyland @brnikat.bsky.social · Aug 25

Forgot the #astro

Paul Leyland @brnikat.bsky.social · Aug 25

Good news, for the next decade anyway.

www.bbc.com/news/article...

Herstomonceux Observatory future secured for decade with new lease

The 10-year lease with Queens University, Canada, pledges to increase visitors to the attraction.

www.bbc.com

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Paul Leyland @brnikat.bsky.social · Aug 25

Good news, for the next decade anyway.

www.bbc.com/news/article...

Herstomonceux Observatory future secured for decade with new lease

The 10-year lease with Queens University, Canada, pledges to increase visitors to the attraction.

www.bbc.com

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Paul Leyland @brnikat.bsky.social · Aug 25

Many people don't much want to go to the US anyway. he dislike goes back a long way but the recent decision of USG to check every single visa holder for evidence of thoughtcrime on social media has only made things worse.

How to lose friends and influence people: www.bbc.com/news/article...

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Reposted by Paul Leyland

Tara Murphy @taramurphy.bsky.social · Aug 25

The Australasian Dark Sky Alliance have created a petition to get the Aust. Govt to create legislation that limits light pollution and preserve Australia's Dark skies. Important for human health, wildlife and #Astronomy!

Australians can sign here: www.aph.gov.au/e-petitions/...

🔭☄️

e-petitions

www.aph.gov.au

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Reposted by Paul Leyland

Huei Sears, PhD 🌟 @starlights.bsky.social · Aug 22

what a fantastic discovery !!!

🧪☄️🔭

SETI Institute @setiinstitute.bsky.social · Aug 22

#PPOD: Astronomers using NASA’s JWST discovered a new moon orbiting Uranus in images taken by Webb’s NIRCam. This image shows the moon, designated S/2025 U1, as well as 13 of the 28 other known moons. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, M. El Moutamid (SwRI), M. Hedman (University of Idaho) 🧪 🔭

Text: James Webb Space Telescope, Uranus, Discovery of moon S/2025 U1. Picture of Uranus, surrounded by its ring system and 13 bright dots and one faint one. The dots are labeled as known moons. The faint dot is circles and labeled S/2025 U1.

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Reposted by Paul Leyland

Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans @astroroyalscot.bsky.social · Aug 15

Gosh where to even start!
🤯Jupiter and Venus are very far away from Earth. They are definitely not shining in front of the moon! 😂
↙️ Yes Jupiter & Venus are close in the sky today if you're awake at ~4am, but tonight the moon is far off to the right.
🤓 On Aug 20th they'll be closer ↘️
📷:Stellarium 🔭🧪

A Sky map for the 15th August pointing East showing Venus, Jupiter, and the moon. People who know their constellations will also identify Orion rising just above the horizon.

From https://stellarium-web.org

A sky map for the 20th August showing the moon, Jupiter and Venus forming a nice triangle. The moon will be just a sliver though in its crescent form.

From https://stellarium-web.org

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Paul Leyland @brnikat.bsky.social · Aug 12

I have imaged the Cosmic Horseshoe. Remarkably enough it is with range of amateur astronomers. However, it is not an easy target.

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Paul Leyland @brnikat.bsky.social · Aug 12

Thanks for the correction. I am very poor at distinguishing between the various sauropod species.

Paul Leyland @brnikat.bsky.social · Aug 12

The illustration may, er, illustrate a problem. The apatosaurus went extinct many million years before the KT event.

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Reposted by Paul Leyland

Science Magazine @science.org · Aug 10

The appearance of large language models caused a drastic shift in the vocabulary of academic writing, according to an analysis in #ScienceAdvances of more than 15 million biomedical abstracts published from 2010 to 2024.

Learn more:

Delving into LLM-assisted writing in biomedical publications through excess vocabulary

Large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT can generate and revise text with human-level performance. These models come with clear limitations, can produce inaccurate information, and reinforce existing biases.

scim.ag

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Paul Leyland @brnikat.bsky.social · Aug 10

Joe Barry @joebarry.bsky.social · Aug 10

Hilarious and devastating take down of Avi Loeb's tiresome "It's alien technology!" nonsense. 🔭 👽🛸

#astronomy #aliens #science #ufo #uap #skeptic

Steve Desch @deschscoveries.bsky.social · Aug 8

I have a complaint about Avi Loeb's latest work and I want to speak to management.

medium.com/@steve.desch...

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Paul Leyland @brnikat.bsky.social · Aug 8

As would I. A probe to alpha Cen will take decades even if the technology were available right now.

The much better surveys will take place anyway, despite the present US adminstration's efforts to gut the US scientific capabilities. Europe, China, India, Japan et al. will continue regardless.