Sarah Hörst
@planetdr.bsky.social
Professor of planetary science at Johns Hopkins. Titan’s biggest fan. Pomeranian wrangler. Runner. Love many, trust few, always paddle your own canoe. She/her. sarahhorst.com
Planetdr.26 on signal
Planetdr.26 on signal
Reposted by Sarah Hörst
lol this is gonna burst so fucking hard
February 14, 2026 at 11:47 PM
lol this is gonna burst so fucking hard
Reposted by Sarah Hörst
Sacrificing a rotation student.
My now dear friend showed up wearing a turkey onesie so we took a picture pretending to put her in the autoclave and then took a picture of her lying on the break room table while we stood around her with forks
Grad school is a weird time 🤷♀️
My now dear friend showed up wearing a turkey onesie so we took a picture pretending to put her in the autoclave and then took a picture of her lying on the break room table while we stood around her with forks
Grad school is a weird time 🤷♀️
Basically nothing has been working correctly in the lab lately across lots of different types of things.
There is a reason people (me) believe in lab gremlins.
Ok lab folks- what’s your favorite way to appease/stave off/remove lab gremlins?? (Right and wrong answers only)
There is a reason people (me) believe in lab gremlins.
Ok lab folks- what’s your favorite way to appease/stave off/remove lab gremlins?? (Right and wrong answers only)
February 15, 2026 at 12:19 AM
Sacrificing a rotation student.
My now dear friend showed up wearing a turkey onesie so we took a picture pretending to put her in the autoclave and then took a picture of her lying on the break room table while we stood around her with forks
Grad school is a weird time 🤷♀️
My now dear friend showed up wearing a turkey onesie so we took a picture pretending to put her in the autoclave and then took a picture of her lying on the break room table while we stood around her with forks
Grad school is a weird time 🤷♀️
🧪🔭
Basically nothing has been working correctly in the lab lately across lots of different types of things.
There is a reason people (me) believe in lab gremlins.
Ok lab folks- what’s your favorite way to appease/stave off/remove lab gremlins?? (Right and wrong answers only)
There is a reason people (me) believe in lab gremlins.
Ok lab folks- what’s your favorite way to appease/stave off/remove lab gremlins?? (Right and wrong answers only)
February 14, 2026 at 8:08 PM
🧪🔭
Today is the 36th anniversary of the pale blue dot picture. Yesterday we did a journal club about a classic Sagan paper and my grad student BP ended by sharing this video. I’d heard the more polished pale blue dot speech so many times but I find this one to be more human
youtu.be/tgQ1PtkZvGU?...
youtu.be/tgQ1PtkZvGU?...
Carl Sagan unveils the Pale Blue Dot image
YouTube video by The Planetary Society
youtu.be
February 14, 2026 at 6:06 PM
Today is the 36th anniversary of the pale blue dot picture. Yesterday we did a journal club about a classic Sagan paper and my grad student BP ended by sharing this video. I’d heard the more polished pale blue dot speech so many times but I find this one to be more human
youtu.be/tgQ1PtkZvGU?...
youtu.be/tgQ1PtkZvGU?...
Reposted by Sarah Hörst
Roses are red
Sunflowers are tall
Sweep the midterms
Then impeach them all
Sunflowers are tall
Sweep the midterms
Then impeach them all
February 14, 2026 at 5:31 PM
Roses are red
Sunflowers are tall
Sweep the midterms
Then impeach them all
Sunflowers are tall
Sweep the midterms
Then impeach them all
Reposted by Sarah Hörst
It only took me a month, but I finally made a volunteer page on Stand With Minnesota. Because we are about to need a lot of freaking volunteers. Help us keep Minnesota housed!
Volunteer — Stand With Minnesota
www.standwithminnesota.com
February 14, 2026 at 4:53 PM
It only took me a month, but I finally made a volunteer page on Stand With Minnesota. Because we are about to need a lot of freaking volunteers. Help us keep Minnesota housed!
Reposted by Sarah Hörst
The Pale Blue Dot was just one frame out of a mosaic of 60 images recorded by the Voyager 1 cameras #OTD in 1990.
Earth, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are all visible, though Earth and Venus were each just a fraction of a pixel. (2/n)
science.nasa.gov/photojournal...
Earth, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are all visible, though Earth and Venus were each just a fraction of a pixel. (2/n)
science.nasa.gov/photojournal...
February 14, 2026 at 1:20 PM
The Pale Blue Dot was just one frame out of a mosaic of 60 images recorded by the Voyager 1 cameras #OTD in 1990.
Earth, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are all visible, though Earth and Venus were each just a fraction of a pixel. (2/n)
science.nasa.gov/photojournal...
Earth, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are all visible, though Earth and Venus were each just a fraction of a pixel. (2/n)
science.nasa.gov/photojournal...
Reposted by Sarah Hörst
"That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives." —Carl Sagan
Voyager 1 captured the "Pale Blue Dot" image #OTD in 1990. 🧪 🔭 🔵
Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Voyager 1 captured the "Pale Blue Dot" image #OTD in 1990. 🧪 🔭 🔵
Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech
![The "pale blue dot" photo. It shows three or four colored beams of light – optical artifacts – passing from the left side of the image to the right. The background is dark, empty space. In the topmost light beam is a single pale blue pixel. That's Earth. Sagan's quote is printed on the image. It reads ""We succeeded in taking that picture [from deep space], and, if you look at it, you see a dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived, lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history..."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:6435lftcmpvxasbkrtsw22i7/bafkreicpbthbsbsmlfm3fjysre3sbt3gyu2gjxmacrnofhibatrts2xwga@jpeg)
February 14, 2026 at 1:12 PM
"That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives." —Carl Sagan
Voyager 1 captured the "Pale Blue Dot" image #OTD in 1990. 🧪 🔭 🔵
Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Voyager 1 captured the "Pale Blue Dot" image #OTD in 1990. 🧪 🔭 🔵
Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Our undergrads made an amazing sign for one of our chambers. (They are really going through it right now with an experiment that isn’t working 🥺)
February 14, 2026 at 12:56 PM
Our undergrads made an amazing sign for one of our chambers. (They are really going through it right now with an experiment that isn’t working 🥺)
Reposted by Sarah Hörst
I posted this on instagram last year for Valentine’s Day but it’s only become more obvious so I’m reusing it this year🫠
February 14, 2026 at 1:35 AM
I posted this on instagram last year for Valentine’s Day but it’s only become more obvious so I’m reusing it this year🫠
Reposted by Sarah Hörst
The talk to your friends app and the witness the horrors app being the same app is not great for the mental health is it
February 13, 2026 at 9:37 PM
The talk to your friends app and the witness the horrors app being the same app is not great for the mental health is it
For some reason I spend most of the summer Olympics thinking: wow that’s amazing.
And most of the Winter Olympics thinking: wow humans are weird.
(Yes I’m watching curling)
And most of the Winter Olympics thinking: wow humans are weird.
(Yes I’m watching curling)
February 14, 2026 at 2:28 AM
For some reason I spend most of the summer Olympics thinking: wow that’s amazing.
And most of the Winter Olympics thinking: wow humans are weird.
(Yes I’m watching curling)
And most of the Winter Olympics thinking: wow humans are weird.
(Yes I’m watching curling)
Reposted by Sarah Hörst
“They were hellbent on not allowing anybody to help him until he was dead,” she said. “I was right there, and they — all of them — made the decision to deny me access to give him the best possible chance of survival.”
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: “I was literally begging the agent who was holding me back to let me do CPR,” she told The Intercept.
The Woman Alex Pretti Was Killed Trying to Defend Is an EMT. Federal Agents Stopped Her From Giving First Aid.
One of the women Alex Pretti was killed trying to defend is an EMT. Federal agents stopped her from giving him first aid.
interc.pt
February 13, 2026 at 7:14 PM
“They were hellbent on not allowing anybody to help him until he was dead,” she said. “I was right there, and they — all of them — made the decision to deny me access to give him the best possible chance of survival.”
Reposted by Sarah Hörst
Do I have any river nerds (preferably east coast) who wanna talk about a book idea?
February 13, 2026 at 7:56 PM
Do I have any river nerds (preferably east coast) who wanna talk about a book idea?
Reposted by Sarah Hörst
This funding is legally required to be disbursed as directed in the budget. It is illegal for this money to be withheld like this. Russell Vought and the entire Trump admin are in violation of the law and need to be prosecuted and the funding released. This is screwing over so many workers!
February 13, 2026 at 7:30 PM
This funding is legally required to be disbursed as directed in the budget. It is illegal for this money to be withheld like this. Russell Vought and the entire Trump admin are in violation of the law and need to be prosecuted and the funding released. This is screwing over so many workers!
Reposted by Sarah Hörst
If Moderna is no longer bringing vaccine trials for Epstein-Barr virus (good evidence that EB causes Multiple Sclerosis), herpes, and shingles because of Trump appointees, I want prison time for those appointees.
This might be dooming millions to disease they don’t have to experience.
This might be dooming millions to disease they don’t have to experience.
February 13, 2026 at 1:04 AM
If Moderna is no longer bringing vaccine trials for Epstein-Barr virus (good evidence that EB causes Multiple Sclerosis), herpes, and shingles because of Trump appointees, I want prison time for those appointees.
This might be dooming millions to disease they don’t have to experience.
This might be dooming millions to disease they don’t have to experience.
Reposted by Sarah Hörst
Anthropic head of AI safety quits, warning of "world in peril" & announces plan to study creative writing, as my college charges ahead in deal with Anthropic, which trained its tech on at least 25 books taken without permission from our Creative Writing faculty. www.bbc.com/news/article...
Anthropic AI safety researcher quits with 'world in peril' warning
It comes in the same week an OpenAI researcher resigned amid concerns about its decision to start testing ChatGPT ads.
www.bbc.com
February 13, 2026 at 12:46 AM
Anthropic head of AI safety quits, warning of "world in peril" & announces plan to study creative writing, as my college charges ahead in deal with Anthropic, which trained its tech on at least 25 books taken without permission from our Creative Writing faculty. www.bbc.com/news/article...
Reposted by Sarah Hörst
My friend @palermo.bsky.social’s eight year old daughter Amelia died of Batten disease, a neurodegenerative disorder, this week.
The BDSRA (Batten Disease Support Research and Advocacy Foundation) has been nominated in the Project for Awesome charity event.
projectforawesome.com/videos/proje...
The BDSRA (Batten Disease Support Research and Advocacy Foundation) has been nominated in the Project for Awesome charity event.
projectforawesome.com/videos/proje...
Project for Awesome
Join the annual charity drive to decrease worldsuck.
projectforawesome.com
February 13, 2026 at 12:39 AM
My friend @palermo.bsky.social’s eight year old daughter Amelia died of Batten disease, a neurodegenerative disorder, this week.
The BDSRA (Batten Disease Support Research and Advocacy Foundation) has been nominated in the Project for Awesome charity event.
projectforawesome.com/videos/proje...
The BDSRA (Batten Disease Support Research and Advocacy Foundation) has been nominated in the Project for Awesome charity event.
projectforawesome.com/videos/proje...
Reposted by Sarah Hörst
This is so grotesque. And if you aren't familiar with the landscape in Texas - this puts these high risk girls incredibly far from specialized care. And in Texas? Even that is very risky for pregnant people.
The Trump administration is incarcerating migrant girls in, essentially, a forced pregnancy camp.
Trump administration is sending pregnant migrant girls to South Texas shelter flagged as medically inadequate
Government sources and advocates for the children worry the goal is to concentrate them in Texas, where abortion is banned.
www.kut.org
February 12, 2026 at 10:10 PM
This is so grotesque. And if you aren't familiar with the landscape in Texas - this puts these high risk girls incredibly far from specialized care. And in Texas? Even that is very risky for pregnant people.
Hey let’s talk about cool science for once! 🧵
A new paper is out showing something that’s been discussed for about a decade…Titan may have originally been multiple Titan-ish objects that merged!
And it may have even happened recently!
Here’s the new paper: arxiv.org/abs/2602.09281
A new paper is out showing something that’s been discussed for about a decade…Titan may have originally been multiple Titan-ish objects that merged!
And it may have even happened recently!
Here’s the new paper: arxiv.org/abs/2602.09281
Origin of Hyperion and Saturn's Rings in A Two-Stage Saturnian System Instability
The age of the rings and some of the moons of Saturn is an open question, and multiple lines of evidence point to a recent (few hundred Myr ago) cataclysm involving disruption of past moons. The main ...
arxiv.org
February 12, 2026 at 3:57 PM
Hey let’s talk about cool science for once! 🧵
A new paper is out showing something that’s been discussed for about a decade…Titan may have originally been multiple Titan-ish objects that merged!
And it may have even happened recently!
Here’s the new paper: arxiv.org/abs/2602.09281
A new paper is out showing something that’s been discussed for about a decade…Titan may have originally been multiple Titan-ish objects that merged!
And it may have even happened recently!
Here’s the new paper: arxiv.org/abs/2602.09281
Reposted by Sarah Hörst
One day I just didn’t log into AIM.
I think about that a lot.
I think about that a lot.
February 12, 2026 at 3:39 PM
One day I just didn’t log into AIM.
I think about that a lot.
I think about that a lot.
Reposted by Sarah Hörst
He is lying, but he is speaking now in an aspirational tone to try to defend the existence of the agency, which is a win.
Keep the pressure on.
Keep the pressure on.
Homan: "ICE is a legitimate federal law enforcement agency. We're not out scouring the streets to disappear people or deny people their civil rights or due process."
February 12, 2026 at 2:24 PM
He is lying, but he is speaking now in an aspirational tone to try to defend the existence of the agency, which is a win.
Keep the pressure on.
Keep the pressure on.
Reposted by Sarah Hörst
🔭🧪 Are you interested in having a night sky? (Like at all?)
File comments with the FCC telling them to deny permission to Starlink for “a million satellites” and to Reflect Orbital for their giant sunlight mirror in space.
The American Astronomical Society has info on how 👇
File comments with the FCC telling them to deny permission to Starlink for “a million satellites” and to Reflect Orbital for their giant sunlight mirror in space.
The American Astronomical Society has info on how 👇
How to Submit Comments on Satellite Applications to the FCC
Step-by-step guide for submitting comments on satellite applications to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
aas.org
February 11, 2026 at 11:47 PM
🔭🧪 Are you interested in having a night sky? (Like at all?)
File comments with the FCC telling them to deny permission to Starlink for “a million satellites” and to Reflect Orbital for their giant sunlight mirror in space.
The American Astronomical Society has info on how 👇
File comments with the FCC telling them to deny permission to Starlink for “a million satellites” and to Reflect Orbital for their giant sunlight mirror in space.
The American Astronomical Society has info on how 👇
Reposted by Sarah Hörst
oh so just dumb luck these idiots didn’t shoot down a passenger aircraft
According to multiple NYT sources, it wasn’t even military personnel at Fort Bliss that fired an anti-drone laser at alleged cartel drones. It was CBP who used the weapon on loan from DoD against a child’s party balloon they mistook for a drone. The Pentagon gave CBP an anti-aircraft weapon.
February 12, 2026 at 11:36 AM
oh so just dumb luck these idiots didn’t shoot down a passenger aircraft