Meg Schwamb
@megschwamb.bsky.social
Planetary scientist & astronomer at Queen’s University Belfast: KBOs, Planet Four(Mars), exoplanets (Planet Hunters NGTS) ,LSST SSSC co-chair. Opinions posted are my own. Pronouns: she/her
My current office door
November 25, 2025 at 8:57 PM
My current office door
I spent the morning making draft figures for my School's Athena Swan Gold application. Here's the draft timeline/infographic template for showing progression on goals/impact in regards to gender equality
October 12, 2025 at 12:15 PM
I spent the morning making draft figures for my School's Athena Swan Gold application. Here's the draft timeline/infographic template for showing progression on goals/impact in regards to gender equality
I decided to decorate my office door and window for Halloween as October is going to feel super busy with teaching, a new grad student starting, and revising the School Athena Swan draft report. Looking at the decorations would amuse me every time I see them. Happy Halloween month a bit early.
September 27, 2025 at 9:20 AM
I decided to decorate my office door and window for Halloween as October is going to feel super busy with teaching, a new grad student starting, and revising the School Athena Swan draft report. Looking at the decorations would amuse me every time I see them. Happy Halloween month a bit early.
Meet our new Astrophysics Research Centre plants - makes our entrance to the Research Centre a bit cheerier
September 25, 2025 at 11:36 AM
Meet our new Astrophysics Research Centre plants - makes our entrance to the Research Centre a bit cheerier
Apparently this geriatric 18 year old kitty missed me a bunch while I was in Finland or the weather has gotten cooler into proper Fall temps or maybe both.
September 14, 2025 at 8:17 AM
Apparently this geriatric 18 year old kitty missed me a bunch while I was in Finland or the weather has gotten cooler into proper Fall temps or maybe both.
I'm coming out of a low energy state post conferencing. Before that it was a few busy weeks. Here's what I was working over the past few days. Trying to understand the distributions of visits and sky coverage of the Rubin Observatory science validation survey & 2 months of Rubin survey observations
August 15, 2025 at 4:29 PM
I'm coming out of a low energy state post conferencing. Before that it was a few busy weeks. Here's what I was working over the past few days. Trying to understand the distributions of visits and sky coverage of the Rubin Observatory science validation survey & 2 months of Rubin survey observations
A resin 3D print of the Simonyi Survey Telescope just showed up in my office. An outreach test 3D print that I apparently get to keep! So cool to see the detail of the telescope that will take the observations that make up the Legacy Survey of Space and Time
August 8, 2025 at 1:22 PM
A resin 3D print of the Simonyi Survey Telescope just showed up in my office. An outreach test 3D print that I apparently get to keep! So cool to see the detail of the telescope that will take the observations that make up the Legacy Survey of Space and Time
it's easier to take what you think the asteroid belt looks like and apply all the observational biases one by one (if your survey is well calibrated) then compare what you think should have been discovered in your wide field survey
June 4, 2025 at 11:32 AM
it's easier to take what you think the asteroid belt looks like and apply all the observational biases one by one (if your survey is well calibrated) then compare what you think should have been discovered in your wide field survey
Later this year, an amazing new observing facility will come fully online. The Vera C. Rubin Observatory (@vrubinobs.bsky.social) - It's going to observer the entire visible sky from its perch in Chile,every three nights, for the next ten years. Artist credit: NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/P. Marenfeld
June 4, 2025 at 9:34 AM
Later this year, an amazing new observing facility will come fully online. The Vera C. Rubin Observatory (@vrubinobs.bsky.social) - It's going to observer the entire visible sky from its perch in Chile,every three nights, for the next ten years. Artist credit: NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/P. Marenfeld
I've got some thoughts on this - I wouldn't call it a dwarf planet. H (absolute mag proxy for size) < 3 where you see the significant deviation from the absolute magnitude trend due to the change in albedo ( how shiny the surface is). I always refer to the Brown review Chapter on Large KBOs
May 22, 2025 at 6:10 AM
I've got some thoughts on this - I wouldn't call it a dwarf planet. H (absolute mag proxy for size) < 3 where you see the significant deviation from the absolute magnitude trend due to the change in albedo ( how shiny the surface is). I always refer to the Brown review Chapter on Large KBOs
On a trip to do some fun scicomm stuff today. It involves the afternoon spent here. Any guesses where I am?
March 24, 2025 at 3:27 PM
On a trip to do some fun scicomm stuff today. It involves the afternoon spent here. Any guesses where I am?
I am in Seattle at the University of Washington for the week to work with a team of researchers and software engineers about orbit fitting at the scale of the LSST.
March 11, 2025 at 12:44 AM
I am in Seattle at the University of Washington for the week to work with a team of researchers and software engineers about orbit fitting at the scale of the LSST.
Survived my Astronomy on Tap talk and my lipstick did not run. Lots of awesome questions from the audience
February 18, 2025 at 7:54 PM
Survived my Astronomy on Tap talk and my lipstick did not run. Lots of awesome questions from the audience
Ready for Astronomy on Tap in Belfast tonight as part of NI Science Festival
February 18, 2025 at 5:35 PM
Ready for Astronomy on Tap in Belfast tonight as part of NI Science Festival
Queen's University Belfast is advertising a PhD project with my group mining the first Solar System data from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory's Legacy Survey of Space and Time . Applications deadline Friday February 7th 2025 🔭 🧪
January 16, 2025 at 5:51 PM
Queen's University Belfast is advertising a PhD project with my group mining the first Solar System data from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory's Legacy Survey of Space and Time . Applications deadline Friday February 7th 2025 🔭 🧪
I've made this figure to keep track of the progress (note - I made this myself and these are in my opinion are the steps towards fully commissioning the Solar System Processing Pipeline
December 3, 2024 at 5:20 PM
I've made this figure to keep track of the progress (note - I made this myself and these are in my opinion are the steps towards fully commissioning the Solar System Processing Pipeline
Been struggling to read for fun. Finally been able to start reading again. I’m trying to take part of Sunday mornings to read. I’m on the last chapter of @chrislintott.bsky.social’s book. I’ve been really enjoying it. I highly recommend gifting it to your friendly science nerd this holiday season.
November 10, 2024 at 11:54 AM
Been struggling to read for fun. Finally been able to start reading again. I’m trying to take part of Sunday mornings to read. I’m on the last chapter of @chrislintott.bsky.social’s book. I’ve been really enjoying it. I highly recommend gifting it to your friendly science nerd this holiday season.
Wow! I think I can see the faint flow of the aurora even from the bright skies in Belfast
October 10, 2024 at 9:06 PM
Wow! I think I can see the faint flow of the aurora even from the bright skies in Belfast
Another door opened up in the unofficial @vrubinobs.bsky.social commissioning advent calendar (the main mirror M1/M3 a primary and tertiary mirrors combined) has been installed last week
October 8, 2024 at 2:04 PM
Another door opened up in the unofficial @vrubinobs.bsky.social commissioning advent calendar (the main mirror M1/M3 a primary and tertiary mirrors combined) has been installed last week
I am intrigued by everyone’s number, but not sure it really means anything that deep. But anyway here’s mine
September 17, 2024 at 9:05 PM
I am intrigued by everyone’s number, but not sure it really means anything that deep. But anyway here’s mine