Dr. Susan E. Mullally
LightNews LightNews
banner
mustaric.bsky.social
Dr. Susan E. Mullally
@mustaric.bsky.social
1.2K followers 270 following 140 posts
Astronomer -- Baltimore -- Exoplanets -- Mother -- Choir -- Games

Posts my own.
Posts Replies Media Videos
mustaric.bsky.social
My teenage son has composed his first song and has shared it on YouTube. youtu.be/yFpCjoHW0Nw?...

He titled it "Improvement" because it gets better as it goes on. I'm rather impressed with how it came out.
The Song of Improvement (Incomplete)
YouTube video by Padraig Mullally
youtu.be
November 9, 2025 at 2:19 PM
Reposted by Dr. Susan E. Mullally
johndebes.bsky.social
A little sneak peak from the MEAD survey of white dwarfs within 25 pc using MIRI 10 and 15 micron imaging filters. Visit 101 of the survey captured images of EGGR 199, which is just 16pc away. No planets down to 3 Mjup found nearby the white dwarf! (1/2) #astrosci 🔭
A false color image of the JWST MIRI field of view. The white dwarf is a blue point source roughly in the middle of the image, surrounded by blue and orange stars and galaxies.
November 7, 2025 at 5:25 PM
Reposted by Dr. Susan E. Mullally
brettmorr.is
As NASA closes Goddard Space Flight Center, Union says: “High profile missions currently supported by the public, Congress and/or the President (e.g., Roman, Dragonfly) will be immediately harmed or endangered.” 🧪🔭
GESTA’s Summary of Goddard Building Closures Status
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center is the largest group of scientists, technicians and engineers in the US who develop Earth and space science flight missions.  Below is GESTA's understanding of the...
www.gesta-goddard.org
November 6, 2025 at 2:44 AM
Reposted by Dr. Susan E. Mullally
megschwamb.bsky.social
NASA may be quietly gutting an iconic campus with what it calls strategic closures, workers fear edition.cnn.com/2025/11/04/s...
NASA may be quietly gutting an iconic campus with what it calls strategic closures, workers fear | CNN
Buildings at Goddard’s Maryland campus are being emptied and padlocked, sources say. NASA leadership has pushed back against the concerns.
edition.cnn.com
November 6, 2025 at 2:50 AM
mustaric.bsky.social
#astro if you do research in astronomy, Have you filled out the ADS survey yet?
November 6, 2025 at 12:54 AM
Reposted by Dr. Susan E. Mullally
johndebes.bsky.social
In Cycle 2, I was co-PI of the largest volume limited survey of nearby white dwarfs with #JWST. Our first result is out! Out of 56 white dwarfs, one showed a possible candidate companion between projected separations of 0.5"-2" or roughly 10-40 au. 🔭 #astrosci
ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2025arXi...
The MIRI Excesses around Degenerates (MEAD) Survey I: A candidate cold brown dwarf in orbit around the nearby white dwarf 2MASS J09424023-4637176
The MIRI Excesses Around Degenerates Survey is a Cycle 2 James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Survey program designed to image nearby white dwarfs in the mid-IR with the MIRI imaging mode. Only a handful...
ui.adsabs.harvard.edu
October 15, 2025 at 11:45 AM
Reposted by Dr. Susan E. Mullally
stsci.edu
In the event of a U.S. government shutdown, STScI will extend the James Webb Space Telescope Cycle 5 proposal submission deadline for affected scientists. Details: https://www.stsci.edu/contents/news/jwst/2025/jwst-cycle-5-deadline-extension-in-case-of-government-shutdown #NASAWebb 🔭 🧪 ☄️
Logo of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) over a vibrant cosmic background with the tagline "Expanding the Frontiers of Space Astronomy."
September 29, 2025 at 8:15 PM
Reposted by Dr. Susan E. Mullally
scixcommunity.bsky.social
#SciX is created by the #ADS team & operates out of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory under a NASA Cooperative Agreement. Created and developed by scientists, for scientists, SciX builds on decades of open research infrastructure and collaboration: https://bit.ly/CfASciXNews
September 29, 2025 at 8:04 PM
mustaric.bsky.social
@mast-news.bsky.social and is at Villanova @villanova teaching undergrads from nearby universities. They got a quick overview of NASA mission data available ilat MAST, astroquery, TESS and FITS/ASDF files.
Students and a screen saying FITS structure.
September 19, 2025 at 6:35 PM
Reposted by Dr. Susan E. Mullally
mast-news.bsky.social
New HLSP: First results from the Rocky Worlds DDT program are now available at MAST! This release includes calibrated light curves, model fits, preliminary eclipse depth estimation, and auxiliary data for GJ 3929 b. archive.stsci.edu/hlsp/rocky-w... #HLSP #RockyWorlds #JWST #HST #Exoplanets #MAST 🔭
An example fit to a JWST/MIRI F1500W eclipse observation of GJ 3929b collected by the Rocky Worlds DDT Program.
September 17, 2025 at 6:29 PM
mustaric.bsky.social
Went to see Ceilidh the musical last night. Such fun for those who like to participate in the shows they attend.

Thanks for bringing this show to Baltimore, Noisemaker. www.noisemaker.org.uk/ceilidh-1
September 7, 2025 at 2:36 PM
Reposted by Dr. Susan E. Mullally
astromarc.bsky.social
STScI is now accepting applications for the Giacconi Fellowship in astrophysics. Start date is Fall 2026 and funding is available for 3 years. More info here: www.stsci.edu/stsci-resear...
Giacconi Fellowship
Learn about the requirements for STScI’s Giacconi Fellowship, which recognizes postdoctoral researchers in astronomy, astrophysics, and planetary science.
www.stsci.edu
August 28, 2025 at 3:09 AM
mustaric.bsky.social
Mmm... Sausage and mushroom, I remember it well.
theonion.com The Onion @theonion.com · Aug 10
Mom Hasn't Ordered Favorite Pizza Topping In Over A Decade theonion.com/mom-has...
Mom Hasn't Ordered Favorite Pizza Topping In Over A Decade
August 10, 2025 at 8:02 PM
mustaric.bsky.social
For the morning crowd, here are all the observations stored in the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes. A visual created by Julie Imig, one of our amazing astronomical data scientists. Follow the link below for more colors and even a movie.
MAST's view of the sky, labeled with well known astronomy surveys. it is blue and white where there are many observations, especially around the south ecliptic cap and along the milky wy where there are many stars.
August 5, 2025 at 11:49 AM
Reposted by Dr. Susan E. Mullally
scottwfleming.bsky.social
Ever wondered what the "MAST Sky" looks like, from our ~6 PB of data spanning 3 decades...check this out! spacetelescope.github.io/mast-blog/ma...

Really fun project led by the very talented Julie Imig at MAST, showing mission coverage sky-projected! They make VERY good video backgrounds, btw. 🔭
MAST background in "standard" sky projection, in hues of blue. Lighter blue areas mark lots of observations, while darker areas are less. Numerous patterns are visible, like the continuous viewing zones as ovals in the lower-left and upper right, patterns from overlapping TESS FFIs, or the Kepler footprint shapes stamped along the ecliptic and in the original Kepler field in the upper-right. A grid of 16 images, 4x4, showing the sky background only for specific missions to get a sense of where in the sky and how much of it each mission observed to at least some depth.
July 31, 2025 at 9:12 PM
mustaric.bsky.social
Have you read the latest MAST blog? MAST's view of the sky: Your Next Wallpaper spacetelescope.github.io/mast-blog/ma... by @mast-news.bsky.social

Think of what we have learned and have yet to learn from investing in these missions and making their data open and available to everyone.
MAST's View of the Sky: Your Next Wallpaper
Cool MAST wallpapers
spacetelescope.github.io
August 4, 2025 at 7:04 PM
mustaric.bsky.social
What a little curiosity and ingenuity can do -- 3 years of Webb science.

White dwarf planets made number 8! science.nasa.gov/missions/web...
3 Years of Science: 10 Cosmic Surprises from NASA’s Webb Telescope - NASA Science
What is the Webb Telescope?
science.nasa.gov
July 3, 2025 at 1:55 AM
Reposted by Dr. Susan E. Mullally
johndebes.bsky.social
New 🪐 around white dwarfs (WD) paper by yours truly! My collaboration had a Cycle 1 #JWST program to look at WDs accreting dust from planetary systems. We looked at four targets and found extra light at 21 microns for two of them! #astrosci #exoplanets 🔭🧪https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.21224 (1/n)
Metal Polluted White Dwarfs with 21 μm IR excesses from JWST/MIRI: Planets or Dust?
White dwarfs with metal pollution are caused by the accretion of rocky dust from tidally disrupted minor bodies and are signposts for planetary systems. These minor bodies are perturbed by planets tha...
arxiv.org
June 27, 2025 at 2:41 PM
Reposted by Dr. Susan E. Mullally
johndebes.bsky.social
Like #Hubble spectra, but it's hard to access? My working group @stsci.edu launched the Hubble Advanced Spectral Products, joining COS and STIS spectra across different modes and instruments for every HST program for the first time 🧪🔭https://archive.stsci.edu/missions-and-data/hst/hasp (1/4)
The logo for the Hubble Advanced Spectral Products, or HASP. White lettering with a rainbow border below. To the right is a set of stylized spectra ranging from violet to red that are in the process of "hooking" together. A hasp is a latching mechanism, which is similar to what HASP does--link different gratings from HST spectroscopy together.
June 25, 2025 at 4:33 PM
Reposted by Dr. Susan E. Mullally
vrubinobs.bsky.social
Introducing...your sneak peek at the cosmos captured by NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory!

Can you guess these regions of sky?

This is just a small peek...join us at 11am US EDT for your full First Look at how Rubin will #CaptureTheCosmos! 🔭🧪

#RubinFirstLook
ls.st/rubin-first-look-livestream
A sprawling, textured field of galaxies scattered across the deep black of space. It is filled with the delicate smudges and glowing cores of galaxies of many shapes, sizes and colors, as well as the bright multi-colored points of stars. The image focuses on a collection of interacting galaxies connected by delicate streams of stars. At top center lies a large elliptical galaxy that is dense and smooth, like a polished stone glowing with golden light. Like delicate spider silk or stretched taffy, these stellar bridges link the large elliptical to the few larger galaxies beneath, evidence of past collisions. All throughout the image, thousands of galaxies gather in clusters or are spread throughout, like glittering gems strewn on a table. Some are sharp-edged and spiral, like coiled ribbons; others round and diffuse, like polished pebbles. Still others are just smudges of various colors against the black of space. The background is peppered with pinpoint stars in reds, yellows, and blues, crisp against the velvet black. A cosmic tapestry of glowing tan and pink gas clouds with dark dust lanes. In the upper right, the Trifid Nebula resembles a small flower in space. Its soft, pinkish gas petals are surrounded by blue gas, and streaked with dark, finger-like veins of dust that divide it into three parts. It radiates a gentle, misty glow, diffuse and soft like the warmth of breath on a cold hand. To the lower left, the much larger Lagoon Nebula stretches wide like a churning sea of magenta gas, with bright blue, knotted clumps sprinkled throughout where new stars are born. Both nebulae are embedded in a soft tan backdrop of gas that is brighter on the left than on the right, etched with dark tendrils of dust and sprinkled with the pinpricks of millions of stars. A sprawling, textured field of galaxies scattered across the deep black of space. It is filled with the delicate smudges and glowing cores of galaxies of many shapes, sizes and colors, as well as the bright multi-colored points of stars. To the lower left is a region filled with the hundreds of golden glittering gems of a distant galaxy cluster. In the foreground, below and right of center, two blue spiral galaxies look like eyes beneath the entangled mass of a triple galaxy merger in the upper right. A few bright blue points of foreground stars pierce the glittering tapestry. All throughout the image, thousands of galaxies gather in clusters or are spread throughout, like glittering gems strewn on a table. Some are sharp-edged and spiral, like coiled ribbons; others round and diffuse, like polished pebbles. Still others are just smudges of various colors against the black of space. The background is peppered with pinpoint stars in reds, yellows, and blues, crisp against the velvet black.
June 23, 2025 at 4:06 AM
Reposted by Dr. Susan E. Mullally
benschu.bsky.social
Hello from #NoKings Towson!
No kings protest No kings protest No kings protest No kings protest
June 14, 2025 at 4:31 PM
Reposted by Dr. Susan E. Mullally
indivisiblebaltimo.bsky.social
TOMORROW! We're just a day away from NO KINGS DAY in Patterson Park!

Here are Saturday's schedule and our march route.
map depicting the No Kings march route in Patterson Park
June 13, 2025 at 1:50 PM
mustaric.bsky.social
#aas246 MAST @mast-news.bsky.social was saved from the evil plans of Dr. Nefarious by the team of scientists attending the AAS. Thank you to those who attended this escape-room-themed MAST workshop at the AAS, had a little fun, and learned a bit about our archive.
June 8, 2025 at 5:41 PM