Jason Wright
@astrowright.bsky.social
Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at Penn State.
Son, father, partner, scientist, teacher, student, human, Earthling.
Mostly posting astronomy. Mostly.
Son, father, partner, scientist, teacher, student, human, Earthling.
Mostly posting astronomy. Mostly.
Pinned
Reposted by Jason Wright
See www.facebook.com/christoph.ge... for a good image from this morning: stubby antitail to the left, classical plasma tail to right, all as expected from a neat comet and the viewing geometry right now. Why is there even a question to be answered?
Christoph Gerhard
Der interstellare Komet 3I am 16.11.2025 um 5:02 UT nur 5° vom Mond entfernt. Dennoch ist sein Staubschweif und der etwas mehr als 10'lange Ionenschweif zu sehen. Mit einer Helligkeit von 11 mag im...
www.facebook.com
November 16, 2025 at 8:37 PM
See www.facebook.com/christoph.ge... for a good image from this morning: stubby antitail to the left, classical plasma tail to right, all as expected from a neat comet and the viewing geometry right now. Why is there even a question to be answered?
Reposted by Jason Wright
3I/ATLAS is the first interstellar object bright enough for amateurs to image: so fabulous to see the delight ☄️😍
I got it... I actually got it... Interstellar comet 3i, imaged from the middle of light-polluted Kendal, at 6am this morning, using my Seestar S50... This comet was already billions of years old before our Sun was even *born*... Very chuffed with this!
November 16, 2025 at 8:51 AM
3I/ATLAS is the first interstellar object bright enough for amateurs to image: so fabulous to see the delight ☄️😍
Reposted by Jason Wright
Congratulations! Your students know more about comets than Avi Loeb!
This! Here's a slide pulled from my class lecture notes this semester. Comets have two clear tails - one from dust and one from ions. They point in different directions because one feels the solar wind while the other feels radiation pressure.
November 14, 2025 at 4:36 PM
Congratulations! Your students know more about comets than Avi Loeb!
Reposted by Jason Wright
This! Here's a slide pulled from my class lecture notes this semester. Comets have two clear tails - one from dust and one from ions. They point in different directions because one feels the solar wind while the other feels radiation pressure.
November 14, 2025 at 4:03 PM
This! Here's a slide pulled from my class lecture notes this semester. Comets have two clear tails - one from dust and one from ions. They point in different directions because one feels the solar wind while the other feels radiation pressure.
Reposted by Jason Wright
Avi Loeb's calculations about 3I/ATLAS are 100% wrong because he has never understood that dust in the tail(s) responds to solar radiation pressure. Solar wind shapes the ion tail. But the radiation pressure is about 1000 times larger than the solar wind ram pressure, for particles that feel it.
November 13, 2025 at 9:36 PM
Avi Loeb's calculations about 3I/ATLAS are 100% wrong because he has never understood that dust in the tail(s) responds to solar radiation pressure. Solar wind shapes the ion tail. But the radiation pressure is about 1000 times larger than the solar wind ram pressure, for particles that feel it.
Reposted by Jason Wright
I focused on the -S tail in the second point because I was trying to demonstrate that Avi wasn't applying the most basic comet knowledge to his work. Overall, my point is that he's making mistakes that don't even require significant experience with cometary astronomy.
November 13, 2025 at 10:23 PM
I focused on the -S tail in the second point because I was trying to demonstrate that Avi wasn't applying the most basic comet knowledge to his work. Overall, my point is that he's making mistakes that don't even require significant experience with cometary astronomy.
I had been composing something like this in my head, but this is so much better than what I would have written! Quite spot on.
"The fallacies behind the cult of Loeb"
New entry in my blog. Other articles have covered the scientific aspects; this one reflects on the social phenomenon. I argue it’s driven by a series of fallacies
tinieblasyestrellas.blogspot.com/2025/11/the-...
New entry in my blog. Other articles have covered the scientific aspects; this one reflects on the social phenomenon. I argue it’s driven by a series of fallacies
tinieblasyestrellas.blogspot.com/2025/11/the-...
The fallacies behind the cult of Loeb
How media hype and misunderstanding fuel pseudoscientific fascination Introduction The word “cult” is used here in the sense given by...
tinieblasyestrellas.blogspot.com
November 13, 2025 at 4:37 PM
I had been composing something like this in my head, but this is so much better than what I would have written! Quite spot on.
Reposted by Jason Wright
"The fallacies behind the cult of Loeb"
New entry in my blog. Other articles have covered the scientific aspects; this one reflects on the social phenomenon. I argue it’s driven by a series of fallacies
tinieblasyestrellas.blogspot.com/2025/11/the-...
New entry in my blog. Other articles have covered the scientific aspects; this one reflects on the social phenomenon. I argue it’s driven by a series of fallacies
tinieblasyestrellas.blogspot.com/2025/11/the-...
The fallacies behind the cult of Loeb
How media hype and misunderstanding fuel pseudoscientific fascination Introduction The word “cult” is used here in the sense given by...
tinieblasyestrellas.blogspot.com
November 13, 2025 at 11:09 AM
"The fallacies behind the cult of Loeb"
New entry in my blog. Other articles have covered the scientific aspects; this one reflects on the social phenomenon. I argue it’s driven by a series of fallacies
tinieblasyestrellas.blogspot.com/2025/11/the-...
New entry in my blog. Other articles have covered the scientific aspects; this one reflects on the social phenomenon. I argue it’s driven by a series of fallacies
tinieblasyestrellas.blogspot.com/2025/11/the-...
Any planetary scientists want to help me out with Avi's latest?
avi-loeb.medium.com/3i-atlas-is-...
3I/ATLAS has apparently passed his new totally-made-up test for being a spacecraft. I don't think anyone is surprised it's still in one piece but we're way outside my (and his) expertise here.
🔭🧪
avi-loeb.medium.com/3i-atlas-is-...
3I/ATLAS has apparently passed his new totally-made-up test for being a spacecraft. I don't think anyone is surprised it's still in one piece but we're way outside my (and his) expertise here.
🔭🧪
3I/ATLAS is Still a Single Body with a Sunward Anti-Tail After Perihelion!
Breaking News: The interstellar object 3I/ATLAS did not break up near the Sun.
avi-loeb.medium.com
November 13, 2025 at 2:59 AM
Any planetary scientists want to help me out with Avi's latest?
avi-loeb.medium.com/3i-atlas-is-...
3I/ATLAS has apparently passed his new totally-made-up test for being a spacecraft. I don't think anyone is surprised it's still in one piece but we're way outside my (and his) expertise here.
🔭🧪
avi-loeb.medium.com/3i-atlas-is-...
3I/ATLAS has apparently passed his new totally-made-up test for being a spacecraft. I don't think anyone is surprised it's still in one piece but we're way outside my (and his) expertise here.
🔭🧪
Reposted by Jason Wright
Deeply happy to have been asked to give a plenary at the 15th Asteroids Comets Meteors conference next year, on 'Interstellar visitors: An overview of observational and theoretical studies with emphasis on 3I/ATLAS'.
November 12, 2025 at 9:28 AM
Deeply happy to have been asked to give a plenary at the 15th Asteroids Comets Meteors conference next year, on 'Interstellar visitors: An overview of observational and theoretical studies with emphasis on 3I/ATLAS'.
Amid all the hype and counter-hype, let’s make sure we forefront all the amazing work being done to study our new interstellar visitor!
www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-...
www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-...
The Race to Study an Interstellar Comet from Deep Space
Astronomers are hustling to use interplanetary spacecraft to study the interstellar comet dubbed 3I/ATLAS while the sun is hiding it from Earth
www.scientificamerican.com
November 11, 2025 at 11:50 PM
Amid all the hype and counter-hype, let’s make sure we forefront all the amazing work being done to study our new interstellar visitor!
www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-...
www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-...
Reposted by Jason Wright
And here's this morning's 3I/ATLAS image from Italy ☄️ www.virtualtelescope.eu/2025/11/11/i...
Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS (aka C/2025 N1 ATLAS): the ion tail is getting longer - 11 Nov. 2025. - The Virtual Telescope Project 2.0
Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS is showing a nice ion tail in this 11 Nov. 2025, taken by Gianluca Masi, Virtual Telescope Project.
www.virtualtelescope.eu
November 11, 2025 at 8:50 PM
And here's this morning's 3I/ATLAS image from Italy ☄️ www.virtualtelescope.eu/2025/11/11/i...
Reposted by Jason Wright
There are some nice amateur/semi-pro images coming in from small telescopes, who routinely try for low-elongation images: groups in Spain and Italy have imaged 3I/ATLAS's ion tail. ☄️
Interstellar Comet 3I At 9.11.2025 Shows Nice Tail Structures
spaceweathergallery2.com
November 11, 2025 at 8:36 PM
There are some nice amateur/semi-pro images coming in from small telescopes, who routinely try for low-elongation images: groups in Spain and Italy have imaged 3I/ATLAS's ion tail. ☄️
Reposted by Jason Wright
For Earth-based observers, bright sky background around full Moon, and geometry where comet 3I/ATLAS is close on the sky to the Sun, means it's taking a few days for big optical telescopes to get back on the job. All very standard, it's what happens for moving objects.
November 11, 2025 at 8:27 PM
For Earth-based observers, bright sky background around full Moon, and geometry where comet 3I/ATLAS is close on the sky to the Sun, means it's taking a few days for big optical telescopes to get back on the job. All very standard, it's what happens for moving objects.
Reposted by Jason Wright
Avi Loeb really is the Dr. Oz of astronomy now. Impressive CV but full of pseudoscience so no one in the field likes him any more. 🔭
I've summarized the truth about Loeb's 10 "anomalies" about 3I/ATLAS in one post.
Thanks to @deschscoveries.bsky.social @michael-w-busch.bsky.social @cometary.org and @marshall-eubanks.bsky.social for contributing their expertise!
Thanks to @deschscoveries.bsky.social @michael-w-busch.bsky.social @cometary.org and @marshall-eubanks.bsky.social for contributing their expertise!
Loeb’s 3I/ATLAS “Anomalies” Explained
Avi Loeb continues to claim that 3I/ATLAS has many anomalous behaviors that lead to the conclusion that it “might” be an alien spacecraft. He carefully hedges the probability that it is a spacecraft ...
sites.psu.edu
November 11, 2025 at 12:23 AM
Avi Loeb really is the Dr. Oz of astronomy now. Impressive CV but full of pseudoscience so no one in the field likes him any more. 🔭
Reposted by Jason Wright
For those who keep asking me about 3I/ATLAS, here's a great writeup by my friend
@astrowright.bsky.social
sites.psu.edu/astrowright/...
@astrowright.bsky.social
sites.psu.edu/astrowright/...
Loeb’s 3I/ATLAS “Anomalies” Explained
Avi Loeb continues to claim that 3I/ATLAS has many anomalous behaviors that lead to the conclusion that it “might” be an alien spacecraft. He carefully hedges the probability that it is a spacecraft ...
sites.psu.edu
November 11, 2025 at 12:03 AM
For those who keep asking me about 3I/ATLAS, here's a great writeup by my friend
@astrowright.bsky.social
sites.psu.edu/astrowright/...
@astrowright.bsky.social
sites.psu.edu/astrowright/...
Reposted by Jason Wright
…and his paranoid fearmongering about the risks of alien invasion? These are pseudoscience-conspiracy theories dressed in the language of science. (4/7)
November 10, 2025 at 11:43 PM
…and his paranoid fearmongering about the risks of alien invasion? These are pseudoscience-conspiracy theories dressed in the language of science. (4/7)
Reposted by Jason Wright
It is conceivable that an object seen entering our solar system could be an alien artifact. But Dr. Loeb’s overt eagerness to interpret all ambiguous or slightly unusual data as promising signs of alien invasion… (3/7)
November 10, 2025 at 11:42 PM
It is conceivable that an object seen entering our solar system could be an alien artifact. But Dr. Loeb’s overt eagerness to interpret all ambiguous or slightly unusual data as promising signs of alien invasion… (3/7)
Reposted by Jason Wright
Why are planetary scientists, astrobiologists and and SETI scientists so negative (pissed off, even) about Avi Loeb’s repeated claims that 3I/Atlas may be an invading alien spaceship?
🧵
🧪🔭🛸
(1/7)
🧵
🧪🔭🛸
(1/7)
November 10, 2025 at 11:41 PM
Why are planetary scientists, astrobiologists and and SETI scientists so negative (pissed off, even) about Avi Loeb’s repeated claims that 3I/Atlas may be an invading alien spaceship?
🧵
🧪🔭🛸
(1/7)
🧵
🧪🔭🛸
(1/7)
Reposted by Jason Wright
Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS was born with different and more ancient chemistry, has been more irradiated, and is speeding toward the Sun faster compared to Solar System comets. It's got a unique personality. But since literally Day 1 it was recognized as a comet and has only ever done comety things.
I've summarized the truth about Loeb's 10 "anomalies" about 3I/ATLAS in one post.
Thanks to @deschscoveries.bsky.social @michael-w-busch.bsky.social @cometary.org and @marshall-eubanks.bsky.social for contributing their expertise!
Thanks to @deschscoveries.bsky.social @michael-w-busch.bsky.social @cometary.org and @marshall-eubanks.bsky.social for contributing their expertise!
Loeb’s 3I/ATLAS “Anomalies” Explained
Avi Loeb continues to claim that 3I/ATLAS has many anomalous behaviors that lead to the conclusion that it “might” be an alien spacecraft. He carefully hedges the probability that it is a spacecraft ...
sites.psu.edu
November 10, 2025 at 6:29 PM
Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS was born with different and more ancient chemistry, has been more irradiated, and is speeding toward the Sun faster compared to Solar System comets. It's got a unique personality. But since literally Day 1 it was recognized as a comet and has only ever done comety things.
I've summarized the truth about Loeb's 10 "anomalies" about 3I/ATLAS in one post.
Thanks to @deschscoveries.bsky.social @michael-w-busch.bsky.social @cometary.org and @marshall-eubanks.bsky.social for contributing their expertise!
Thanks to @deschscoveries.bsky.social @michael-w-busch.bsky.social @cometary.org and @marshall-eubanks.bsky.social for contributing their expertise!
Loeb’s 3I/ATLAS “Anomalies” Explained
Avi Loeb continues to claim that 3I/ATLAS has many anomalous behaviors that lead to the conclusion that it “might” be an alien spacecraft. He carefully hedges the probability that it is a spacecraft ...
sites.psu.edu
November 10, 2025 at 12:22 AM
I've summarized the truth about Loeb's 10 "anomalies" about 3I/ATLAS in one post.
Thanks to @deschscoveries.bsky.social @michael-w-busch.bsky.social @cometary.org and @marshall-eubanks.bsky.social for contributing their expertise!
Thanks to @deschscoveries.bsky.social @michael-w-busch.bsky.social @cometary.org and @marshall-eubanks.bsky.social for contributing their expertise!
Reposted by Jason Wright
New morphology in the tail of comet 3I/Atlas will inevitably be spun by the quack Avi Loeb as some evidence of alien activity. This is nothing new, we've seen similar behavior in other comes including 17P, C/2016 R2, and C/1961 R1, and others. It's ionized carbon monoxide. #3I #3I/Atlas #Comet 🔭
November 8, 2025 at 7:24 PM
Suddenly feeling very lucky that I plan to drive this holiday season and uncharacteristically have no flights planned until January.
November 7, 2025 at 2:03 AM
Suddenly feeling very lucky that I plan to drive this holiday season and uncharacteristically have no flights planned until January.
Obviously I use my undergraduate STEM classes in my job all them time. But the course I use the *most* in my job was a writing class, and the ones that I think distinguish me as a scientist and enrich my enjoyment of life are all humanities and social sciences.
No opinion about this specific claim, but I do think we need more humanities in our lives and hearts and minds. And more arts. More history, more literature, more painting, more moral philosophy, more poetry. More thinking about and cherishing what makes human life special.
I don’t know about you but I sincerely believe that Zohran Mamdani’s BA Major in Africana Studies enabled him to understand our current conjuncture & its demands of justice. Humanities shape minds & in his case for the better.
I know white tech bros disagree as they continue to collapse our worlds.
I know white tech bros disagree as they continue to collapse our worlds.
November 7, 2025 at 1:59 AM
Obviously I use my undergraduate STEM classes in my job all them time. But the course I use the *most* in my job was a writing class, and the ones that I think distinguish me as a scientist and enrich my enjoyment of life are all humanities and social sciences.