Stefan Payne-Wardenaar
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stefanpw.bsky.social
Stefan Payne-Wardenaar
@stefanpw.bsky.social
190 followers 750 following 45 posts
I make astronomy (and other science) visualizations in Blender.
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stefanpw.bsky.social
Aurora from last night, in Minnesota, USA.
November 13, 2025 at 6:23 AM
Reposted by Stefan Payne-Wardenaar
science.esa.int
Stars in our galaxy make a stadium wave, Gaia finds 🙌

Our Milky Way galaxy never sits still: it rotates and wobbles 🌀

But #ESAGaia has just revealed that our galaxy also has a giant wave rippling outwards from its centre 👉 www.esa.int/Science_Expl... 🔭 🧪 ☄️
This image consists of two sides. Left side: A top-down view of a spiral galaxy is shown. It has a bright central bulge with several spiral arms radiating outward. Overlaid on the lower part of the galaxy is a data visualisation, with colours ranging from blue to red. A label reading ‘Sun’ marks a specific location within this overlay. Right side: An edge-on view of the same spiral galaxy is presented. It reveals the galaxy's thin disc and central bulge from the side. Coloured points are scattered along the disc, representing the same data as the overlay on the left side. The image features a dark background with a thin, bright horizontal line running across the centre. This is our galaxy’s disc. Above and below this line, numerous white arrows point upward and downward. These arrows vary in length and are spread evenly along the line. Scattered among the arrows are small red and blue dots. The visual resembles an astronomical data visualisation, illustrating positions and motions of stars in our galaxy.
September 30, 2025 at 1:01 PM
stefanpw.bsky.social
An update of this classic diagram, using a top-down view with the updated Hα from McCallum et. al. 2025, and a new side-view from a different angle than previous ones to show the Sun's location. From this angle the disk is warping "down" towards the camera!

www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed...
An artist’s impression of our Milky Way galaxy, a roughly 13 billon-year-old ‘barred spiral galaxy’ that is home to a few hundred billion stars. On the left, a face-on view shows the spiral structure of the Galactic Disc, where the majority of stars are located, interspersed with a diffuse mixture of gas and cosmic dust. The disc measures about 100 000 light-years across, and the Sun sits about half way between its centre and periphery. On the right, an edge-on view reveals the flattened and warped shape of the disc. In this orientation, the disc warps 'down' towards our point-of-view: the dust lanes in the foreground are coming down from the galactic plane.
September 26, 2025 at 1:38 AM
Reposted by Stefan Payne-Wardenaar
science.esa.int
🐦 Fly through a 3D map of stellar nurseries ✨

Scientists have created the most accurate 3D map of star-formation regions in our Milky Way galaxy, based on data from #ESAGaia.

The map extends to a distance of 4000 light-years from us, with the Sun at the centre 👉 www.esa.int/Science_Expl... 🔭 🧪
September 16, 2025 at 12:09 PM
Reposted by Stefan Payne-Wardenaar
stsci.edu
Watch as the familiar pattern of the Scorpius constellation distorts into a whole new perspective.

The opening of the sequence pans up to Scorpius in the night sky. The brightest star in the constellation, Antares, is a red supergiant known as the "heart of the Scorpion." 🔭 🧪
September 2, 2025 at 12:53 PM
stefanpw.bsky.social
Need to update my Betelgeuse model...
noirlab.edu/public/news/...
Gemini North Discovers Long-Predicted Stellar Companion of Betelgeuse - Gemini North telescope in Hawai‘i reveals never-before-seen companion to Betelgeuse, solving millennia-old mystery
Astronomers have discovered a companion star in an incredibly tight orbit around Betelgeuse using the NASA and U.S. National Science Foundation-funded ‘Alopeke instrument on Gemini North, one half of ...
noirlab.edu
July 21, 2025 at 8:08 PM
stefanpw.bsky.social
Quick timelapse of the start of the Lunar Eclipse last night!

Used a basic zoom lens on a tripod and stabilized in post, some day I'll get a fancier setup...
March 14, 2025 at 11:34 PM
Reposted by Stefan Payne-Wardenaar
galaxymap.bsky.social
I added my comments on the end of Gaia Mission observations here: mastodon.social/@galaxy_map/...
January 15, 2025 at 9:17 AM
stefanpw.bsky.social
My current best guess at what the Milky Way looks like, based in large part on Gaia Data.
See @esascience for more details! and @HdAstro for more Milky Way and other visualizations coming soon...
The Milky Way galaxy, showed edge on with a central bulge and warp The Milky Way galaxy, shown with a bar, 5 messy arms.
January 15, 2025 at 9:25 AM