Ashley Balzer Vigil
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ashleybvigil.bsky.social
Ashley Balzer Vigil
@ashleybvigil.bsky.social
110 followers 100 following 31 posts
NASA science writer, freelance environmental writer, mom of three 💙💙🩷
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ashleybvigil.bsky.social
They looked so similar to other species that even when scientists did find them, they lumped them in with others. Genetic sequencing and an ultra-close look at their teeth, fur, and skull shapes revealed them as separate species. (Photo credit: J. Sedlock)
A closeup of a bat’s face. The poor silly guy has teeny black eyes, a large snout, and gigantic ears. As if that weren’t bad enough, it is also a ginger with lots of fuzzy reddish hair. Credit: J Sedlock
November 6, 2025 at 7:23 PM
ashleybvigil.bsky.social
Meet six new species of itty-bitty bats! They’re only about the size of a walnut and as light as a AAA battery, and their leaf-like wings help them blend right in with the trees. Researchers found them lurking in the shadowy forests of the Philippines.
A photo of a bat with outstretched wings that are so thin that they’re almost transparent. They look greenish with pink leaf-like veins. Text below the image says: scientists discover six new itty-bitty bat species.
November 6, 2025 at 7:19 PM
ashleybvigil.bsky.social
@leebillings.bsky.social’s book Five Billion Years of Solitude has ruined science writing for me, because how is anything I write ever supposed to compare to this line? 🤩
A photo of the first page of a book with one line starred and underlined: “One by one, the giant stars popped off like firecrackers, ejecting heavy elements that sizzled with radioactivity as they rode shock waves through the murk like so much scattered confetti.” The full paragraph for context is: “This story properly begins 4.6 billion years ago, with the birth of our solar system from a cloud of cold hydrogen and dust several light-years wide. The cloud was but a wisp from a much larger mass of primordial gas, a stellar nursery manufacturing massive stars destined to explode as supernovae. One by one, the giant stars popped off like firecrackers, ejecting heavy elements that sizzled with radioactivity as they rode shock waves through the murk like so much scattered confetti. One of those enriching shock waves may have compressed the cloud, our cloud, in its passage. The cloud became dense enough for gravity to seize control, and it collapsed in on itself. Most of its material fell to its…”
October 13, 2025 at 4:41 PM
ashleybvigil.bsky.social
Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2025/06/25/o...
A screenshot from the article that says: Mothers have less money in personal retirement accounts, and they also receive less money from Social Security because they're more likely to have gaps in their employment history, and their caregiving isn't valued by society in the way that it should be. Which is to say, caregiving is neither paid nor truly respected.
June 25, 2025 at 4:06 PM
ashleybvigil.bsky.social
From stargazer to storyteller ✨
www.nasa.gov/people/ashle...
A smiling woman with fair skin and dark blonde wavy hair sits at a desk with a pen and notebook. The wall behind her features a framed painting of an astronaut sitting in a field of wildflowers. Bookcases line the wall on either side of it. Photo credit: Moments by Mango A smiling woman with dark blonde wavy hair pulled half up sits at a desk and holds a spacey book up toward an open laptop. Photo credit: Moments by Mango A collage of four photos from a 2012 internship at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. Top left: a young Ashley stands beside then-center director Mike Coats; a large model rocket is in the background. Top right: Ashley and Veronica Seyl float in microgravity on the Vomit Comet. Bottom left: Ashley holds a paper up toward an off-screen camera as part of the Weightless Wonders program. Bottom right: Ashley and Veronica pose for a photo together, each in their flight suits. Ashley stands alongside a man who is looking through a camera on a tripod. On the other side of the camera, a man speaks to Ashley animatedly as part of an interview. Photo credit: Patrizia Madiona
May 29, 2025 at 11:45 PM
ashleybvigil.bsky.social
Exciting news! Roman is moving right along, with one half fresh out of a successful thermal vacuum test. We’ll have a complete observatory before the end of the year! www.nasa.gov/missions/rom...
This picture looks down into a massive black cylindrical chamber that encloses a large piece of centrally-located space hardware. The core of the space hardware is a gray cylinder, covered in crinkly metallic blanketing and thin strips of copper colored tape. The base of the core, covered in copper metallic blanketing, juts out towards the bottom, becoming more rectangular. The central core is hollow, and in the center several rods form a cone held together at the point by a flat copper blanketed disk. A dark gray visor extends upwards from the back half of the central core, its base arcing around the central circular opening. The visor extends far, stretching across the top half of the image. Symmetrical copper panels stretch outward from either side behind the visor, appearing about halfway down. They continue down the body of the central core and approach the bottom of the chamber. Six people stand to the left and right of the space hardware, divided so that three people stand on each side. One person stands in front of the space hardware. All seven people wear in white head-to-toe clean room suits with blue gloves. Various cables and pieces of hardware adorn the floor and walls of the chamber. A photo inside NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. At center, a large copper colored panel is suspended high in the air, on its way toward a large piece of hardware at the right of the frame (part of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, consisting here of the outer barrel assembly, deployable aperture cover in stowed position, and test solar panels). At the left, several technicians supervise the activity and in the background we see the other major component of the Roman observatory, consisting of the telescope, instruments, and spacecraft bus. The wall in the background at left is covered in a grid of pale pink squares (filters). An infographic of Roman’s two major subsystems — SCIPA, the spacecraft integrated payload assembly (at left) and the OSD, which consists of the outer barrel assembly, solar array sun shield, and deployable aperture cover. SCIPA will slot into the hollow OSD like a pen into its cap.
May 7, 2025 at 9:51 PM
ashleybvigil.bsky.social
Just figure we could all use a little news that isn’t so doom & gloom, and it’s an excuse to share photos of one of my favorite places on Earth!
A high-angle, wide shot of Yellowstone’s Lower Falls under a partly cloudy sky (also from 2023). Seen face-on from across the canyon, the waterfall plunges into a deep, winding canyon, creating a misty spray at its base. The canyon walls are a mix of yellow, tan, and white, contrasting with the lush green trees that line the rim and descend into the gorge. A paved walkway with railings can be seen winding along the canyon edge below, offering visitors a closer view. A 2023 photo of the Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone, seen from an elevated viewing point. The large, vibrantly colored hot spring features a deep blue center, surrounded by concentric rings of yellow, orange, and brown. Steam rises from the surface, and a boardwalk encircles part of the spring, with tiny figures of people visible. In the foreground, the tops of several bright green trees frame the view. The background is covered in trees. A deep-brown bison grazes alongside a river near a trail in this 2023 photo from Yellowstone. This 2023 photo is a close ish view of animal tracks on the textured surface of ground near a hot spring at Yellowstone. They appear on an area visitors are warned not to venture onto. Mineral deposits create intricate patterns in shades of tan and brown and dark, winding lines crisscross like veins.
April 26, 2025 at 7:17 PM
ashleybvigil.bsky.social
Instead of building toward an eruption, the volcano seems to be steadily venting gas through cracks in the rock, which lowers the risk of a catastrophic blow-up. That tracks with chemicals released from some of the park’s geysers and other surface features. 🧵
A 2023 photo of Mammoth Hot Springs. A wide, eye-level shot captures the terraced travertine formations, which look like a very flat, many-tiered cake. The terraces, built up by mineral deposits from the hot springs, cascade in shades of white, tan, and brown. Water flows gently over some of the formations, creating shallow, reflective pools. In the background, rugged mountains with patches of snow rise against the overcast sky.
April 26, 2025 at 6:57 PM
ashleybvigil.bsky.social
This layer is full of bubbles, which could be cause for alarm since the gas could increase pressure and drive an explosive eruption (a real Mentos-and-Diet-Coke situation). But it’s a leaky lid—there appears to be a natural “pressure-release valve” letting gas escape. 🧵
A 2023 photo of a steaming hot spring at Yellowstone National Park, with clear turquoise water surrounded by a pale, rocky shoreline. Clouds of steam rise into a bright blue sky filled with fluffy white clouds, while dark hills and distant trees line the horizon.
April 26, 2025 at 6:51 PM
ashleybvigil.bsky.social
A Yellowstone eruption could be fairly apocalyptic. To get a clearer picture of what’s going on beneath the surface, researchers used a massive vibroseis truck (a heavy-duty machine normally used in oil exploration) to essentially create mini earthquakes to map the subsurface, sort of like sonar. 🧵
A 53,000-pound vibroseis truck that helped the research team gather data is pictured at right on a mostly empty road at night. They could only operate the truck at night and on designated roadside turnouts. (Photo provided by Brian Schmandt).
April 26, 2025 at 6:45 PM
ashleybvigil.bsky.social
A new study shows the Yellowstone supervolcano is bubbling, but not about to blow. Scientists mapped a “pressure relief valve” beneath Yellowstone that may be keeping the volcano calm www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🧵
A 2023 photo of a geyser at Yellowstone National Park. A close ish view of a plume of thick, white steam billowing high into the sky. Rocky, mineral-stained ground is in the foreground, and a forest of sparse trees stands in the background at right.
April 26, 2025 at 6:39 PM
ashleybvigil.bsky.social
Why do we need Roman if we already have Hubble? >> science.nasa.gov/roman-and-hu...
April 23, 2025 at 6:22 PM