Ankita Mondal
LightNews LightNews
banner
astrowithankita.bsky.social
Ankita Mondal
@astrowithankita.bsky.social
39 followers 63 following 2 posts
Caffeinated Introvert, who studies galactic archaeology 🌌
PhD student at @swinburne!💫 (she/her)
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Ankita Mondal
ligo.org
"Ten years ago, scientists heard the universe rumble for the first time. That first discovery of gravitational waves began a new era of astronomy."

@simon-stevenson.bsky.social writes about gravitational-wave astronomy today

theconversation.com/10-years-ago...

#GW10Years 🔭🧪⚛️

🖼️: C Knox
A portrait of Einstein and Hawking with a binary black hole in between. It is rather dramatic, and shows cool light-bending effects.
September 12, 2025 at 9:29 PM
Reposted by Ankita Mondal
ohdearz.bsky.social
Tips and resources for those who would be interested in pursuing an astro PhD outside this US and applying for programs this Fall, put together by Floor Broekgaarden, Ana Lam, Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz, Deana Tanguay! 🔭 docs.google.com/document/u/0...
August 15, 2025 at 10:57 PM
Reposted by Ankita Mondal
astronerdika.bsky.social
Heard the latest news from the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaboration? We detected the collision of the most massive pair of black holes so far: #GW231123 weighing in at ~137 + ~103 times the mass of the Sun!

So to celebrate, here’s a handy chart ✨

Just how chonky are these black holes? 🤔
An infographic titled "How BIG are the BLACK HOLES we find with GRAVITATIONAL WAVES?" by @astronerdika. The graphic displays a range of black hole masses detected via gravitational waves, categorized by their size in solar masses (mass of the Sun) and represented with playful cat-like black hole illustrations. The categories from left to right are: 1. "<5 times the mass of the Sun" - Labeled "smol" - Very small black hole illustration represented by a curled up black cat - Arrow pointing left: "THIS WAY TO NEUTRON STARS" - Example: "Big component of GW230529 (~3.6 times the mass of the Sun)" 2. "~10 times the mass of the Sun" - Labeled "basic" - Slightly larger black hole cat illustration - Caption: "LOTS OF BLACK HOLES" 3. "~35–45 times the mass of the Sun" - Labeled "hefty" - Bigger black hole cat illustration - Continues the idea of a populated range 4. ">60 times the mass of the Sun" - Labeled "chonky" - Large black hole cat illustration - Caption: "FORBIDDEN TERRITORY? (can these even be made from the collapse of star cores?!)" - Example: "Components of GW190521 (~85 + ~66 times the mass of the Sun)" 5. ">100 times the mass of the Sun" - Labeled "oh lawd" - Very large, curled-up black hole cat illustration - Arrow pointing right: "THIS WAY TO INTERMEDIATE MASS BLACK HOLES" - Example: "Components of GW231123 (~137 + ~103 times the mass of the Sun)" Below the categories is a stylized black curve representing the inferred population of black holes detected by LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA. It rises sharply in the "basic" range and falls off toward the "hefty" and "chonky" ranges, with a note reading: "this curve is an artistic representation of the black hole population inferred by LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA." This infographic draws from the “Chonky Cat” meme.
July 26, 2025 at 10:43 AM
Reposted by Ankita Mondal
emily.space
An absolutely fantastic textbook on statistics and machine learning by Prof. Yuan-Sen Ting came out this week - and it's free! #astromethods ☄️

I had a read and it's incredibly comprehensive and well-written - I expect this to become *the* foundation book on stats & ML basics in astro.
Statistical Machine Learning for Astronomy -- A Textbook
This textbook provides a systematic treatment of statistical machine learning for astronomical research through the lens of Bayesian inference, developing a unified framework that reveals connections ...
arxiv.org
June 19, 2025 at 6:34 PM
Reposted by Ankita Mondal
chrislintott.bsky.social
An astonishing headline reporting on new observations from a team led to Nikku Madhusudhan claims they’ve found ‘hints of life’ on a planet orbiting a dwarf star some 124 light years away. What’s going on? (1/n) www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... 🔭 🧪
Promising hints of life found on distant planet K2-18b
Scientists find new but tentative evidence that a faraway world orbiting another star may be home to life.
www.bbc.co.uk
April 17, 2025 at 3:24 AM
Reposted by Ankita Mondal
operations.esa.int
Farewell, Gaia! Spacecraft Operations Manager Peter Collins confirms that Gaia has fallen silent, having been successfully passivated and switched off after more than a decade spent mapping the cosmos.

www.esa.int/Enabling_Sup...
Farewell, Gaia! Spacecraft operations come to an end
The European Space Agency (ESA) has powered down its Gaia spacecraft after more than a decade spent gathering data that are now being used to unravel the secrets of our home galaxy.On 27 March 2025, G...
www.esa.int
March 27, 2025 at 10:08 AM
Reposted by Ankita Mondal
astrobites.bsky.social
From Pranav Satheesh: Are you new to Git and Github? Do you wish to use version control in your projects? Then this guide is just the right thing for you. #Astronomy

astrobites.org/2023/09/29/g...
Git Started: A guide to using version control in your projects
Are you new to Git and Github? Do you wish to use version control in your projects? Then this guide is just the right thing for you.
astrobites.org
September 29, 2023 at 3:40 PM