Tracy Beck
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kineala.bsky.social
Tracy Beck
@kineala.bsky.social
29 followers 29 following 12 posts
The Phenylketonuric Astrophysicist.
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kineala.bsky.social
My sweet Naia went over the rainbow bridge this morning. Mommy will miss you forever baby girl…
November 27, 2025 at 1:02 AM
Reposted by Tracy Beck
stsci.edu
What do you get if you sign up for Inbox Astronomy? Spectacular images and astronomical discoveries! Sign up to get news from the universe right in your inbox: https://bit.ly/3KSp8IY 🔭 🧪
Promotional image for Inbox Astronomy featuring the James Webb Space Telescope against a starry background, highlighting the latest news, images, and discoveries about the universe.
November 18, 2025 at 2:54 PM
Reposted by Tracy Beck
stsci.edu
The brightest point in this Hubble image of FS Tau is a binary system, consisting of two stars orbiting each other, that have cleared much of its surrounding dust and gas away.

Credit: NASA, ESA, K. Stapelfeldt (NASA JPL), G. Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America). 🔭 🧪
A nebula that contains stars and protostars. To the right of center, there is a bright white point made up of two orbiting stars with a four-pronged diffraction pattern. At 2 o’clock from this star, there is another, smaller bright light, a protostar, surrounded by a dark, edge-on disk of matter, which appears as a vertical line. In the center of the image is a cavity where the clouds are thinner and background stars shine through. The stars and protostar are on the edges of this cavity and are surrounded by dark clouds that appear like thick smoke in the light. A thin, short blue jet of material extends roughly horizontally, emerging from both sides of the disk. The jet is interrupted by the cavity and then continues to the left, cutting through the center of the frame.
November 14, 2025 at 2:59 PM
Reposted by Tracy Beck
stsci.edu
The demand to use #NASAWebb shows no signs of slowing! For its fifth year, researchers around the world submitted a record-breaking 2,900+ proposals.

The types of requests show astronomers are ready to answer even bolder scientific questions: https://bit.ly/4nYC0LS 🔭 🧪
Illustration of the James Webb Space Telescope at the right with its gold, hexagon-shaped primary mirror and multi-layer sunshield. At left is a representation of its 18 primary mirror segments, which takes up about two-thirds of the view. Each segment is outlined in yellow and contains a different Webb image, artist’s concept, or spectrum (graph). The images display dying stars puffing off layers of gas and dust, spiral galaxies, planets, and deep fields of space spattered with fuzzy white galaxies. Three yellow, orange, and red wavy lines appear atop everything else, running left to right. The backdrop shows filaments of red gas and dust, white and blue stars, and distant galaxies, all against the black background of space.
November 12, 2025 at 3:06 PM
Reposted by Tracy Beck
jwstobserver.bsky.social
STScI received a total of 2,935 #JWST proposals requesting almost 101,751 hours of observing time for GO, Survey, Pure Parallel, Archival Research, Target of Opportunity, and Joint programs, with an oversubscription rate of 13:1. Get the details: ow.ly/Fmiq50Xqy9Q
Illustration highlighting golden mirrors of Webb Telescope in space
November 12, 2025 at 3:23 PM
Reposted by Tracy Beck
stsci.edu
Flying through Dulles Airport near D.C.? If you’re taking the Metro, expect to be awed by almost 40 recently installed images from #NASAWebb, paired with more than 30 from the ever-active Hubble, on your way to the main terminal: https://bit.ly/4qPfl7m #wmata 🔭 🧪
November 6, 2025 at 3:10 PM
Reposted by Tracy Beck
stsci.edu
NEW: Astronomers used Hubble to re-examined the prediction that the Milky Way galaxy will eventually collide with the Andromeda galaxy. They find there is only a fifty-fifty chance the two galaxies will smash together within the next 10 billion years: bit.ly/3YzymOx 🔭 🧪
A three-panel image, two at the top, and one stretched across the bottom. At top left, two spiral galaxies are widely separated against the black background of space. At top right, two face-on spiral galaxies are close together. Their spiral arms appear stretched toward each other. At bottom, two spiral galaxies have collided, resulting in a broad X-shaped patch of milky white. Mottled clouds of dark brown dust are superimposed.
June 2, 2025 at 3:03 PM
Reposted by Tracy Beck
stsci.edu
NEW: Those undulations aren’t clouds—they’re Jupiter’s aurora as seen by #NASAWebb. Webb observed light from a particular molecule, represented in orange, and found that the planet’s aurora fluctuates on timescales of minutes or seconds: webbtelescope.pub/4kbsB20 🔭 🧪
May 12, 2025 at 12:02 PM
Reposted by Tracy Beck
stsci.edu
Journey through the Carina Nebula Complex, home of the Cosmic Cliffs, in this new video produced by NASA’s Universe of Learning. Using stunning cinematic visuals, it lets you explore star formation in different wavelengths of light. 🔭 🧪
Carina Nebula Complex to Cosmic Cliffs — James Webb Space Telescope and NASA's Universe of Learning
YouTube video by Space Telescope Science Institute
youtube.com
May 8, 2025 at 7:29 PM
Reposted by Tracy Beck
stsci.edu
Experience the Cosmic Cliffs like never before! #NASAWebb’s iconic image of dusty “mountains” and “valleys” is featured in a new 3D visualization from NASA’s Universe of Learning: webbtelescope.pub/4jRHIh9 🔭 🧪
May 7, 2025 at 6:02 PM
kineala.bsky.social
Happy PKU Awareness Month!

To celebrate PKU awareness month- here’s a photo of my breakfast protein. PKU’ers cannot metabolize the amino acid phenylalanine. We have to follow a low protein diet and take phenylalanine-free medical formula.

I eat 8-10gm of protein with 75 of these pills a day.
May 2, 2025 at 2:54 PM
Reposted by Tracy Beck
stsci.edu
Take a look at the stars of the Taurus constellation in three dimensions. The familiar pattern on the sky distorts into a whole new perspective. ✨ 🔭 🧪
youtu.be/eXypAmN2fyM
The Shape of Taurus in Three Dimensions
YouTube video by Space Telescope Science Institute
youtu.be
May 1, 2025 at 2:57 PM
Reposted by Tracy Beck
wonderworm1.bsky.social
April 23, 2025 at 9:55 PM
Reposted by Tracy Beck
stsci.edu
This Hubble image shows massive stars in Gum 29, which are unleashing ultraviolet light and hurricane-force winds that etch away the enveloping gas cloud.

The result? Pillars, ridges, and filaments of gas and dust!

Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI. 🔭 🧪
Horizontal scene shows a range of orange, brown, and bright red dust mainly along the left side and top. The right edge is darkest, where there is the least dust. A thick pillar starts at left and ends near the middle. At the end of the pillar is a protrusion that looks a little like a pointing finger. The center has translucent layers of bright purple and white gas. The scene is speckled with stars. The largest stars, which appear at top left and throughout the middle, are blue and each have four bright diffraction spikes. Background stars are orange and red. The reddest stars appear most concentrated toward the right and are the smallest.
April 16, 2025 at 3:23 PM
Reposted by Tracy Beck
stsci.edu
The jets seen in Herbig-Haro 30, observed by #NASAWebb, are a part of the star formation process. As the star gathers material, much of that material is launched back out along the star’s poles as high-velocity jets.

Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, Tazaki, et al. 🔭 🧪
An edge-on view of a protoplanetary disk around a newly formed star, Herbig-Haro 30. The horizontal brown disk divides two concave, blue disks. The bottom disk is slightly more diffuse, with some filaments of gas and dust trailing off toward the bottom left, while the top disk is uniform. A white glow, indicating the central star, emanates from the center of these disks. Two mostly red jets of high velocity gas shoot in both vertical directions. The jet shooting downward is diffuse and quickly fades close to the center. In comparison, the jet shooting upward is far clearer, making it all the way to the top.
April 9, 2025 at 3:11 PM
Reposted by Tracy Beck
stsci.edu
NEW: The Crab Nebula—the result of a supernova in 1054—originally appeared as a bright, new star that was visible even in the daytime. Learn more about this storied supernova remnant on a poster of this observation from #NASAWebb: webbtelescope.pub/41VJ6rf 🔭 🧪
April 3, 2025 at 2:43 PM
Reposted by Tracy Beck
joeneguse.bsky.social
Kamala Harris warned the American people that this would happen . . .
April 3, 2025 at 8:03 PM
kineala.bsky.social
Happy springtime moment of zen. 🧘‍♀️ #bloomscrolling #springtime
March 29, 2025 at 6:04 PM
Reposted by Tracy Beck
stsci.edu
Dr. Robert Williams, former director of the Space Telescope Science Institute, recalls when the Hubble Space Telescope "looked back in time" and peered into a small patch of empty sky for ten days straight. 🔭 🧪
The image that changed our view of the Universe forever
In 1995, the Hubble Space Telescope sent back incredible image data that would change the world of astronomy.
www.bbc.com
March 27, 2025 at 3:03 PM
Reposted by Tracy Beck
stsci.edu
Using the unique infrared sensitivity of #NASAWebb, researchers can examine ancient galaxies to probe secrets of the early universe. Recently, a bright hydrogen emission from a galaxy in an unexpectedly early time in the universe’s history has been identified. (1/4) 🧵 🔭 🧪
A small red dot is in the middle of the image. To its upper left is a face-on spiral galaxy, and to its lower right is an edge-on spiral galaxy. A handful of other small background galaxies are seen against the black background of space.
March 27, 2025 at 3:22 PM
Reposted by Tracy Beck
stsci.edu
STScI Outreach Scientist Dr. Carol Christian was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She was honored for exceptional leadership in bringing astronomy to a broader range of the public, notably the seeing impaired: bit.ly/4hFWtSj 🔭 🧪
Woman with blue sky and puffy white clouds in the background, shown chest up. She has short blonde wind-swept hair. She is wearing dark sunglasses and a green t-shirt with a V- neck and short sleeves.
March 27, 2025 at 2:02 PM
Reposted by Tracy Beck
stsci.edu
NEW: For the first time, astronomers were able to capture bright auroral activity on Neptune, thanks to #NASAWebb’s infrared capabilities: webbtelescope.pub/424vcTI 🔭 🧪
A two-panel horizontal image. On the left is Neptune observed by the Hubble Space Telescope. It is a blue circle, tilted about 25 degrees to the left. There are white smudges at 7 o’clock and just above 5 o’clock. At right is an opposing view of the planet, using data from Hubble and Webb. It is a multi-hued blue orb. There are white smudges in the same spots as the image on the left, but also at the center of the planet and at the top. There are cyan smudges vertically along the right side, and the top of these areas are more translucent than the bottom.
March 26, 2025 at 10:12 AM
Reposted by Tracy Beck
stsci.edu
#NASAWebb provides high-resolution details of Herbig-Haro 49/50—an outflow from a nearby still-forming star and background galaxies. Webb reveals the fuzzy object at the tip of the outflow in the Spitzer image is actually a distant spiral galaxy: webbtelescope.pub/4iGQg9K 🔭 🧪
March 25, 2025 at 6:20 PM
kineala.bsky.social
More happy flowers! #bloomscrolling
March 25, 2025 at 4:57 PM
kineala.bsky.social
Lovely spring weekend! #bloomscrolling
March 24, 2025 at 1:04 AM