Frank GoBell
LightNews LightNews
banner
frankgobell.bsky.social
Frank GoBell
@frankgobell.bsky.social
160 followers 130 following 75 posts
Owned by basset hounds. Science, comic books, and Beatles nerd.
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Frank GoBell
stsci.edu
We have a last-minute gift idea for the space lover in your life! 🎁 Print and frame this poster featuring an image of Pismis 24—a sparkling scene of star birth—captured by #NASAWebb.

The holiday clock is ticking—download the poster now: https://bit.ly/4jfYYNM 🔭
A vertically oriented poster with an image of Pismis 24 against a black background. A dark blue sky filled with white and yellow stars of different sizes covers about two thirds of the image. Across the bottom third of the scene are orange, mountain-like clouds with spire-like peaks that point toward a wispy white cloud which stretches horizontally across the scene. Dense clouds of a similar color are spread about the top right corner of the image. Along the bottom is a series of thin vertical bars ranging from purple at left to blue, green, yellow, orange, and red at right. Bars are separated slightly, with black in between. Bar colors are brightest at the bottom, fading up to black. Brightness varies from bar to bar, giving the array an undulating feel. At upper right is text that reads, “National Aeronautics and Space Administration” and NASA’s blue, white, and red meatball insignia. Title text appears at lower left that says, “James Webb Space Telescope: Pismis 24.”
December 22, 2025 at 4:18 PM
Reposted by Frank GoBell
apnews.com
Most Americans aren’t making end-of-year charitable giving plans, according to the results of a new AP-NORC poll, despite the many fundraising appeals from nonprofits that rely on donation surges in the calendar’s final month.
Most US adults aren't making year-end charitable contributions, new AP-NORC poll finds
A new AP-NORC poll finds that most Americans aren’t making end-of-year charitable giving plans, despite the many fundraising appeals made by nonprofits that rely on donation surges in the calendar’s final month to reach next year’s budget targets.
bit.ly
December 22, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Reposted by Frank GoBell
stsci.edu
How can you use the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope?

Once Roman begins its science operations in 2027, all of its data will be available freely and rapidly—there is no proprietary period. This is a survey mission, so there will be quite a lot to review: bit.ly/4pIeaFJ 🔭 ☄️
The Roman Space Telescope is shown against a space background, with words at top: Prepare for Research.
December 22, 2025 at 3:03 PM
Reposted by Frank GoBell
philplait.bsky.social
I gripe a little bit about the ambiguity of the word "day" — astronomically speaking, of course — and also present you with a *gorgeous* Hubble shot of a face-spiral galaxy that turns out to be part of the puzzle that tells us how the universe expands.

badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/happy-sols...

🔭 🧪
Happy solstice, and a gorgeous galaxy with which to measure the Universe
The longest night is now behind us, and a Hubble image of a galaxy used as a ruler
badastronomy.beehiiv.com
December 22, 2025 at 3:33 PM
Reposted by Frank GoBell
planetplanet.bsky.social
My new paper with Nate Kaib explores what triggered the dynamical instability that took place among the giant planets in the young Solar System.

We show that the flyby of a low-mass brown dwarf or free-floating planet could have done it (probability ~5%).

ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2025arXi...
December 22, 2025 at 12:21 PM
Reposted by Frank GoBell
gusterbear.bsky.social
Hihihi. Kid decorated Christmas cookies! Karls helped and received frosting and sprinkles!
December 22, 2025 at 4:52 AM
Reposted by Frank GoBell
apod.shinyakato.dev
🔭 Sunset Solstice over Stonehenge

Image Credit & Copyright: English Heritage, Josh Dury

apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap25122...
The sun is setting across a field in a clear sky. In the field are the famous stones of Stonehenge. The Sun peaks out from the center of the stone array. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.
December 22, 2025 at 8:00 AM
Reposted by Frank GoBell
gusterbear.bsky.social
Hihihi. Kid says “why are you standing in rain Karls?” Karls is very busy doing portant baby things.
December 22, 2025 at 1:54 AM
Reposted by Frank GoBell
gusterbear.bsky.social
Hihihi. Karls received DUCK TOY from @andyandfrankie.bsky.social and is best toy ever!!!
December 21, 2025 at 6:23 AM
Reposted by Frank GoBell
stsci.edu
Flying through #Dulles Airport this week? Don't forget to check out the new James Webb Space Telescope exhibit in the corridor between the Metro station and the main terminal.

If you missed it, you can still read about it: https://www.stsci.edu/contents/news-releases/2025/news-2025-403 🔭
December 20, 2025 at 4:59 PM
Reposted by Frank GoBell
gusterbear.bsky.social
Hihihi. Karls does not care that it is rainy and freezy. Is yardtimes! Luther disagrees. Says is blankettimes.
December 19, 2025 at 11:15 PM
Reposted by Frank GoBell
philplait.bsky.social
This article in the QP below doesn't mention the time RFK Jr.'s actions led to dozens of children in Samoa dying of a preventable illness, but I'll point you to it.

www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...
December 19, 2025 at 7:32 PM
Reposted by Frank GoBell
philplait.bsky.social
Moving forward, using all my breath

Debunking pop songs, science always second best

www.scientificamerican.com/article/if-i...

🧪 🔭
If I Stop the World, Will I Melt with You?
Depending on how you look at it, this catchphrase from a 1980s pop song is decently accurate: you can actually melt the planet if you stop its turning
www.scientificamerican.com
December 19, 2025 at 3:44 PM
Reposted by Frank GoBell
stsci.edu
We’re going back to the late 1900s! 🧓🏻 In 1994, astronomers found conclusive evidence for a supermassive black hole in the center of the giant elliptical galaxy M87 in Hubble images: https://go.nasa.gov/43c9C1d 🔭 🧪
Gas disk in the nucleus of active galaxy M87, as captured by the Hubble Space Telescope using the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2. A grainy orange haze fills the frame. In the center is a bright nucleus surrounded by a spiral-like structure, the disk. A thin stream of orange, clumpy material, a jet, emerges from the nucleus and continues diagonally to the upper right corner of the frame. A pullout shows more details in the area around the nucleus.
December 19, 2025 at 2:51 PM
Reposted by Frank GoBell
gusterbear.bsky.social
Hihihi. Sometimes Karls is stuck on smol landing. (Do not tell Kid! If Kid asks Karls is NOT STUCK!)
December 19, 2025 at 6:57 AM
Reposted by Frank GoBell
apod.shinyakato.dev
🔭 Long Shadows of the Montes Caucasus

Image Credit & Copyright: Guy Bardon

apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap25121...
When the Moon is at its first quarter phase, the Sun rises along the Montes Caucasus as seen from the lunar surface. The lunar mountain range casts the magnificent, spire-like shadows in this telescopic view from planet Earth, looking along the lunar terminator or the boundary between lunar night and day. Named for Earth's own Caucasus Mountains, the rugged lunar Montes Caucasus peaks, up to 6 kilometers high, are located between the smooth Mare Imbrium to the west and Mare Serenitatis to the east. Still mostly in shadow in this first quarter lunarscape, at the left (west) impact craters reflect the light of the rising Sun along their outer, eastern crater walls.
December 19, 2025 at 8:00 AM
Reposted by Frank GoBell
gusterbear.bsky.social
Hihihi. Karls is doing smol silly snooze.
December 19, 2025 at 4:13 AM
Reposted by Frank GoBell
gabrbassets.bsky.social
Aarrhhoooo! If you're looking for a couch buddy, loyal shadow, and professional eater, look no further- 6yr old House is the #BassetHound for you!
www.bassetrescue.org/homeless

#AdoptDontShop #Basset #RESCUE #BassetsOfBlueSky #DogsOfBlueSky
December 18, 2025 at 10:43 PM
Reposted by Frank GoBell
rbreich.bsky.social
Elon Musk’s net worth has now surpassed $600 billion, just weeks after Tesla approved his 10-year, $1 trillion pay package.

That could amount to $100 billion per year — more than 1.4 million elementary school teachers’ paychecks combined.

Still wondering if inequality is out of control?
December 18, 2025 at 7:45 PM
Reposted by Frank GoBell
stsci.edu
NEWS: For the first time, astronomers using Hubble have witnessed catastrophic collisions in a nearby planetary system around the star Fomalhaut. As shown in this animation, the evidence is in the form of expanding dust clouds: https://bit.ly/42yjnFL 🔭 🧪
December 18, 2025 at 7:10 PM
Reposted by Frank GoBell
rbreich.bsky.social
Trump and Republicans claim they want to "protect children."

But they've rolled back child labor laws and environmental protections, blocked gun safety reform, and spread lies about vaccines that save children from deadly diseases.

Hello?
December 18, 2025 at 5:31 PM
Reposted by Frank GoBell
philplait.bsky.social
When I woke up this morning one thing I noticed right away is that Earth wasn't violently torn to vaporous shreds by a supermassive black hole. So yeah, that's cool.

badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/today-our-...

🔭🧪
Today our planet will not be destroyed. Probably.
I mean, no promises. But it won’t be because the Maya predicted it.
badastronomy.beehiiv.com
December 18, 2025 at 4:13 PM
Reposted by Frank GoBell
apod.shinyakato.dev
🔭 Jupiter and the Meteors from Gemini

Image Credit & Copyright: David Cruz

apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap25121...
Jupiter, the Solar System's ruling gas giant, is the brightest celestial beacon at the center of this composite night skyscape. The scene was constructed by selecting the 40 exposures containing meteors from about 500 exposures made on the nights of December 13 and 14, near peak activity for this year's annual Geminid meteor shower. With each selected exposure registered in the night sky above Alentejo, Portugal, planet Earth, it does look like the meteors are streaming away from Jupiter. But the apparent radiant of the Geminid meteors is actually closer to bright star Castor, in the shower's eponymous constellation Gemini. In this frame that's just a little above and left of the Solar System's most massive planet. Still, the parent body of Geminid meteors is known to be rocky, near-Earth asteroid 3200 Phaethon. And the orbit of Phaethon itself is influenced by the gravitational attraction exerted by massive Jupiter, in concert with planets of the inner Solar System.
December 18, 2025 at 8:00 AM
Reposted by Frank GoBell
gusterbear.bsky.social
Hihihi. Kid says Karls has advanced case of dorables tonight!
December 18, 2025 at 4:35 AM
Reposted by Frank GoBell
rbreich.bsky.social
Almost no new jobs have been added since April and 710,000 more people are unemployed now compared to a year ago.

Meanwhile consumer prices are skyrocketing thanks to Trump's tariffs.

Does this sound like an "A+++++" economy to you?
December 17, 2025 at 6:00 PM