Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Chris Howk

Astronomy Picture of the Day 🪐

@apod.shinyakato.dev

🔭 Solar Analemma 2024

Image Credit & Copyright: Betul Turksoy

apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap25010...

Recorded during 2024, this year-spanning series of images reveals a pattern in the seasonal drift of the Sun's daily motion through planet Earth's sky. Known to some as an analemma, the figure-eight curve was captured in exposures taken only at 1pm local time on clear days from Kayseri, Turkiye. Of course the Sun's position on the 2024 solstice dates was at the top and bottom of the curve. They correspond to the astronomical beginning of summer and winter in the north. The points along the curve half-way between the solstices, but not the figure-eight curve crossing point, mark the 2024 equinoxes and the start of spring and fall. Regional peaks and dormant volcano Mount Erciyes lie along the southern horizon in the 2024 timelapse skyscape.

January 2, 2025 at 8:00 AM

Reposted by Chris Howk

Chris Mihos

@chrismihos.bsky.social

There's so much stuff on our social media timelines that we scroll past quickly, maybe with a "oh cool" and then moving on, but if you stop and think about what you are seeing here, it's really amazing.

You're watching a high-resolution panorama view from *another* *world*.

Wow. Just wow. 🔭

Simeon Schmauß @stim3on.bsky.social · Dec 12

After several months of climbing up the steep slopes of the Jezero crater rim, Perseverance has reached the top!
The afternoon sun provides a spectacular view on landscape which the rover will explore soon! 🔭

Full panorama: www.360cities.net/image/marsro...

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Simeon Schmauß

December 13, 2024 at 12:19 AM

Reposted by Chris Howk

Daniel | ScienceSocks et al.

@sciencesocks.bsky.social

People: post super fake AI-generated image

Facebook: OMG SPACE IS SO BEAUTIFUL IT TOUCHES MY SOUL MY LIFE WILL NEVER BE THE SAME

Me: artisinal placement of googly eyes on *real* NASA image

Facebook: OMG THAT'S FAKE *perma banned*

googly eyes on Mystic Mountain Monster nebula

December 1, 2024 at 10:23 PM

Reposted by Chris Howk

Phil Plait

@philplait.bsky.social

Whoa

Andrea Luck @andrealuck.bsky.social · Dec 13

Epic dust storm on Mars - North Polar Cap

HD video: flic.kr/p/2qzy1b7 🔭

Credit:
Processing: Andrea Luck CC BY
Raw Data: ESA/DLR/FUBerlin

ESA Mars Express HRSC 2018-04-03

December 13, 2024 at 8:43 PM

Reposted by Chris Howk

Christina Wolbrecht

@cwolbrecht.bsky.social

I don't know, maybe for-profit health insurance isn't the best way to care for humanity?

kottke.org @kottke.org · Dec 11

A relevant excerpt

Beginning in the 1990s, many major insurance companies reconsidered this understanding of the claims process. The insight was simple. An insurance company's greatest expense is what it pays out in claims. If it pays out less in claims, it keeps more in profits. Therefore, the claims department became a profit center rather than the place that kept the company's promise.

A major step in this shift occurred when Allstate and other companies hired the megaconsulting firm McKinsey & Company to develop new strategies for handling claims. McKinsey saw claims as a "zero-sum game," with the policyholder and the company competing for the same dollars. No longer would each claim be treated on its merits. Instead, computer systems would be put in place to set the amounts policyholders would be offered, claimants would be deterred from hiring lawyers to help with their claims, and settlements would be offered on a take-it-or-litigate basis. If Allstate moved from "Good Hands" to "Boxing Gloves," as McKinsey described it, policyholders would either take a lowball offer from the good hands people or face the boxing gloves of extended litigation.

December 11, 2024 at 4:42 PM

Chris Howk

@astrohowk.bsky.social

@petesampson.bsky.social Seems like a post you could get behind somehow. www.reddit.com/r/notredamef...

December 9, 2024 at 10:57 PM

Reposted by Chris Howk

Matt Johansen

@mattjay.com

Love a good infographic

November 26, 2024 at 2:07 AM

Chris Howk

@astrohowk.bsky.social

Whoa. I’m just learning that “Istanbul (not Constantinople)” was not originally a They Might Be Giants song??

There’s a parallel here to the astronomy literature I suspect: when old folks like me think “no one remembers anything from before 2000…”

November 23, 2024 at 3:25 PM

Reposted by Chris Howk

Mike Boylan-Kolchin

@mbkplus.bsky.social

You know, when you think about it, the blame for Donald Trump’s continued presence on the political scene can be traced to one clear moment. That’s right, I’m talking about when the Democrats wouldn’t let Mitt Romney (a Truly Decent Man™️) become president in 2012.

December 23, 2023 at 12:46 AM

Reposted by Chris Howk

Andrew Cole

@aacole42.bsky.social

Whoops! 😂

Alex Ji @alexji.bsky.social · Nov 2

One of our KICP Postdoctoral Fellows noticed that the composition of Avi Loeb's supposed extraterrestrial micrometeorites have a near-perfect composition match to the composition of coal ash, i.e. anthropogenic contamination.

RNAAS here: iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3...

Anthropogenic Coal Ash as a Contaminant in a Micro-meteoritic Underwater Search - IOPscience

iopscience.iop.org

November 2, 2023 at 9:39 AM

Chris Howk

@astrohowk.bsky.social

I’m so glad @effinbirds.com is here flying the blue skies!

Effin' Birds @effinbirds.com · Oct 24

A painting of a bird beside the text "this week is gonna suck butts."

October 24, 2023 at 3:22 PM

Reposted by Chris Howk

Michael Merrifield

@astromikemerri.bsky.social

For anyone unaware of quite how remarkable Wal Sargent’s story was, this from Wikipedia:

October 23, 2023 at 8:01 PM

Chris Howk

@astrohowk.bsky.social

What’s a random quote from The Simpsons that pops into your head all the time?

All. The. Time.

October 22, 2023 at 1:19 AM

Reposted by Chris Howk

Heidi B. Hammel

@hbhammel.bsky.social

NOIRLab just dropped a detailed atlas of almost 400,000 nearby galaxies! (Each galaxy is a collection of billions of stars...) The Siena Galaxy Atlas - designed to be the preëminent digital galaxy atlas for large local galaxies - was produced NOIRLab telescopes. noirlab.edu/public/news/...

October 18, 2023 at 8:56 PM

Reposted by Chris Howk

Erik Angner

@erikangner.com

As a matter of principle I don't repost stuff from the other place but this is just too good!

Claudia Goldin with dog and the text "I Look Like An Economist"

October 9, 2023 at 2:54 PM

Reposted by Chris Howk

Emily Hunt

@emily.space

Astronomers of Bluesky! 🔭 I'm going to start distributing invite codes to astronomers again.

Want to help out? Donate your invite codes here! forms.gle/sVi27swqamJK...

Astronomy Bluesky invite code donation

Donate your codes to astronomers in need! I'll try and match them up to astronomers who request them.

forms.gle

October 2, 2023 at 5:26 PM

Reposted by Chris Howk

CosmicRami 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

@rami.spaceaustralia.com

I’m sorry … WOT?!

EXPLOSION FINGERS?!?!?!?

JWST’s new images from Orion Nebula are spectacular! Look at this structure 🥹🤩😱

Read more: www.esa.int/Science_Expl...

📸 JWST / ESA / NASA / STScI / CSA / M. McCaughrean / S. Pearson

🔭🧪

$The image shows a series of red fingers of shocked molecular gas expanding from the bottom of the image towards the top and top right. Each of the fingers comprises a series of bright arcs of emission like bow waves, expanding behind tips, the latter often appearing green. There are many stars spread across the image with the characteristic eight spikes due to diffraction in the optics of Webb, and there is a foreground haze of wisp blue clouds due to the Orion Nebula, which lies in front of the fingers.$

October 2, 2023 at 12:34 PM

Chris Howk

@astrohowk.bsky.social

What sweet hell is this, @chrismihos.bsky.social & @dudedarkmatter.bsky.social ?? Three Case Western fliers for oldest son in one week?? Surely you can talk to someone for us…