Fun Fact Science with Kovi
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funfactscience.com
Fun Fact Science with Kovi
@funfactscience.com
3.8K followers 180 following 1.1K posts
Astrophysics PhD candidate studying stars that go snap, crackle, and pop - communicating scientist - meme aficionado.
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spending Friday night waiting for a thunderstorm to pass so that I can start my telescope observations
mocking spongebob meme with the text "radio telescopes can observe in any weather"
November 7, 2025 at 10:08 AM
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~ Frank, Destination Wedding
There are seven billion people in the world. So when one of them behaves badly toward you, he's actually doing you a great favor because he's saving you time. He's telling you that he's not worth your while. He's freeing you to say, "Thank you for the information. I will now move on to the 6,999,999,999 other people, some of whom may have some value.
November 6, 2025 at 3:06 AM
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surely this is just a temporary bug, right? RIGHT!?
October 29, 2025 at 3:47 AM
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on to the next one I guess
a man in blue jeans, white sneakers, and a grey nasa tshirt throwing his paper into Nature
October 28, 2025 at 9:20 AM
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new correlator who dis?
grid of squares showing baseline pairs between the 6 dishes of the ATCA radio telescope. most of the squares display noisey red and white signals.
October 21, 2025 at 2:59 PM
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Yesterday I had the esteemed privilege of presenting my latest research in front of Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell at a @sydney.edu.au science symposium.

What an incredible honour to speak about my work on unknown radio objects in the presence of the person who discovered pulsars!

📸 @cosmicrami.com
man in beige shirt and pants standing in front of crowd sitting in auditorium. screen shows image of a blueish star pulling material from a larger redder star. the title on the screen is "periodic radio and x-ray emission from an accreting white dwarf binary. - demystifying long period transients" man in beige shirt and pants standing in front of crowd sitting in auditorium. screen shows image of kermit the frog with the word "phenomena" above his head. the title on the screen is "what are long period transients" and the text on the screen reads "phenomenon != class" man in beige shirt and pants standing in front of crowd sitting in auditorium. screen shows still of magnetic field lines from interacting stellar binary system. the title on the screen is "emission mechanism" and the text on the screen reads "electron cyclotron maser, magnetospheric interaction, energetic electron flow"
October 21, 2025 at 2:35 AM
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I'm sure I don't know what you mean...
Text 1: reading for pleasure implies the existence of reading for pain Text 2: they're calling it a PhD
October 17, 2025 at 12:03 AM
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posted without context to the #astro feed
screenshot of the MESA documentation FAQ page where the first question is "how do you say MESA?" and the answer is "Say 'MAY-sa`" Jar jar binks looking disappointed
October 15, 2025 at 11:43 AM
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Hmm I guess they'll have to update this book
Photo of a blue book with the white text title "does it fart?" with farting yellow fish on the cover. In the background is a white fluffy husky dog and wooden floors
October 15, 2025 at 7:50 AM
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scariest 15 minutes of my life
October 3, 2025 at 12:28 PM
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any other #astro folks having issues with VizieR?
🔭☄️
October 3, 2025 at 12:15 PM
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When a surprise trip to the pet dentist derails your paper-writing plans, but at least you have the bravest dog in the southern hemisphere
White fluffy Spitz/husky dog sitting on wooden floors with a white background. Next to him a hand is holding a certificate of bravery for "showing great courage and being the best boy"
September 30, 2025 at 8:16 AM
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I might be a smidge biased but I am especially thrilled to see so much great work from Australian astronomers in this review / at the conference, including the awesome new radio stars catalogue compiled by @astrolaura.com - which more than doubled the number of known radio-bright stellar systems!
astronomical HR diagram with grey dots in the background for optical gaia stars and colourful markers showing the radio stars - colour scaled by radio luminosity from yellow (lower) to purpler (higher)
September 29, 2025 at 10:59 AM
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the studies in question:
September 24, 2025 at 1:36 AM
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can we have (data)class outside?!

thankful to have such a peaceful work environment to write/code today
laptop screen with code next to latte out of focus in foreground. background is courtyard of cafe with tables and chairs along the brick walls. plants hand from the wooden rafters.
September 24, 2025 at 12:36 AM
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your annual reminder that @astropy.org let's you define your own silly little units
from astropy import units as u smoot = u.def_unit('smoot', 1.7018 * u.m)
September 23, 2025 at 10:16 PM
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Just returned from the 6th (and sadly final) data science workshop of my LSST fellowship. I'll eventually write a longer piece describing the program, and its importance in the era of big-data astronomy. But suffice to say that the experience has had a profound impact on the trajectory of my career
Skyscrapers around the Chicago river at night. With reflections of lights from the buildings on the water
September 23, 2025 at 8:49 PM
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Made it back from the US just in time to see @raynerexplainer.bsky.social's show at Sydney Fringe: Atomically Correct.

Opening night was hilariously nerdy! If you like science and puns I'd highly recommend getting tickets for the remaining shows: sydneyfringe.com/events/rache...
Autographed (squiggled) tickets from the show. In black and white (which makes everything better). Shows a person sitting in a hula hoop.
September 23, 2025 at 1:36 PM
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get to enjoy this view every day this week
View of the Chicago skyline from the museum campus - foreground is the lake
September 15, 2025 at 8:51 PM
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The clouds cleared just enough for me to see a low-res eclipse
Partial lunar eclipse
September 7, 2025 at 5:36 PM
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"this is fine" meme but for academia
this is fine meme of cartoon dog in room on fire, but with added additional arms holding papers and coffees and laptops
September 3, 2025 at 1:35 AM
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August 29, 2025 at 1:56 AM
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This is Newton. He is a good boy.
white dog on path in front of blue water with cable-stayed bridge in the background
August 25, 2025 at 3:38 AM
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Had a great time talking about our search for radio stars and other transients this afternoon with the @sydmathinst.bsky.social 📡 🔭
Thanks to all who attended and asked great questions!
📸 Credit: @manishacaleb.bsky.social
Man with brown hair and beard in green shirt standing in front of screen presenting to audience
August 16, 2025 at 8:34 AM
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60 EPISODES OF NERDY SCIENCE!

Between the hectic rush of some recent astronomy conferences here in Sydney I completely missed this massive milestone!

Our conversation with @kscartist.bsky.social marked the end of Season 6 and nearly two years of this show.
Man in a purple spacesuit riding a rubber duck with a saturn-like ring around it. there are two dogs in spacesuits floating nearby as well as a microphone with solar panels attached like a satellite. the text at the top reads "the nerd and the scientist" the background shows a range of space mission patches white mug with blue logo of space mission patch to celebrate 60 episodes of the nerd and the scientist show. it includes an australian and united states flag, the names ROSE and SALLES, and a yellow rubber duck orbiting around the Earth an array of cover art from some of the recent nerd and the scientist episodes two men with short hair and short beards wearing black tshirts sitting in a bar holding beers and smiling
August 8, 2025 at 3:16 AM