Emily Hunt
@emily.space
Postdoc @univie.ac.at
Researches the Milky Way & star clusters with machine learning
Founded the Astronomy feeds (@astronomy.blue)
🏳️🌈 🏳️⚧️ (she/her), Ⓥ
Website: https://emily.space
GitHub: https://github.com/emilyhunt
Researches the Milky Way & star clusters with machine learning
Founded the Astronomy feeds (@astronomy.blue)
🏳️🌈 🏳️⚧️ (she/her), Ⓥ
Website: https://emily.space
GitHub: https://github.com/emilyhunt
their website seems pretty odd. For instance, that's... a lot of money to charge for some Zoom talks...
November 6, 2025 at 9:30 AM
their website seems pretty odd. For instance, that's... a lot of money to charge for some Zoom talks...
my fiancée knows me well 🥺
November 4, 2025 at 6:44 PM
my fiancée knows me well 🥺
... the study is:
- some survey data
- conducted by economics profs (not: social scientists)
- does some batshit stats to reach any conclusion at all
- finds a tiny 0.4%-2.5% work time improvement!
... that's about as effective a productivity intervention as doing yoga once a week to sleep better
- some survey data
- conducted by economics profs (not: social scientists)
- does some batshit stats to reach any conclusion at all
- finds a tiny 0.4%-2.5% work time improvement!
... that's about as effective a productivity intervention as doing yoga once a week to sleep better
October 30, 2025 at 8:52 PM
... the study is:
- some survey data
- conducted by economics profs (not: social scientists)
- does some batshit stats to reach any conclusion at all
- finds a tiny 0.4%-2.5% work time improvement!
... that's about as effective a productivity intervention as doing yoga once a week to sleep better
- some survey data
- conducted by economics profs (not: social scientists)
- does some batshit stats to reach any conclusion at all
- finds a tiny 0.4%-2.5% work time improvement!
... that's about as effective a productivity intervention as doing yoga once a week to sleep better
Yet funnily enough, this claim goes almost completely uncited except for one (1!) link to a blog post (NOT a peer-reviewed paper!) by the Federal Reserve of St Louis (?)
October 30, 2025 at 8:52 PM
Yet funnily enough, this claim goes almost completely uncited except for one (1!) link to a blog post (NOT a peer-reviewed paper!) by the Federal Reserve of St Louis (?)
This is SO unhinged
These wild assertions made me think, hmmm surely you're going to put some effort into citing those
These wild assertions made me think, hmmm surely you're going to put some effort into citing those
October 30, 2025 at 8:52 PM
This is SO unhinged
These wild assertions made me think, hmmm surely you're going to put some effort into citing those
These wild assertions made me think, hmmm surely you're going to put some effort into citing those
wtf, my little blog post about uv is third on hacker news right now
October 30, 2025 at 1:57 PM
wtf, my little blog post about uv is third on hacker news right now
I recall now a good blog post about python tooling from a couple years back. Hatch is much less well developed: (excerpt from chriswarrick.com/blog/2024/01...)
October 24, 2025 at 2:52 PM
I recall now a good blog post about python tooling from a couple years back. Hatch is much less well developed: (excerpt from chriswarrick.com/blog/2024/01...)
This was a really fun hybrid approach to try! My favourite part is that the final MCMC model fit is virtually as accurate as the *best possible* (>2000 trials) XGBoost model we tried, despite XGBoost having >1000× more trainable parameters than our little logistic function 🤯 🔭☄️ #astrocode
October 24, 2025 at 8:45 AM
This was a really fun hybrid approach to try! My favourite part is that the final MCMC model fit is virtually as accurate as the *best possible* (>2000 trials) XGBoost model we tried, despite XGBoost having >1000× more trainable parameters than our little logistic function 🤯 🔭☄️ #astrocode
So basically: using machine learning to make finding & fitting a traditional model much faster. 🔭☄️ #astrocode
Because the final model is just a simple logistic on 3 params, the model parameters are interpretable, like n_50 - the median number of stars a cluster needs to be detectable
Because the final model is just a simple logistic on 3 params, the model parameters are interpretable, like n_50 - the median number of stars a cluster needs to be detectable
October 24, 2025 at 8:40 AM
So basically: using machine learning to make finding & fitting a traditional model much faster. 🔭☄️ #astrocode
Because the final model is just a simple logistic on 3 params, the model parameters are interpretable, like n_50 - the median number of stars a cluster needs to be detectable
Because the final model is just a simple logistic on 3 params, the model parameters are interpretable, like n_50 - the median number of stars a cluster needs to be detectable
My favourite part of this paper is the model. In principle, 15+ different parameters impact the detectability of a cluster - that'd be complex! 🔭☄️ #astrocode
I got that down to just three (!!!) by using SHAP to say which were important, & PySR/symbolic regression to build intuition about models
I got that down to just three (!!!) by using SHAP to say which were important, & PySR/symbolic regression to build intuition about models
October 24, 2025 at 8:40 AM
My favourite part of this paper is the model. In principle, 15+ different parameters impact the detectability of a cluster - that'd be complex! 🔭☄️ #astrocode
I got that down to just three (!!!) by using SHAP to say which were important, & PySR/symbolic regression to build intuition about models
I got that down to just three (!!!) by using SHAP to say which were important, & PySR/symbolic regression to build intuition about models
I mean, depending on how you measure it they already did 😭 about ~33% of the vote both times but a dip in popular vote. Only because of the UK's absurd voting system does he have a 'mandate' at all
October 24, 2025 at 7:13 AM
I mean, depending on how you measure it they already did 😭 about ~33% of the vote both times but a dip in popular vote. Only because of the UK's absurd voting system does he have a 'mandate' at all
yes: i was playing minecraft when i named this package
no: i am not ashamed of the acronym
no: i am not ashamed of the acronym
October 22, 2025 at 3:20 PM
yes: i was playing minecraft when i named this package
no: i am not ashamed of the acronym
no: i am not ashamed of the acronym
Selection functions are REALLY important - that's the conclusion of our new paper on the open cluster selection function! 🔭☄️ #galactic
Even simple things (like a cluster's orbit) can cause a *major* boost to cluster detectability, biasing results not corrected for selection effects in *big* ways.
Even simple things (like a cluster's orbit) can cause a *major* boost to cluster detectability, biasing results not corrected for selection effects in *big* ways.
October 22, 2025 at 12:54 PM
Selection functions are REALLY important - that's the conclusion of our new paper on the open cluster selection function! 🔭☄️ #galactic
Even simple things (like a cluster's orbit) can cause a *major* boost to cluster detectability, biasing results not corrected for selection effects in *big* ways.
Even simple things (like a cluster's orbit) can cause a *major* boost to cluster detectability, biasing results not corrected for selection effects in *big* ways.
Just submitted the paper I've been working on for the past ten months! It will be appearing on the arXiv tomorrow/tonight 👀
Complete with an accompanying Python package and open-source models+data!
Complete with an accompanying Python package and open-source models+data!
October 21, 2025 at 7:29 AM
Just submitted the paper I've been working on for the past ten months! It will be appearing on the arXiv tomorrow/tonight 👀
Complete with an accompanying Python package and open-source models+data!
Complete with an accompanying Python package and open-source models+data!
Collective punishment of 2 million civilians is still a war crime even if there is a "ceasefire"
October 15, 2025 at 7:45 AM
Collective punishment of 2 million civilians is still a war crime even if there is a "ceasefire"
Bell-Burnell very much stayed in physics and became President of the Royal Astronomical Society & later the Institute of Physics. She noticed the pulsar and it was only her persistence that got it noted. Later, she was excluded from discussions about what she found. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jocelyn...
October 8, 2025 at 7:36 PM
Bell-Burnell very much stayed in physics and became President of the Royal Astronomical Society & later the Institute of Physics. She noticed the pulsar and it was only her persistence that got it noted. Later, she was excluded from discussions about what she found. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jocelyn...
Lovely talk by @dalcantonjd.bsky.social about tons of observations of other galaxies & simulations!
One thing that caught my eye was this work led by Tobin Wainer analyzing FIRE simulations, measuring the dependence of embedded gas density on age & stellar mass - really cool! 🔭☄️
One thing that caught my eye was this work led by Tobin Wainer analyzing FIRE simulations, measuring the dependence of embedded gas density on age & stellar mass - really cool! 🔭☄️
September 15, 2025 at 8:11 AM
Lovely talk by @dalcantonjd.bsky.social about tons of observations of other galaxies & simulations!
One thing that caught my eye was this work led by Tobin Wainer analyzing FIRE simulations, measuring the dependence of embedded gas density on age & stellar mass - really cool! 🔭☄️
One thing that caught my eye was this work led by Tobin Wainer analyzing FIRE simulations, measuring the dependence of embedded gas density on age & stellar mass - really cool! 🔭☄️
This week I'm at @stellarorigins2025.bsky.social! Will try and post some of the talks and results I see
It's really cool to see astro conferences using Bluesky! #stellarorigins2025 🔭☄️
It's really cool to see astro conferences using Bluesky! #stellarorigins2025 🔭☄️
September 15, 2025 at 7:18 AM
This week I'm at @stellarorigins2025.bsky.social! Will try and post some of the talks and results I see
It's really cool to see astro conferences using Bluesky! #stellarorigins2025 🔭☄️
It's really cool to see astro conferences using Bluesky! #stellarorigins2025 🔭☄️
The streams can tell you a lot about galactic dynamics, too. E.g.: we find that one stream (Theia 368) is being disrupted by Sco Cen.
I think this is the first direct evidence of a sparse cluster being disrupted by a GMC since Spitzer proposed GMCs as a disruption mechanism in 1958 🤯
🔭☄️🧪 #galactic
I think this is the first direct evidence of a sparse cluster being disrupted by a GMC since Spitzer proposed GMCs as a disruption mechanism in 1958 🤯
🔭☄️🧪 #galactic
September 10, 2025 at 7:56 AM
The streams can tell you a lot about galactic dynamics, too. E.g.: we find that one stream (Theia 368) is being disrupted by Sco Cen.
I think this is the first direct evidence of a sparse cluster being disrupted by a GMC since Spitzer proposed GMCs as a disruption mechanism in 1958 🤯
🔭☄️🧪 #galactic
I think this is the first direct evidence of a sparse cluster being disrupted by a GMC since Spitzer proposed GMCs as a disruption mechanism in 1958 🤯
🔭☄️🧪 #galactic
What happens when a star cluster disperses? Well, it forms a stream of stars - and those streams are all around us!
In a new paper by Sebastian Ratzenböck at the CfA / @univie.ac.at, we looked into streams near to the Sun, and found that the Milky Way's disk is *full* of streams! 🔭☄️🧪 #galactic
In a new paper by Sebastian Ratzenböck at the CfA / @univie.ac.at, we looked into streams near to the Sun, and found that the Milky Way's disk is *full* of streams! 🔭☄️🧪 #galactic
September 10, 2025 at 7:56 AM
What happens when a star cluster disperses? Well, it forms a stream of stars - and those streams are all around us!
In a new paper by Sebastian Ratzenböck at the CfA / @univie.ac.at, we looked into streams near to the Sun, and found that the Milky Way's disk is *full* of streams! 🔭☄️🧪 #galactic
In a new paper by Sebastian Ratzenböck at the CfA / @univie.ac.at, we looked into streams near to the Sun, and found that the Milky Way's disk is *full* of streams! 🔭☄️🧪 #galactic
this is just the last ~9 weeks 😅 (it's really hard to draw that many lines on a map on my phone lol)
September 9, 2025 at 1:14 PM
this is just the last ~9 weeks 😅 (it's really hard to draw that many lines on a map on my phone lol)
Our galaxy is full of clouds of dust and gas. We can guess that they probably move, but it's hard to tell for sure. Until now!
A groundbreaking new paper by Martin Piecka et al. at @univie.ac.at presents the first *ever* direct measurement of the proper motion of the ISM! 🔭☄️🧪 #galactic
A groundbreaking new paper by Martin Piecka et al. at @univie.ac.at presents the first *ever* direct measurement of the proper motion of the ISM! 🔭☄️🧪 #galactic
September 8, 2025 at 11:00 AM
Our galaxy is full of clouds of dust and gas. We can guess that they probably move, but it's hard to tell for sure. Until now!
A groundbreaking new paper by Martin Piecka et al. at @univie.ac.at presents the first *ever* direct measurement of the proper motion of the ISM! 🔭☄️🧪 #galactic
A groundbreaking new paper by Martin Piecka et al. at @univie.ac.at presents the first *ever* direct measurement of the proper motion of the ISM! 🔭☄️🧪 #galactic
just about managed to catch the end of the lunar eclipse, peeking out behind a building and some clouds here in Vienna! 🔭
September 7, 2025 at 7:05 PM
just about managed to catch the end of the lunar eclipse, peeking out behind a building and some clouds here in Vienna! 🔭
bluesky hive mind: is this unhinged conference poster design actually any good?
I really want to make something eye-catching that's not just the normal black-text-on-white-background, so I turned the entire background into the main figure
still needs layout, text, & figure work, but basic concept:
I really want to make something eye-catching that's not just the normal black-text-on-white-background, so I turned the entire background into the main figure
still needs layout, text, & figure work, but basic concept:
September 6, 2025 at 9:06 PM
bluesky hive mind: is this unhinged conference poster design actually any good?
I really want to make something eye-catching that's not just the normal black-text-on-white-background, so I turned the entire background into the main figure
still needs layout, text, & figure work, but basic concept:
I really want to make something eye-catching that's not just the normal black-text-on-white-background, so I turned the entire background into the main figure
still needs layout, text, & figure work, but basic concept: