Leah Crane
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leahc.bsky.social
Leah Crane
@leahc.bsky.social
Space & physics features editor for New Scientist. No longer quantum, not yet relativistic. She/her/fast/furious.
Reposted by Leah Crane
To me the cool thing about this image is that the sprinkling of blue stars are in the foreground, some 5 million light years away, while all those gorgeous colorful swirly galaxies are almost unimaginably more distant, out in the far depths of the cosmos. More info: www.stsci.edu/contents/med...
Oh come ON now. This new JWST image is just ASTOUNDING.

I feel like I’m falling looking into it, and that I would fall forever, and that I would enjoy it.

NASA, ESA, CSA, K. McQuinn (STScI), J. DePasquale (STScI)
January 18, 2025 at 5:32 PM
The sun will never set on my empire (my empire on the sun, empire made of fire)
The sun will never set upon my empire (because I'll build it on the sunward side of a tidally-locked planet orbiting a red dwarf star)
January 17, 2025 at 5:12 AM
Reposted by Leah Crane
The stargazing events to look forward to in 2025, from auroras to partial eclipses 🧪 by @leahc.bsky.social
The stargazing events to look forward to in 2025
From auroras to partial eclipses of the sun, Leah Crane is planning out the astronomical events she will be watching next year
www.newscientist.com
December 30, 2024 at 2:33 PM
Reposted by Leah Crane
I have a theory about cars being the first phase of human carcinization
December 6, 2024 at 8:52 PM
I want a Google Wrapped - tell me the stupidest things I searched this year.
“Where do they keep spare oxygen in submarines” “Carcinization for humans” “How fast can a hippo run” “Is the bean attached to the ground”
December 6, 2024 at 8:43 PM
This is what I’m TALKIN’ BOUT, people!! More of this
Prompted by this and a need for distraction I Did Some Math. Turns out most extrasolar planets are quite cauliflower-compatible. A thread, with citations. And laboratory astrophysics. And footnotes.
What I want from Bluesky
December 1, 2024 at 11:24 PM
Reposted by Leah Crane
wavefunctions when you observe them
November 26, 2024 at 3:23 PM
Reposted by Leah Crane
Beautiful!

And what’s cool is that the rings are *not* solid objects! As you zoom in you see more and more distinct rings within rings. Each composed of billions of independent bits from tiny up to the size of a house. All clumping and interacting in weird ways!
#CASSINI ORBITER #SATURN MISSION

TARGET NAME: Saturn #Rings
Instrument: Cassini #ISS
Camera: Narrow Angle Red GRN BL1 Filters

NASA/JPL/j. Roger
November 23, 2024 at 8:05 PM
We have tried so hard to find the missing link between Air Bud and Minions. I have read every related Wikipedia and IMDb page and all of the linked sites. I know we are not making this up. PLEASE HELP
Okay yesterday's Question To The Sky returned an answer immediately, so I've got another one and it's a doozy. Years ago @leahc.bsky.social and I found someone who linked the Air Bud franchise with the Minions franchise. I'm sure of it. We have a long-running joke that goes: WHAT HATH AIRBUD WROUGHT
November 22, 2024 at 10:40 PM
convergent evolution of jnco jeans
November 22, 2024 at 10:28 PM
Doesn’t the heat death of the universe sound kind of… peaceful?
Greetings new followers! Keep in mind that most stars that will ever be born already have been; the last red dwarf will exhaust its fuel in 10^15 years; and the last black hole will evaporate in 10^100 years. After that, nothing but cold, desolate, empty space, for all eternity.
November 18, 2024 at 5:07 AM
moving to the moon so i can jump higher
November 18, 2024 at 4:58 AM
Reposted by Leah Crane
In February 2021 I took a photo of the lovely spiral galaxy NGC 1566 from my backyard.

Then I went back and photographed it again December, later that year.

I didn’t realise this but someone mentioned that there was a supernova (SN 2021aefx) in my photos!

It’s that new bright star! ⭐️ 💥

🔭
November 17, 2024 at 9:51 AM
anyway the best shape is triangles
November 16, 2024 at 1:59 AM
…I guess I’ll try to be back on bsky, see how it goes
November 16, 2024 at 1:17 AM
Reposted by Leah Crane
I'm happy to share the latest episode of the Dead Planets Society podcast with @chelswhyte.bsky.social and @leahc.bsky.social! I join them as they use their god-like powers to create a geocentric solar system and imagine the consequences.

www.newscientist.com/article/2436...
What would happen if Earth was the centre of the solar system?
Geocentrism, the idea that everything in the universe revolves around Earth, has long been disproven, but this episode of Dead Planets Society is bringing it back with cataclysmic consequences
www.newscientist.com
June 27, 2024 at 2:57 PM
Reposted by Leah Crane
PSA: If you live anywhere near this blob and it’s not cloudy, tonight is a good night to go outside and look up www.swpc.noaa.gov/communities/...
May 11, 2024 at 12:57 AM
Unfortunately, for the last several days the only thing in my horrible traitor brain has been a version of the Twelve Days of Christmas that I have titled “Oops, All Rings”
December 15, 2023 at 3:05 AM
Reposted by Leah Crane
The two-part finale of season one of Dead Planets Society is available for your ears! We explore what would happen if Earth were a cube. The corners would be in space, time would get wacky, and we might even have more sea monsters! Listen here: www.newscientist.com/article/2403...
November 22, 2023 at 5:19 PM
Reposted by Leah Crane
So, er, .... @chelswhyte.bsky.social and @leahc.bsky.social
dragged me into their evil lunarcidal conspiracy... www.newscientist.com/article/2396...
October 13, 2023 at 1:18 AM
dis my best friend
September 29, 2023 at 6:53 PM
sup discworld nerds. i need some more book recs because i really shouldn't just reread discworld a bunch on my upcoming long flight (and many in my to-read pile already are hardcover, which i don't wanna schlep). help?
September 28, 2023 at 2:50 PM
Reposted by Leah Crane
hey guys check this out
September 17, 2023 at 6:17 PM
there is no such thing as wrongfully accusing the moon. the moon is guilty.
i have deleted a previous post on account of wrongfully accusing the moon. taking some time to reflect
September 15, 2023 at 2:51 PM
blockchain is just a google sheet that’s bad for the environment
But have you considered the world changing potential of a database that works a bit differently than the many other databases we have with only the downsides being that it requires the energy of a medium sized country to work and its only purpose is to enable Ransomware?
September 15, 2023 at 2:32 PM