ewan douglas
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ewan douglas
@douglase.bsky.social
Professing on space telescopes of all sizes; Tucson, AZ.
Reposted by ewan douglas
The Habitable Worlds Observatory is early in its development as a large infrared/optical/ultraviolet space telescope. Many designs are under consideration, including this artist's concept animation. More about the planned observatory: go.nasa.gov/HWO #HWO2025 #HWO25 🔭 🧪 ☄️
July 29, 2025 at 1:23 PM
Reposted by ewan douglas
In a new paper this month from Carlos Vargas and the Aspera team, readers get updates and context for the Steward Observatory-based mission. Learn more about this bold mission that aims to study galaxy evolution through UV light: bit.ly/3INfG93
July 29, 2025 at 12:39 AM
Reposted by ewan douglas
I'm at the #HWO25 meeting this week and this morning's talks have been quite inspiring that we can actually get this thing done.
July 28, 2025 at 5:45 PM
new 🔭 paper day! Kian Milani and coauthors show how to save computing power and memory with an adjoint model to create high-contrast dark holes with a vortex coronagraph in simulation and reaching <1e-8 contrasts in the lab www.spiedigitallibrary.org/journals/Jou...
July 21, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Reposted by ewan douglas
The first photos from the Vera Rubin Observatory are stunning — thanks in part to the University of Arizona, which helped build its mirror. Proud to see Arizona leading the way in space science.
July 17, 2025 at 11:35 PM
New paper day from Carlos Vargas and the Aspera team! @stewardobservatory.bsky.social :
www.spiedigitallibrary.org/journals/Jou...
Pioneering far UV emission mapping of the circumgalactic medium with Aspera—motivation, mission status, and lessons learned
Aspera is a far ultraviolet (FUV) SmallSat mission in the NASA Astrophysics Pioneers Program with the science objectives surrounding detection and mapping of the warm-hot circumgalactic medium in emission for the first time in nearby galaxies. Aspera comprises a pair of identical long-slit FUV spectrographs optimized to detect faint extended source emission at ∼103 nm. The operations phase of the mission will include a commissioning phase, a primary science phase, and a closeout phase. Placed in a Sun-synchronous 500 to 600 km orbit, Aspera will operate in detection, mapping, and calibration modes during the primary science phase to achieve the mission’s science objectives. We note that minor damage outside of the clear aperture of the off-axis parabola mirrors was discovered during the application of high reflectance FUV coatings. It was determined that this damage was likely due to a cold welding effect when the Al optic holder came in contact with the contact point regions of the optic during the enhanced lithium fluoride coating process. These features do not affect the performance of the optic, nor do they pose any structural risk, and they can be avoided for future projects through material selection. The payload critical design is complete, and assembly of the payload began as of summer 2024.
www.spiedigitallibrary.org
July 17, 2025 at 5:22 PM
Reposted by ewan douglas
HiRISE 3D: Jezero Crater

An updated batch of anaglyphs for our July PDS release starts with this wonder 3D image of a part of Jezero Crater.

www.uahirise.org/anaglyph/ESP...
NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
#Mars #NASA #science
July 4, 2025 at 1:25 PM
Reposted by ewan douglas
This is extremely worrying. The work done at IPAC is critical to the field of astronomy in the US and worldwide.
Like many NASA projects and missions, the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute was asked to submit a closeout budget this week. Hopefully just a drill! But very difficult just the same. 💔

Regardless of what happens, I’m *so proud* of the service we have performed for the community over the years. ✨🪐💾🔭👩🏻‍🔬
July 3, 2025 at 3:52 PM
Reposted by ewan douglas
Today I remembered the NASA Exoplanet Task Force charged in 2006 with developing a 15-year strategy to "detect and characterize exo-planets". Still waiting on that space based direct imaging. 15 years out would have been 2022-ish...
July 2, 2025 at 1:55 AM
Reposted by ewan douglas
There is an economic multiplier to every science dollar spent. Just from the University of Arizona, the proposed cuts to NASA/NSF could pull hundreds of millions of dollars out of the southern Arizona economy. We are a place that has "Space is Wildcat country" banners on poles.
May 30, 2025 at 10:01 PM
Reposted by ewan douglas
"These guidelines were written by almost-retired professors who never could have met these standards back in the 1980s, when all you needed for tenure was 1.5 publications and a bottle of scotch in your desk."
buff.ly/TOh3MUc
Introducing Our University’s New, Totally Reasonable Criteria for Promotion and Tenure
Since the founding of our august institution, we have awarded promotion and tenure based on how many pages of your research we could read before fa...
www.mcsweeneys.net
May 6, 2025 at 6:30 PM
Reposted by ewan douglas
We don’t make money running these labs. That isn’t the point. We are non-profits for a reason. When NSF and NASA want me to do a project in addition to paying for the project they basically pay to rent the space the project gets done in and all that that entails (utilities, custodian, maintenance)
February 8, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Reposted by ewan douglas
I didn’t know if it might help to actually see what we are talking about with indirect costs so I did a little lab tour.

youtube.com/shorts/ttia4...
February 8, 2025
YouTube video by Sarah Horst
youtube.com
February 8, 2025 at 2:45 PM
Reposted by ewan douglas
The Lunar and Planetary Laboratory will be hosting its annual Art of Planetary Science exhibition from February 21-23, 2025, with the theme of 50 Years of Discovery and Mystery on Mars. At the Kuiper Space Sciences building on the mall at the University of Arizona in Tucson.

#PlanetSci
Home
www.lpl.arizona.edu
February 1, 2025 at 1:42 PM
Reposted by ewan douglas
If you are in LA, highly recommend the Watch Duty wildfire site/app for information. Stay safe, friends
app.watchduty.org
Watch Duty - Wildfire Maps & Alerts
Real-time information about wildfire and firefighting efforts nearby
app.watchduty.org
January 7, 2025 at 10:00 PM
Reposted by ewan douglas
“Women leave or consider leaving [faculty positions] because of workplace climate more often than work-life balance.” www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Gender and retention patterns among U.S. faculty
Women faculty are more likely to leave their jobs than men, most often due to workplace climate, rather than work-life balance.
www.science.org
December 24, 2024 at 3:10 PM
Reposted by ewan douglas
Welp, there's now a news item up, so I guess it's official.

www.itl.arizona.edu/news/changin...
December 18, 2024 at 5:24 AM
Reposted by ewan douglas
Exploring Tucson? The New York Times recommends heading to the Mt. Lemmon SkyCenter, where scientists lead "staggering viewings through giant telescopes." Be sure to book your viewing! skycenter.arizona.edu/news/nyt-spe...
The NYT Spends 36 Hours in Tucson - Including the Mt. Lemmon SkyCenter
skycenter.arizona.edu
November 21, 2024 at 10:59 PM
Reposted by ewan douglas
Kinds of 🔭 instrumentation papers
November 18, 2024 at 4:18 AM
Reposted by ewan douglas
One place where Bluesky could help replace the utility of Twitter is live conference posting. Is anyone at Exoplanets in our Backyard 3 this week? I’d love to hear how it’s going!
November 14, 2024 at 12:23 PM