Erik Tollerud
@eteq.bsky.social
Astrophysicist, Python coder, and general lover of nature in all its forms. Tweets are my own. He/they.
Folks, I'm trying not to turn this account into a fully political place. But I grew up in the suburbs of Minneapolis, I cannot stay silent on this. If you have any friends or family who are connected to ICE, there is action you can take: cut them off. Tell them you will not speak to or aid them.
January 24, 2026 at 8:34 PM
Folks, I'm trying not to turn this account into a fully political place. But I grew up in the suburbs of Minneapolis, I cannot stay silent on this. If you have any friends or family who are connected to ICE, there is action you can take: cut them off. Tell them you will not speak to or aid them.
Reposted by Erik Tollerud
ICE agents are responsible for the majority of homicides committed in the Twin Cities so far this year.
In most US cities, homicides committed by armed police represent a significant fraction, but I can’t think of any prior examples where it was as high as 2/3.
In most US cities, homicides committed by armed police represent a significant fraction, but I can’t think of any prior examples where it was as high as 2/3.
January 24, 2026 at 8:10 PM
ICE agents are responsible for the majority of homicides committed in the Twin Cities so far this year.
In most US cities, homicides committed by armed police represent a significant fraction, but I can’t think of any prior examples where it was as high as 2/3.
In most US cities, homicides committed by armed police represent a significant fraction, but I can’t think of any prior examples where it was as high as 2/3.
Unsolicited advice for those giving talks at science/technical talks: wear distinctive clothing on the day of your talk! It's a lot easier for someone who wants to talk to you later to find you if you are not wearing a generic gray skirt/button-up shirt 🧪🔭
November 13, 2025 at 10:37 AM
Unsolicited advice for those giving talks at science/technical talks: wear distinctive clothing on the day of your talk! It's a lot easier for someone who wants to talk to you later to find you if you are not wearing a generic gray skirt/button-up shirt 🧪🔭
Gotta share this from @emily.space 's excellent #adassxxxv talk on ATProtocol (the thing behind Blue sky) and how it's a chance to free scientists from the profit-motivated version of social media. More to the point, I love the metaness of posting a talk on bluesky about bluesky.
November 11, 2025 at 4:38 PM
Gotta share this from @emily.space 's excellent #adassxxxv talk on ATProtocol (the thing behind Blue sky) and how it's a chance to free scientists from the profit-motivated version of social media. More to the point, I love the metaness of posting a talk on bluesky about bluesky.
This slide by @mubdi.bsky.social at #adass2025 should be on ever astronomer's wall. Software is a central part of science and should be published accordingly!
November 11, 2025 at 11:22 AM
This slide by @mubdi.bsky.social at #adass2025 should be on ever astronomer's wall. Software is a central part of science and should be published accordingly!
Harsh but fair: xkcd.com/3085/
About 20 Pounds
xkcd.com
May 7, 2025 at 3:25 PM
Harsh but fair: xkcd.com/3085/
A bit snarky but also honest question: If you asked people "Do you think stores are inefficient?" I suspect they'd almost all respond with "well some stores are, but not all, it depends on the store". Why don't people have the same reaction when asked "Is government inefficient?" ?
May 1, 2025 at 6:57 PM
A bit snarky but also honest question: If you asked people "Do you think stores are inefficient?" I suspect they'd almost all respond with "well some stores are, but not all, it depends on the store". Why don't people have the same reaction when asked "Is government inefficient?" ?
Fantastic talk by @niais.bsky.social on instrumentation esp UV and multi object capabilities that are being developed/will be available for the Habitable Worlds Observatory... I'm not a hardware instrumentalist, but I love love love these tech nerd-out sessions for astro
April 2, 2025 at 6:03 PM
Fantastic talk by @niais.bsky.social on instrumentation esp UV and multi object capabilities that are being developed/will be available for the Habitable Worlds Observatory... I'm not a hardware instrumentalist, but I love love love these tech nerd-out sessions for astro
Who could have guessed this administration would have a lot of trouble with classified information. Oh wait ... That's right...
March 24, 2025 at 11:28 PM
Who could have guessed this administration would have a lot of trouble with classified information. Oh wait ... That's right...
Ah! The classic astronomer colloquium joke, now in context and friendly to the masses: xkcd.com/3066/
Cosmic Distance Calibration
xkcd.com
March 23, 2025 at 5:30 PM
Ah! The classic astronomer colloquium joke, now in context and friendly to the masses: xkcd.com/3066/
Reposted by Erik Tollerud
It would be fantastic if major federal institutions would acknowledge that the executive branch cannot legally unilaterally cancel or redistribute congressionally appropriated funding on ideological grounds and thus they have no legal obligation to comply with such directives
Trump funding freeze a blatant violation of Constitution, federal law: Legal experts
The Constitution, federal law and court decisions make it clear: President Donald Trump's order to pause federal funding is against the law, legal experts tell ABC News.
abcnews.go.com
January 31, 2025 at 4:54 AM
It would be fantastic if major federal institutions would acknowledge that the executive branch cannot legally unilaterally cancel or redistribute congressionally appropriated funding on ideological grounds and thus they have no legal obligation to comply with such directives
A positive trend that's been happening for years but has been particularly apparent at #AAS245 : most of the Q&A askers are beginning with "I really liked your talk" or similar. Really improves the general mood and collegiality IMHO.
January 16, 2025 at 7:59 PM
A positive trend that's been happening for years but has been particularly apparent at #AAS245 : most of the Q&A askers are beginning with "I really liked your talk" or similar. Really improves the general mood and collegiality IMHO.
Reposted by Erik Tollerud
@eteq.bsky.social Diffords guide predicts 2025 could be the year of the blue drink.
January 8, 2025 at 1:49 PM
@eteq.bsky.social Diffords guide predicts 2025 could be the year of the blue drink.
Some amazing cosmology results from DESI presented at #AAS245 by M Ishak (from their massive paper drop in Nov): Hubble tension persists with DESI (DESI matches CMB, in tension with local H0)... But more provocatively, cosmological constant ruled out at > 3 sigma!!! But no deviations from GR. 🙀
January 14, 2025 at 4:41 PM
Some amazing cosmology results from DESI presented at #AAS245 by M Ishak (from their massive paper drop in Nov): Hubble tension persists with DESI (DESI matches CMB, in tension with local H0)... But more provocatively, cosmological constant ruled out at > 3 sigma!!! But no deviations from GR. 🙀
Exciting professional news: I have just been awarded Tenure at the Space Telescope Science Institute! Thanks to all of you who have supported and encouraged me these 15 or so years. I came for the science but stayed for the community, and this is a good day to celebrate both! #bluedrink
October 16, 2024 at 10:08 PM
Exciting professional news: I have just been awarded Tenure at the Space Telescope Science Institute! Thanks to all of you who have supported and encouraged me these 15 or so years. I came for the science but stayed for the community, and this is a good day to celebrate both! #bluedrink
Exciting news to share: Astropy has been awarded the 2025 Lancelot M Berkeley AAS Prize! (aas.org/press/astrop...) So if you'll be at the AAS this year be sure to stay to the end for the Prize talk by me and fellow Astropy Coordinators Kelle Cruz and Clara Brasseur.
Astropy Collaboration to Receive 2025 Berkeley Prize | American Astronomical Society
The Astropy Collaboration will receive the 2025 Lancelot M. Berkeley − New York Community Trust Prize for Meritorious Work in Astronomy for the creation of an open-source ecosystem of interoperable as...
aas.org
September 19, 2024 at 3:53 PM
Exciting news to share: Astropy has been awarded the 2025 Lancelot M Berkeley AAS Prize! (aas.org/press/astrop...) So if you'll be at the AAS this year be sure to stay to the end for the Prize talk by me and fellow Astropy Coordinators Kelle Cruz and Clara Brasseur.
E di Teodoro in #iaus392 at #astronomy2024 (with @jegpeek.bsky.social) gives a really nice clean story of disentangling gas flow directions to show that at least radial gas flows aren't bringing in enough fuel to sustain star formation at the present day
August 15, 2024 at 9:36 AM
E di Teodoro in #iaus392 at #astronomy2024 (with @jegpeek.bsky.social) gives a really nice clean story of disentangling gas flow directions to show that at least radial gas flows aren't bringing in enough fuel to sustain star formation at the present day
Nice summary of some LADUMA results in talk by A Baker from #iaus392 at #astronomy2024. Particularly neat was showing work by @jwuphysics.bsky.social showing that you can pick out even individually undetected HI features using CNNs trained on multiwavelength data
August 14, 2024 at 2:57 PM
Nice summary of some LADUMA results in talk by A Baker from #iaus392 at #astronomy2024. Particularly neat was showing work by @jwuphysics.bsky.social showing that you can pick out even individually undetected HI features using CNNs trained on multiwavelength data
From J Healy in #iaus392 at #astronomy2024 : in an HI survey of cluster Abell 2636 (with MeerKAT I *think*), some evidence that subgroups within the cluster protect galaxies' gas from the broader cluster environment. I wonder if this happens at LG scales (and if it could ever be observed...)?
August 14, 2024 at 9:46 AM
From J Healy in #iaus392 at #astronomy2024 : in an HI survey of cluster Abell 2636 (with MeerKAT I *think*), some evidence that subgroups within the cluster protect galaxies' gas from the broader cluster environment. I wonder if this happens at LG scales (and if it could ever be observed...)?
Reposted by Erik Tollerud
So enjoying hearing about neutral hydrogen observations of the Milky Way from Snezna Stanimirovic this morning. #astronom2024 🔭👩🔬
August 14, 2024 at 8:39 AM
So enjoying hearing about neutral hydrogen observations of the Milky Way from Snezna Stanimirovic this morning. #astronom2024 🔭👩🔬
Neat dataset by P Mancera Piña at #astronomy2024 of HI rotation curves of several UDGs, showing that while their dark matter halo concentrations are hard to explain in CDM (and even harder with MOND), they are much more likely to exist in SIDM...
August 13, 2024 at 2:21 PM
Neat dataset by P Mancera Piña at #astronomy2024 of HI rotation curves of several UDGs, showing that while their dark matter halo concentrations are hard to explain in CDM (and even harder with MOND), they are much more likely to exist in SIDM...
F Maccagni at #iaus392 of #astronomy2024 describes HI stripping data from a MeerKAT survey of the Fornax cluster. I found this plot especially impressive: a *very* clear floor where all the has gets stripped under a certain magnitude
August 13, 2024 at 12:42 PM
F Maccagni at #iaus392 of #astronomy2024 describes HI stripping data from a MeerKAT survey of the Fornax cluster. I found this plot especially impressive: a *very* clear floor where all the has gets stripped under a certain magnitude
E de Blok kicks off #iaus392 main session at #astronomy2024 by summarizing resolved HI observations now and in the near future. One fresh item I thought was especially interesting: "observing" TNG50 and FIRE2 sims just like MEERKAT shows the simulations are not getting the fluffy outskirts right
August 13, 2024 at 9:05 AM
E de Blok kicks off #iaus392 main session at #astronomy2024 by summarizing resolved HI observations now and in the near future. One fresh item I thought was especially interesting: "observing" TNG50 and FIRE2 sims just like MEERKAT shows the simulations are not getting the fluffy outskirts right
M Culver at #iaus392 of #astronomy2024 wraps up the plenary session telling us about how critical multiwavelength data are for understanding near future enormous HI datasets
August 13, 2024 at 8:05 AM
M Culver at #iaus392 of #astronomy2024 wraps up the plenary session telling us about how critical multiwavelength data are for understanding near future enormous HI datasets
K Oman kicks off the theory side of #iaus392 at #astronomy2024 with an overview of how simulations resolve (or sometimes don't!) HI gas in galaxies
August 13, 2024 at 7:33 AM
K Oman kicks off the theory side of #iaus392 at #astronomy2024 with an overview of how simulations resolve (or sometimes don't!) HI gas in galaxies