Huei Sears, PhD 🌟
@starlights.bsky.social
✨ she/her ✨ astrophysicist studying supernovae + GRBs ✨ reputation is my favorite album ✨
Reposted by Huei Sears, PhD 🌟
From @noirlabastro.bsky.social: The wildlife near our observatories didn’t sign up for the night shift. These neighbors are part of the unique ecosystems that surround our sites in Chile. We’re guests in their home, so we keep the lights low, and the camera zooms high. #astronomy
📷NOIRLab/NSF/AURA
📷NOIRLab/NSF/AURA
November 18, 2025 at 3:04 PM
From @noirlabastro.bsky.social: The wildlife near our observatories didn’t sign up for the night shift. These neighbors are part of the unique ecosystems that surround our sites in Chile. We’re guests in their home, so we keep the lights low, and the camera zooms high. #astronomy
📷NOIRLab/NSF/AURA
📷NOIRLab/NSF/AURA
rain in the desert is always such a magical, surreal experience
November 20, 2025 at 6:38 AM
rain in the desert is always such a magical, surreal experience
Reposted by Huei Sears, PhD 🌟
To finish it off, I've also done an annotated version of the paper complete with silly drawings and accessible language! These are inspired by @clairelamman.bsky.social , and you can read this and more here: ryanwhite1.github.io/wolf-rayet.h...
4/4 ⚛️🔭🧪
4/4 ⚛️🔭🧪
November 19, 2025 at 10:18 PM
To finish it off, I've also done an annotated version of the paper complete with silly drawings and accessible language! These are inspired by @clairelamman.bsky.social , and you can read this and more here: ryanwhite1.github.io/wolf-rayet.h...
4/4 ⚛️🔭🧪
4/4 ⚛️🔭🧪
Reposted by Huei Sears, PhD 🌟
Very excited to share the NASA/ESA/STScI press release of our team's work on Apep! It's a terrific writeup, complete with a brand new beautiful visualisation of the nebula geometry.
1/? ⚛️🔭🧪
science.nasa.gov/missions/web...
1/? ⚛️🔭🧪
science.nasa.gov/missions/web...
Webb First to Show 4 Dust Shells 'Spiraling' Apep, Limits Long Orbit - NASA Science
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has delivered a first of its kind: a crisp mid-infrared image of a system of four serpentine spirals of dust, one expanding
science.nasa.gov
November 19, 2025 at 10:08 PM
Very excited to share the NASA/ESA/STScI press release of our team's work on Apep! It's a terrific writeup, complete with a brand new beautiful visualisation of the nebula geometry.
1/? ⚛️🔭🧪
science.nasa.gov/missions/web...
1/? ⚛️🔭🧪
science.nasa.gov/missions/web...
Reposted by Huei Sears, PhD 🌟
This is not what the problem is. We have many excellent, talented, engaging science communicators.
Their reach is deliberately truncated by the social media companies, and billionaire-owned news outlets do not platform them.
Their reach is deliberately truncated by the social media companies, and billionaire-owned news outlets do not platform them.
Scientists are partly to blame by not learning to effectively communicate in lay language on modern communication channels. That information void is then ripe for disinformation to fill.
Embed lay comms & accessibility skills into academia.
Embed lay comms & accessibility skills into academia.
November 19, 2025 at 11:18 PM
This is not what the problem is. We have many excellent, talented, engaging science communicators.
Their reach is deliberately truncated by the social media companies, and billionaire-owned news outlets do not platform them.
Their reach is deliberately truncated by the social media companies, and billionaire-owned news outlets do not platform them.
Reposted by Huei Sears, PhD 🌟
NRAO Doctoral Dissertation Award - Applications Now Open!
The $1500 Award will be be given each year to a recent recipient of a doctoral degree and is based on new radio astronomy data.
🚨 Application Deadline: December 15, 2025
The $1500 Award will be be given each year to a recent recipient of a doctoral degree and is based on new radio astronomy data.
🚨 Application Deadline: December 15, 2025
The NRAO Doctoral Dissertation Award
science.nrao.edu
November 19, 2025 at 11:41 PM
NRAO Doctoral Dissertation Award - Applications Now Open!
The $1500 Award will be be given each year to a recent recipient of a doctoral degree and is based on new radio astronomy data.
🚨 Application Deadline: December 15, 2025
The $1500 Award will be be given each year to a recent recipient of a doctoral degree and is based on new radio astronomy data.
🚨 Application Deadline: December 15, 2025
Reposted by Huei Sears, PhD 🌟
Just want to emphasize here that this is an image of an INTERSTELLAR COMET taken by a camera orbiting MARS. Space is so cool!
NASA's pix of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS are now up science.nasa.gov/solar-system...
This is the HiRISE/MRO image ⬇️
This is the HiRISE/MRO image ⬇️
November 19, 2025 at 8:30 PM
Just want to emphasize here that this is an image of an INTERSTELLAR COMET taken by a camera orbiting MARS. Space is so cool!
Reposted by Huei Sears, PhD 🌟
Three #NASAWebb discoveries in ONE! Webb shows there are FOUR dust shells (only one was previously seen), allowing researchers to narrow the stars’ orbit of one another to a LONG 190 years. Plus, they confirmed a third star is part of the “party”: https://bit.ly/4n1tpas 🔭 🧪
November 19, 2025 at 4:02 PM
Three #NASAWebb discoveries in ONE! Webb shows there are FOUR dust shells (only one was previously seen), allowing researchers to narrow the stars’ orbit of one another to a LONG 190 years. Plus, they confirmed a third star is part of the “party”: https://bit.ly/4n1tpas 🔭 🧪
Reposted by Huei Sears, PhD 🌟
I'm glad this is finally out after the government shutdown!
JWST's images of dusty, spiraling shells around Wolf-Rayet star binaries are my favorite.
JWST's images of dusty, spiraling shells around Wolf-Rayet star binaries are my favorite.
Three #NASAWebb discoveries in ONE! Webb shows there are FOUR dust shells (only one was previously seen), allowing researchers to narrow the stars’ orbit of one another to a LONG 190 years. Plus, they confirmed a third star is part of the “party”: https://bit.ly/4n1tpas 🔭 🧪
November 19, 2025 at 4:14 PM
I'm glad this is finally out after the government shutdown!
JWST's images of dusty, spiraling shells around Wolf-Rayet star binaries are my favorite.
JWST's images of dusty, spiraling shells around Wolf-Rayet star binaries are my favorite.
new ESA feature on work incl. @astroryan.bsky.social !! 🧪🔭
Webb has revealed for the first time that there are four shells of dust around this pair of Wolf-Rayet stars, which are known as Apep.
Read more 👉 https://esawebb.org/images/wolf-rayet-apep/
🔭
Read more 👉 https://esawebb.org/images/wolf-rayet-apep/
🔭
November 19, 2025 at 4:05 PM
new ESA feature on work incl. @astroryan.bsky.social !! 🧪🔭
why did yesterday-me agree to this smh
going on a 7:30 AM pre-conference hike tomorrow; tuscon has changed me
November 19, 2025 at 2:10 PM
why did yesterday-me agree to this smh
🧪
Any teachers out there? Ramping this back up again and figured I would advertise.
I am on the National Weather Service National School Outreach Team. We are composed of various NWS meteorologists across the country that give school talks about the weather. We can use just about any online platform.
I am on the National Weather Service National School Outreach Team. We are composed of various NWS meteorologists across the country that give school talks about the weather. We can use just about any online platform.
November 19, 2025 at 5:21 AM
🧪
Reposted by Huei Sears, PhD 🌟
Dogs have been part of human culture for far longer than previously thought based on genomic evidence from @lachiescarsbrook.bsky.social and team. Great read. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Genomic evidence for the Holocene codispersal of dogs and humans across Eastern Eurasia
As the first domestic species, dogs likely dispersed with different cultural groups during the Late Pleistocene and Holocene. To test this hypothesis, we analyzed 73 ancient dog genomes, including 17 ...
www.science.org
November 13, 2025 at 10:26 PM
Dogs have been part of human culture for far longer than previously thought based on genomic evidence from @lachiescarsbrook.bsky.social and team. Great read. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reposted by Huei Sears, PhD 🌟
WE JUST KEEP WINNING. (UC President's Postdoctoral Fellowship Program RESTORED!!!!)
![On official UC letterhead:
UNIVERSITY
OF
CALIFORNIA
James B. Milliken President
Office of the President
1111 Franklin Street Oakland, CA 94607
universityofcalifornia.edu
CAMPUSES Berkeley
Davis
Irvine
UCLA
Merced
Riverside San Diego San Francisco
Santa Barbara Santa Cruz
MEDICAL CENTERS
Davis
Irvine
UCLA
San Diego
San Francisco
NATIONAL LABORATORIES Lawrence Berkeley Lawrence Livermore Los Alamos
DIVISION OF AGRICULTURE AND NATURAL RESOURCES
November 18, 2025
Dear Chancellors:
I'm writing with regard to the President's Postdoctoral Fellowship Program (PPFP) and the program's associated faculty hiring incentive.
As you know, for more than 40 years, PPFP has provided postdoctoral research fellowships, professional development, and faculty mentoring to scholars in all fields whose research, teaching, and service advance the academic and research missions of the University of California.
Since 2003, UC campuses that hire current and former PPFP fellows into ladder-rank positions have been eligible for a hiring incentive funded by the University that provides support for newly hired fellows for five years. Since the creation of the incentive, more than $162 million has been invested by the University to support PPFP faculty hires. This commitment has enabled our campuses to successfully recruit and retain outstanding faculty across a range of disciplines.
Given the myriad challenges currently facing UC - including disruptions to billions of dollars in annual federal support, as well as uncertainty around the state budget- reasonable questions were raised in recent months about whether the University could maintain the commitment to current levels of incentive funding. After considering a recommendation to sunset the incentive program due to these significant fiscal constraints, I consulted with all of you as well as faculty and campus academic administrators and systemwide Academic Senate leadership.
[continued on next image]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:rzn6yramffebefeitqifiqqz/bafkreigiwq5ongzwpj4wqmgjam3yfvhyjnv5e3dbq6cnrrbwblqvs624gq@jpeg)
November 18, 2025 at 10:34 PM
WE JUST KEEP WINNING. (UC President's Postdoctoral Fellowship Program RESTORED!!!!)
going on a 7:30 AM pre-conference hike tomorrow; tuscon has changed me
November 19, 2025 at 4:35 AM
going on a 7:30 AM pre-conference hike tomorrow; tuscon has changed me
Reposted by Huei Sears, PhD 🌟
counter in also that the peers doing the peer review are NOT PAID for this work
"academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it... The dominant four collectively generated... $12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024."
November 19, 2025 at 4:25 AM
counter in also that the peers doing the peer review are NOT PAID for this work
Reposted by Huei Sears, PhD 🌟
First kiss dates back 21 million years, say scientists. 🧪 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
First kiss dates back 21 million years, say scientists
A new study looks at how the mouth-on-mouth smooch came into being, and concludes that Neanderthals also kissed.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 19, 2025 at 4:09 AM
First kiss dates back 21 million years, say scientists. 🧪 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Reposted by Huei Sears, PhD 🌟
Thanks to months of monitoring by the Unistellar and AFA communities during 2023, scientists at the SETI Institute and AFA have published a new scientific paper, led by Dr. Ariel Graykowski, that reveals Comet Hartley 2 changing in a dramatic way. 🧪 🔭 👩🔬
Learn more: www.seti.org/news/citizen...
Learn more: www.seti.org/news/citizen...
Citizen Scientists Help Discover that Comet Hartley 2 is Fading
www.seti.org
November 18, 2025 at 12:00 AM
Thanks to months of monitoring by the Unistellar and AFA communities during 2023, scientists at the SETI Institute and AFA have published a new scientific paper, led by Dr. Ariel Graykowski, that reveals Comet Hartley 2 changing in a dramatic way. 🧪 🔭 👩🔬
Learn more: www.seti.org/news/citizen...
Learn more: www.seti.org/news/citizen...
Candidate Gravitational Wave Detection Hints At First-Of-Its-Kind Incredibly Small Object
www.iflscience.com/candidate-gr...
www.iflscience.com/candidate-gr...
Candidate Gravitational Wave Detection Hints At First-Of-Its-Kind Incredibly Small Object
“This is an extraordinary claim. And thus you would want extraordinary evidence in order to be convincing,” Dr Christopher Berry tells IFLScience.
www.iflscience.com
November 17, 2025 at 5:10 PM
i also think that when the plane lands, and the aisle (from front to back) immediately fills with ppl standing — all those standing ppl should be allowed off the plane first
November 16, 2025 at 5:02 PM
i also think that when the plane lands, and the aisle (from front to back) immediately fills with ppl standing — all those standing ppl should be allowed off the plane first
how much extra would you pay to have no babies/young children on your flight? ~ $50? ~ $100? > $150? what if the extra charge went to subsidize cheaper child-incl. flights?
November 16, 2025 at 4:19 PM
how much extra would you pay to have no babies/young children on your flight? ~ $50? ~ $100? > $150? what if the extra charge went to subsidize cheaper child-incl. flights?
space is SO cool
This is what Jupiter looks like in the infrared.
Its hot, lower atmosphere shining through the cooler cloud layers above.
You show me Jupiter and I'll show you a planet that wants you dead.
Its hot, lower atmosphere shining through the cooler cloud layers above.
You show me Jupiter and I'll show you a planet that wants you dead.
November 16, 2025 at 3:13 AM
space is SO cool