Megan Watzke
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mwatzke.bsky.social
Megan Watzke
@mwatzke.bsky.social
160 followers 220 following 120 posts
I write about science, particularly space and space-related topics. I've written some books already out there and another is on the way. https://www.arcandwatzke.com/
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mwatzke.bsky.social
New Chandra blog on the hunt for Betelgeuse's buddy (companion star). Written by Anna O'Grady and Brendan O'Connor, astronomers from @cmu.edu. chandra.si.edu/blog/node/935
Photos of CMU astronomers Anna O'Grady (left) and Brendan O'Connor (right).
November 13, 2025 at 9:08 PM
mwatzke.bsky.social
Just in time for Halloween, here's the trailer for our new book that goes on sale this February from @sourcebooks.bsky.social! @kimberlykowal.bsky.social
October 30, 2025 at 8:08 PM
mwatzke.bsky.social
The latest issue (and cover!) of @natastron.nature.com features the Chandra X-ray Observatory and its quarter century+ of transforming our understanding of the Universe. www.nature.com/natastron/vo...
The cover of Nature Astronomy featuring an artist's illustration of the Chandra X-ray Observatory.
October 21, 2025 at 3:37 PM
mwatzke.bsky.social
@barnesandnoble.com is running a pre-order sale for our book over the next few days and there's a promo code for 25% off.

It's meant to both gross/scare kids out while giving them some science in the process -- maybe like an astronomy book for Wednesday Addams. ;) @kimberlykowal.bsky.social
A graphic with the cover of "Why Space Will Freak You Out" plus a promo code (PREORDER25). This sale runs from September 3-5.
September 3, 2025 at 1:30 PM
mwatzke.bsky.social
The main panel of this graphic is Chandra data that has been selected to show the location of different elements in the remains of the explosion: silicon (red), sulfur (yellow), calcium (green) and iron (purple). The blue color reveals the highest-energy X-ray emission detected by Chandra in Cas A, with the blue outer ring highlighting the expanding blast wave from the original explosion hundreds of years ago. The inset to the upper left zooms in a smaller region of Cas A. This reveals data collected by Chandra that picks up relative amounts of silicon and neon.
August 29, 2025 at 2:49 PM
mwatzke.bsky.social
There’s a giant hand in space. Ok, not a real hand but instead one made out of energetic particles that glow in X-ray and radio light.

chandra.si.edu/photo/2025/m...

I mean, that mixes up your timeline, does it not?
A composite image of MSH 15-52 made from X-rays from Chandra and radio emission from ATCA. To some people, this nebula resembles the shape of a human hand.
August 20, 2025 at 11:59 PM
mwatzke.bsky.social
An animated gif of the Atari game Kaboom!, circa 1981.
July 18, 2025 at 5:46 PM
mwatzke.bsky.social
Baby exoplanet is being hoovered up by super aggressive host star. Will go from Jupiter size planet to a barren smaller world in short order (astronomically speaking) thanks to the onslaught of X-rays. Latest news from Chandra: chandra.cfa.harvard.edu/press/25_rel...
An artist's illustration of the star (called TOI 1227) that is pummeling a nearby exoplanet (called TOI 1227b) with X-rays. This assault is causing the planet to shrink rapidly -- in astronomical terms.
July 16, 2025 at 5:25 PM
mwatzke.bsky.social
Scientists have discovered an oddly-shaped galaxy that may contain the first newborn supermassive black hole ever spotted. This could have implications for when the biggest black holes can form. Results from JWST + Chandra + VLA.
A composite image of the "Infinity Galaxy" with X-rays from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory (purple) and infrared data from JWST (red, green and blue).
July 15, 2025 at 5:59 PM
mwatzke.bsky.social
How do we know that dark matter is real? One of the best ways is from the Bullet Cluster, where we can see where dark matter has been wrenched apart from the regular stuff. New image from JWST and Chandra. chandra.si.edu/photo/2025/b...
Image of the Bullet Cluster with X-rays from Chandra in pink, near infrared data from JWST in yellow and white, and a map of dark matter in blue.
June 30, 2025 at 4:28 PM
mwatzke.bsky.social
Latest from the Chandra X-ray Observatory and radio telescopes: is it a pulsar or a magnetar or some weird white dwarf? We don't know but astronomers are trying to find out. Paper in today's Nature. chandra.si.edu/press/25_rel...
X-rays from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory (represented in blue) have been combined with infrared data from NASA’s retired Spitzer Space Telescope (cyan, light blue, teal and orange), and radio from LOFAR (red). A circle shows the location of an unusual object discovered in X-ray and radio light.
May 28, 2025 at 3:24 PM
mwatzke.bsky.social
It doesn't look to me that this accounts for the $60M that goes to Massachusetts for the Chandra X-ray Center (for example), but it's still a handy tool nonetheless.
A graphic that shows the state economic impact from NASA on Massachusetts. For example, it lists NASA supporting 2,747 jobs in MA with an economic output of $718 million.
April 11, 2025 at 6:13 PM
mwatzke.bsky.social
Have you seen a sunrise on the Moon yet? Now you have thanks to Blue Ghost. Oh yeah, NASA has also used this lander to get GPS signals from the Moon.

I never get tired of the amazing things NASA and others can do in space.
Photo captured by Firefly’s Blue Ghost lander of its first sunrise on the Moon, marking the beginning of the lunar day and the start of surface operations in its new home.
March 6, 2025 at 4:19 PM
mwatzke.bsky.social
New story from the Chandra X-ray Observatory. It's got a very 2025 vibe (unintentionally) so take from it what you will.
chandra.si.edu/photo/2025/h...
But hey, we made a new pretty image of the Helix Nebula so we have that, right?
These graphics include a composite image that shows s X-rays from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory (in magenta), optical light data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope (orange, light blue), infrared data from the European Southern Observatory (represented in gold, dark blue), and ultraviolet data from NASA’s GALEX (shown in purple) of the Helix Nebula. At the center of the Helix is a white dwarf, the dim star that remains after the star has shed its outer layers. New data from Chandra indicates that this white dwarf has destroyed an orbiting planet, as depicted in the artist’s concept below. This would explain a mysterious signal in X-rays that astronomers have detected for decades.
March 4, 2025 at 4:05 PM
mwatzke.bsky.social
Astronomers have found 74 cometary belts around other stars (known as "exocomets") using radio telescopes. All of these stars are relatively nearby and they range in age from very young to middle-aged like our Sun.
www.cfa.harvard.edu/news/astrono...
Images of 74 different stars with cometary belts or zones around them made using two different radio telescope arrays, the Submillimeter Array and ALMA.
February 11, 2025 at 6:07 PM
mwatzke.bsky.social
Black holes can figure out how to eat themselves, thank you very much. Latest from the Chandra X-ray Observatory and optical telescopes. #space
chandra.cfa.harvard.edu/photo/2025/f...
Astronomers have taken a crucial step in showing that the most massive black holes in the universe can create their own meals. Using data from Chandra (blue) and optical light data (red and orange), this study, based on observations of seven galaxies clusters in total, provides new evidence that outbursts from black holes can cool down gas to feed themselves. Massive galaxies at the centers of the clusters contain huge black holes that power outbursts in the form of jets, driven by the black holes feasting on gas. These side-by-side images show the Perseus galaxy cluster on the left and the Centaurus cluster on the right, two of the seven clusters in the new survey.
January 27, 2025 at 7:45 PM
mwatzke.bsky.social
What chance does life have around the most common type of star in the Universe? The latest from Chandra gives us clues. #aas245 chandra.si.edu/photo/2025/w...
January 16, 2025 at 3:46 PM
mwatzke.bsky.social
Wanna see a cloud in 3D near the center of our Galaxy? Of course you do. chandra.si.edu/photo/2025/c...
This image represents a study using decades of data to learn about the 3D structure of molecular clouds in the center of the Milky Way. The panorama in this graphic contains radio data from the Submillimeter Array (green), and infrared from the Herschel Space Telescope (red), and the Spitzer Space Telescope (blue). The inset shows the X-ray data from a molecular cloud from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.
January 16, 2025 at 2:19 PM
mwatzke.bsky.social
Vincent Van Gogh’s Starry Night painting
January 14, 2025 at 7:47 PM
mwatzke.bsky.social
Here's a new cosmic 'wreath' made up of X-rays from Chandra and infrared from JWST. Its real name is NGC 602. chandra.si.edu/photo/2024/n...
Composite image of star-forming cluster NGC 602 with X-rays from Chandra (red) and infrared data from JWST.
December 17, 2024 at 3:53 PM
mwatzke.bsky.social
Our book on light — all kinds of it including most of what’s invisible — is now available in paperback. For sale in the usual book places
Cover to our book “Light: The Visible Spectrum and Beyond”
December 13, 2024 at 3:10 AM
mwatzke.bsky.social
Normally found only in heavy metal bands or certain post-apocalyptic films, a “flame-throwing guitar” has now been spotted moving through space. chandra.si.edu/photo/2024/g...
The new movie of Chandra (red) and Palomar (blue) data helps break down what is playing out in the Guitar Nebula. X-rays from Chandra show a filament of energetic matter and antimatter particles, about two light-years or 12 trillion miles long, blasting away from the pulsar (seen as the bright white dot connected to the filament).
November 26, 2024 at 3:31 PM
mwatzke.bsky.social
November 16, 2024 at 4:59 PM
mwatzke.bsky.social
Some cosmic perspective this Friday. Here's the center of our Milky Way galaxy (seen in X-rays from NASA's Chandra). We're about 26,000 light-years away, like being in the galactic suburbs to the Milky Way's downtown.
A panorama of the Galactic Center builds on previous surveys from Chandra and other telescopes. This latest version expands Chandra's high-energy view farther above and below the plane of the galaxy — that is, the disk where most of the galaxy's stars reside — than previous imaging campaigns. In the first two images, X-rays from Chandra are orange, green, and purple, showing different X-ray energies.
November 15, 2024 at 3:53 PM
mwatzke.bsky.social
The Crab Nebula is the result of a bright supernova explosion witnessed by Chinese and other astronomers in 1054 A.D. X-rays from the Chandra X-ray Observatory (blue-violet and white) and IXPE (purple); optical from Hubble (red, green, and blue).
This composite image features the remnant of a supernova explosion, which resembles a neon purple mushroom at the heart of a colorful web of veins and filaments. Known as the Crab Nebula, the heavily veined blue and red cloud of gas is set against the blackness of space. At the core of the nebula is a pulsar, a rotating neutron star emitting electromagnetic radiation. Here, the pulsar appears as a bright white dot sitting in a neon purple cloud. Surrounding the dot are white rings. These are created by particles driven away from the pulsar and colliding with gas in the nebula to produce X-rays. From this angle, the rings and purple cloud combine to resemble a mushroom cap. Completing the look of a mushroom is a thin mushroom stem emerging from the white dot. This is a narrow beam of particles blasting away from the pulsar.
November 14, 2024 at 1:59 PM