Dr. Jessie Christiansen
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aussiastronomer.bsky.social
Dr. Jessie Christiansen
@aussiastronomer.bsky.social
17K followers 1.2K following 4.9K posts
Caltech/IPAC Planet Hunter | Chief Scientist, NASA Exoplanet Science Institute | @TEDFellow | Science consultant | General Nerd | My views are not the views of NASA | She/her
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aussiastronomer.bsky.social
It's Friday, and apparently bluesky is ready for this fun revelation:

Dinosaurs lived on the other side the Galaxy.
November 21, 2025 at 5:11 PM
aussiastronomer.bsky.social
It's that time of year again.
The arm wrestle meme - one arm says 'My irrational investment in sporting outcomes', the second says 'My mama bear need for nooone to hurt my kids', and the clasped hands say 'My inability to handle my kids' playoff games'.
November 19, 2025 at 6:10 PM
aussiastronomer.bsky.social
Okay we don’t get a proper fall in Los Angeles but golden hour after a rain is still pretty gorgeous.
Photo of clouded hills under a tree, side lit by yellow sunlight.
November 19, 2025 at 12:35 AM
aussiastronomer.bsky.social
Overleaf not really understanding the itinerant nature of academia.
Screenshot of overleaf showing a list of places I've been in the last few months and asking me to link a new affiliation for there.
November 18, 2025 at 9:56 PM
aussiastronomer.bsky.social
New airport for me!
Photo of sunset on the Indianapolis airport concourse.
November 12, 2025 at 11:58 PM
aussiastronomer.bsky.social
Okay no-one's published a planet ephemeris in Lilian Date yet but we've seen A SURPRISING NUMBER OF THE REST OF THESE.

(And this is without counting all the TDB, UTC, TT variants of the above).
A screenshot of the wikipedia page for Julian Day, showing a very long table of the types of Julian day.
November 10, 2025 at 10:16 PM
aussiastronomer.bsky.social
My own illogical hypocrisy is keeping me awake: I love the device of paintings inside paintings, and yet I loathe the one where fictional characters declaim ‘But this isn’t a book/TV show/movie! This is real life!’
Collection of Cornelius de Geest with Paraclesus, by Willem Van Haecht
November 8, 2025 at 5:54 AM
aussiastronomer.bsky.social
Hey you. YES YOU. Super persnickety astronomer. You know who you are.

NASA Exoplanet Archive just updated our overview pages so the stars are closer to their actual colours, as per Harre & Heller (2021) and Cranmer (2021).

You're welcome. 😎

(You can thank @kevinkhu.bsky.social!)
Screenshot of the NASA Exoplanet Archive overview page for HD 4113, a triple star system with three differently coloured stars (one of which has a planet, HD 4113 b).
November 8, 2025 at 12:25 AM
aussiastronomer.bsky.social
So can do this, but not feed people. Do I have that right? Maybe I just don't understand what is meant by 'government shutdown'.
Screenshot of a Guardian "US politics live" headline that reads "Pentagon is shifting weapons purchases to 'a wartime footing', Hegseth announces.
November 7, 2025 at 9:51 PM
aussiastronomer.bsky.social
Yeah so our skylight just exploded in the middle of the night for no reason? Except obviously the reason is ‘lol it’s 2025’.
Photo of a carpet covered in broken glass.
November 5, 2025 at 7:54 AM
aussiastronomer.bsky.social
Welp.
Screenshot of the spring training countdown showing 100 days until spring training.
November 2, 2025 at 4:57 AM
aussiastronomer.bsky.social
Dressing up as the most horrifying thing I can think of - a Jessie too tired and defeated by 2025 to summon up the energy for a costume. #Halloween
Selfie of Jessie in a pink shirt and SHERA lanyard in front of some arches and trees.
October 31, 2025 at 8:40 PM
aussiastronomer.bsky.social
I wonder what Mike Davis would have said about the corruption of the current era.
A screenshot from City of Quartz, with the following sentence highlighted: “The result feels very much like the actual moral texture of the Reagan–Bush era: a supersaturation of corruption that fails any longer to outrage or even interest.”
October 30, 2025 at 3:49 AM
aussiastronomer.bsky.social
I mean, it's 2025, why the hell not.
Screenshot of a headline from The Guardian that reads "Carnivorous ‘death ball’ sponge among new species found in depths of Southern Ocean"
October 29, 2025 at 8:14 PM
aussiastronomer.bsky.social
NASA Exoplanet Archive scientists trying to spook each other on slack by coming up with the scariest Halloween exoplanet paper:
Screenshot of a slack message that reads "Five confirmed, three candidate (maybe in the RV sense), and six more mentioned in the text where it's not clear if they overlap with the other eight. And possibly another five which may or may not be published in a future paper. And all completely overlooking the fact that four of them were already published, but not clear which ones exactly."
October 28, 2025 at 7:05 PM
aussiastronomer.bsky.social
In the top panel, a figure reaches happily towards a yellow ball that is labelled 'meetings getting canceled'. In the bottom panel the figure is being grabbed in turn by a larger pink figure labeled 'recommendation letters due'.
October 28, 2025 at 7:02 PM
aussiastronomer.bsky.social
This cat is gonna loaf within an arm's reach of me and then glare at me every time I pat him? We're all making choices here.
Close up photo of a Siamese cat sleeping on a cream couch.
October 21, 2025 at 3:42 PM
aussiastronomer.bsky.social
My work is pre-sliced for me.
A four-panel comic strip. The first panel shows an adult and child looking at the sky. The adult says "This is the void. We call it void not because we know it is empty but because we do not know what it is full of". The child says "What". In the second panel they are looking at each other. The adult says "There are countless planets in the void and we do not understand them", the child replies "But we understand ours?" In the third panel they look back at the sky, and the adult says "Parts of it. The liquid is full of mystery - and it's mostly liquid." The child says "Oh", and the adult replies "There is so much to be known." In the final panel, the child looks at the sky and says "My work is pre-sliced for me" and the adult looks at the child and replies "Exactly". The comic is credited to nathanwpyle.
October 17, 2025 at 1:18 PM
aussiastronomer.bsky.social
It feels useless to point out but if we stop pointing it out that's definitely worse:

SURELY IT'S ILLEGAL FOR TRUMP TO ORGANIZE PRIVATE FINANCING FOR THE US MILITARY.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/live...
Screenshot from the live Guardian US politics blog, with the following text highlighted "Trump added that he’s spoken to a donor who said he would be willing to supplement the shortfall for paying the troops."
October 14, 2025 at 7:21 PM
aussiastronomer.bsky.social
This new thing on Etsy where people list a costume with a low price and then when you click, the price is for a "PNG File" of the costume and the costume itself is 4-20x as expensive?! Is really upsetting my 10yo daughter who just wants to Halloween shop on her allowance, and seems kinda scummy.
Screenshot of Etsy listing for a blue jumpsuit, listed as $15.06. Screenshot of the price once you've clicked through the item, showing that a PNG File is $15.06, but the actual jumpsuit is $57.96-$63.40.
October 3, 2025 at 2:21 AM
aussiastronomer.bsky.social
To be fair it IS the top headline on the front page. But maybe not as big and bold as you might have hoped.
Screenshot of the top of the NYT online website, with the headline "Trump Tells Top Brass US Cities Should Be Military 'Training Grounds'
September 30, 2025 at 4:23 PM
aussiastronomer.bsky.social
Surely, SURELY, suggesting training your military ON YOUR OWN CIVILIANS is a red line? Yes? *taps earpiece* No???

www.theguardian.com/us-news/live...
Screenshot of the live Guardian blog with the headline "Trump suggests 'dangerous cities' should be used 'as training grounds' for the military and national guard".
September 30, 2025 at 3:50 PM
aussiastronomer.bsky.social
🎶 ONE MORE DAWN, ONE MORE DAY, OOOONE DAAAAAAY MOOOOORE.
a child gorilla on the back of a parent gorilla with a hand up and mouth open like it's belting a broadway song
September 25, 2025 at 12:40 PM
aussiastronomer.bsky.social
Hooray for great students who also like musicals!! @sabinastro.bsky.social
Selfie of Jessie and Sabina in a dark theater. Photo of the purple curtain and a pink ‘Death Becomes Her’ sign hanging in the middle.
September 24, 2025 at 2:45 AM
aussiastronomer.bsky.social
[BURR] Did you hear the news about good old General Mercer?
[HAMILTON] No
[BURR] You know Clermont Street?
[HAMILTON] Yes
[BURR] They renamed it after him. The Mercer legacy is secure
[HAMILTON] Sure
[BURR] And all he had to do was die
[HAMILTON] That's a lot less work
[BURR] We oughta give it a try
Photo of the Mercer St sign
September 23, 2025 at 8:43 PM