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terrasabaea.bsky.social
Aster Cowart
@terrasabaea.bsky.social
2K followers 210 following 200 posts
(she/her) Backseat driver for MSL Curiosity, Mars bit witch, amateur astronomer.
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terrasabaea.bsky.social
Peace and love from planet Mars (Curiosity NavCam imaging from the afternoon of Sol 4623, August 8, 2025)
A rounded area of sandy pits are intersected by rocky ridges to form a peace sign shape on the Martian surface.
August 8, 2025 at 4:18 PM
terrasabaea.bsky.social
Would like to point out there's a section in the EO issued yesterday that might outright bar trans people from obtaining federal research grants.

www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...
(ii) Discretionary awards shall not be used to fund, promote, encourage, subsidize, or facilitate: (A) racial preferences or other forms of racial discrimination by the grant recipient, including activities where race or intentional proxies for race will be used as a selection criterion for employment or program participation; (B) denial by the grant recipient of the sex binary in humans or the notion that sex is a chosen or mutable characteristic;
August 8, 2025 at 2:57 PM
terrasabaea.bsky.social
Spotted a cool rock on Mars on Wednesday
A monochrome photo of a rock. The rock contains several cross-bedded layers.
April 4, 2025 at 7:08 PM
terrasabaea.bsky.social
Had a wonderful time at the orchid exhibition last night! Super vibrant colors everywhere
An orchid planter with white, yellow, and red orchids set against a white wall. Gulal powder coats the plants.
March 15, 2025 at 4:56 PM
terrasabaea.bsky.social
Interested in elemental sulfur on Mars? Check out my #LPSC2025 poster this evening, where I look at the deposit from scales small to big! I am not actually in person, but with the help of my friend Carlos Gary-Bicas, I'm hoping to have a virtual presence! Stop by and say hi if you get a chance!
A poster in the LPSC hall. The poster is titled "Textural Relationships Associated with a Martian Native Sulfur Deposit in Gale Crater". A context map shows the location of the deposit in Gediz Vallis. A large photo shows a zoned block with a tan interior and a gray, crusty rim. It is surrounded by MAHLI photos from the deposit, showing rock textures at micron to millimeter scales. The interior of the block has granular textures resembling typical Gale Crater bedrock. The outer zone has grayish and whitish coatings. Elemental sulfur stones scattered around the block have a smooth, light appearance. A wider view of a crushed elemental sulfur rock shows internal voids and possible crystal growths. Photos from various locations on the outcrop show a vertical drop-off in sulfur stone abundance and sulfur-rich alteration textures. Some observations also suggest that the elemental sulfur was emplaced within porosity existing within the upper Gediz Vallis ridge deposit. These suggest sulfur was emplaced primarily near the base of the channel, likely through a "bottom-up" mechanism.
March 13, 2025 at 3:15 PM
terrasabaea.bsky.social
The new coronagraph on GOES-19 is pretty neat! The Earth pops in to say hi daily for a couple months around the equinoxes. Here's a partial eclipse from 615 GMT this morning with the Sun peeking over the Antarctic. The 100 km airglow shell, a few South American cities and fishing fleets are visible.
Coronagraph image of the sun. The sun is blocked by a black disk at the center of the image. Scattered light causes internal reflections. The Earth fills the upper half of the image, with cities and fishing fleets visible as bright spots visible on the bottom right part of the disk. Above the dark surface is a bright, thin band of light. Some stars and coronal streamers are visible in the bottom half of the image. The same image with cites and fishing fleets labeled. Large cities, such as Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Santiago, and Asuncion are identified.
February 26, 2025 at 10:21 PM
terrasabaea.bsky.social
In case you have Wizard Morality and would like to make a bunch of copies to leave laying around somewhere, here are the zine pages to print on 8x11 stock. Print two-sided, cut in half horizontally at middle, stack and staple.
Print sheet 1 for A Planetary Scientist's Guide to the Trans Experience Print sheet 2 for A Planetary Scientist's Guide to the Trans Experience Print sheet 3 for A Planetary Scientist's Guide to the Trans Experience Print sheet 4 for A Planetary Scientist's Guide to the Trans Experience
February 4, 2025 at 8:12 PM
terrasabaea.bsky.social
It scares me a little to share this, because I think publicly connecting myself to it paints a clear target on my back. But the current admin is taking a clear trans eliminationist position, so I think that target is already there. I just hope that this connects with someone.
Page twelve ...hormone replacement therapy (HRT). Under the proposed rule, all facilities offering HRT would be required to hire addtional psychiatrists, endocrinologists, and medical ethicists to develop new care plans and evaluate patients. These new standards threatened to greatly decrease the number of providers capabile of delivering these services, in addition to increasing the cost of care. While these rules were ultimately not adopted, they illustrate the precarity of our ability to receive care. A series of near-misses with no intervention will eventually land a hit. I initially wanted to write an explainer about these laws and how they specifically function to make our lives difficult, but found it too painful. I would deeply appreciate if you could take some time to explore the anti-trans laws which have passed or are currently under... Page 13 ...consideration in your own states. The following QR code will take you to an American Civil Liberties Union tracker summarizing anti-trans bills which have been proposed in the last few years. A qr code is located here. Link to the page in the QR code: https://www.aclu.org/legislative-attacks-on-Igbtq-rights-2024 Page 14 Header: Nominative Determinism There is nothing of ourselves in space. The cosmos is utterly alien; what artifacts of humanity lie beyond Earth are constructed in our minds and with our bodies. Our understanding is imposed. Imperfect. There is no such thing as a planet, a sandstone, an asteroid, or a black hole. These are not names the universe has applied to these objects. They do not call themselves anything. They simply are. Those are our words, our labels. Categories with definitions and edge cases. We use these words until they become inconvenient, and in this inconvenience we find discovery and deeper understanding. Insisting that definitions can be perfected until no more edge cases remain is to impose a false sense of intellectual security on the universe. A category is only a corrleation between process and an outcome, a well-trod pathway within a vast parameter space. When we see an outcome which cannot be reached along those paths, we search for a new path. Ninsi'anna, Jīn-xīng, Nok Ek, Shukra, Hokuloa, Zuhara, Kinsei, Lucifer, Venus: a single world with innumerable names and stories of its life. A series of panels shows an astronaut escaping a damaged spacecraft, cocooning themselves in an inflatable heatshield, and descending to the planet's surface.
February 4, 2025 at 8:08 PM
terrasabaea.bsky.social
This pamphlet is already getting out of date. Last week's executive orders attempt to nationalize many of the state level anti-trans laws. As of Friday, it is illegal for me to use the bathroom in a Federal facility.
Page eight Please respect a person's pronouns. A trans man using 'he' is not a 'they', and neither is a trans woman using 'she'. 'Deadnames' are an abandoned given name. They are called that because the given name is what families often choose to put on a grave over that person's wishes. If a person no longer uses their given name, do not keep using it. If they introduce themselves under a chosen name, no one needs to know their given name. We do not 'identify as', we are. Page nine Header: Anti-Trans Laws This pamphlet was spurred by the wave of anti-trans bills being drafted across the United States. These bills do not have to become law to have personal and professional repercussions. The inflammatory rhetoric that accompanies them is crafted to otherize us, spread misinformation about who we are, and paint a target on our backs. When anti-trans activists and politicians talk about bathroom bills, notice that they are sexualizing our bodies in non-sexual situations to paint us as a predatory presence. When they attempt to limit our ability to have our gender legally recognized, notice that they argue we are stubbornly 'denying biological reality' to paint us as delusional or mentally ill. When they talk about regulating "drag performances", notice that they are conflating... Page ten ...our choice of everyday dress with adult-oriented intertainment. When they bring up the high rates of depression and suicide within the trans community, notice that they are absolving themselves of any blame for creating a culture with an atmosphere of impunity for anti-trans discrimination and violence. You have transgender colleagues and colleagues with transgender children. Please realize when we are searching for career opportunities, we are forced to consider the political environment for the assignment, today AND tomorrow. These environments determine our ability to remain comfortable in our own skin, safely exist in public, and access our medical care. These laws are far-reaching. LGBTQ- friendly cities and university town bubbles do not... Page 11 ...provide protection from discriminatory state laws. When politicians tell you they intend to pass these laws, understand they do not intend to stop until these laws are permanently in place. Take a moment to think about the career opportunities available in just Texas and Florida alone. This conference. Two NASA centers. Contractors and subcontractors associated with those centers. Universities with prominent planetary science and engineering programs. The political environment in these states essentially makes those career opportunities non-starters. Situations can change overnight. On January 5 of this year, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine signed an executive order directing the state Department of Health to explore changing the standards for facilities to provide...
February 4, 2025 at 8:08 PM
terrasabaea.bsky.social
I wrote this ahead of LSPC in 2024, partly from seeing well-meaning people make some hurtful mistakes, partly from seeing colleagues not grasp the exclusionary nature of anti-trans laws being passed, and partly frustration that the conference continued in TX, one of the states pushing them hardest.
Page 4 A ternary diagram with corners labeled non-binary, female, male. A line with arrows shows changing proportions over time. Bold text at bottom reads "You have heard of the 'gender binary', now get ready for the GENDER TERNARY" Page 5 ...one another, and so may overlap within a single individual. Transgender experiences are shaped by a disconnect from sex assigned at birth, both in terms of the physical attributes caused by that sex and the gendered expectations following from that assignment. This disconnect creates a constellation of behaviors and feelings collectively described as 'gender dysphoria'. Common signs are distress with the primary and secondary sexual characteristics of one's body, a pervasive feeling one "faking" their birth gender, and a sense of absence from one's own body. These are not the only ways in which dysphoria manifests, and these experiences are not a requirement to be transgender. Page 6 Header: Notes for Allies When someone comes out to you, they are placing their trust in you. The information they are sharing can profoundly alter their safety and life situation if handled carelessly. After a coming out conversation, be sure you are clear on the settings where it is unsafe to use that person's new name and pronouns. Treat anyone that person is not out to as a potential safety hazard, even if you believe that person is safe. Unintentionally outing a person creates the possibility of that knowledge reaching a hostile party. You may not be able to fix a discrim-inatory environment by yourself, but you have the opportunity to create spaces where transgender people feel safe, respected, and appreciated. Page seven - If you slip up with names or pronouns, just correct yourself and move on. We know mistakes happen. Making a long apology puts us in the spotlight and draws more attention to the mistake. Unsolicited questions about genitals, sexuality, medical procedures, and personal history are extremely invasive. Socially transitioning is an emotionally taxing process, and a little extra patience goes a long way. We are generally very conscious of our bodies and gender presentation. If you want to complement us, please complement our fashion, not our bodies. A trans woman who hasn't shaved isn't any less a woman; a trans man who hasn't concealed his breasts isn't any less a man.
February 4, 2025 at 8:08 PM
terrasabaea.bsky.social
Seems the trans rights zine I wrote to hand out at conferences is no longer being mirrored by LPI, so I'll distribute it here instead. I really want to emphasize that while I *think* the explainer section summarizes the most widely-used framework of transness, it is just one among many with value.
A drawing of Pluto and its heart at the center of the transgender symbol. Underneath it is the title "A Planetary Scientist's Guide to the Trans Experience" Page 1 Header Introduction There's an old saying: if you put 40 geologists in front of an outcrop, you will get 40 different interpretations. Each inter-pretation is developed through the framework of the geologist's own disciplinary knowledge and experience. Many interpretations may use an existing framework and differ only in detail; others may adopt radically different frameworks with radically different views. These alternative frameworks often provide the insights and breakthroughs that ultimately forge a new path. In this pamphlet, I want to talk about the transgender perspective. I will be leaning on on a "consensus" description of this experience, but be aware that there is an extremely diverse range of perspectives on... Page two. ...transgender issues within the transgender community itself. I am not (and inherently cannot be) the sole authority on this issue. To start, I think it is helpful to address the concept of 'gender'. Until recently, it was standard to think of female and male as paired opposites. These concepts are linked to an idealized biological description of two sexes. This biological description takes on a social dimension with specific behaviors expected from male or female. For example, women may be biologically responsible for carrying a child to term, but expectations around child-rearing are largely social in nature. There is no biological reason why a man can't bottle feed a baby or change a diaper, but performing these actions is often socially discouraged as 'un-masculine'. Page 3 Once we recognize gender as a distinct concept from sex, we reach the idea of a 'gender binary' - a spectrum of an individual's affinity to behaviors associated with a particular gender. The transgender experience initially has its roots in this concept people born and assigned to one sex and gender, but associating more strongly with the body and gendered behaviors of another. However, other relationships to gender also exist. Consider 'non-binary' people - people who have no affinity to gender at all. From that, we could create a 'gender ternary' with male, female, and 'non-binary' on the three axes of the diagram. One's relationship to gender may also change over time - people who move around within this parameter space could be described as 'genderfluid'. These concepts are somewhat independent of...
February 4, 2025 at 8:08 PM
terrasabaea.bsky.social
Ooh, a nice set of images came down from Curiosity's ChemCam Remote MicroImager (RMI) this morning. I've processed a mosaic from the public raw images. We were looking at Grant Lake, a small crater that's a couple hundred meters from the rover. This is about as close a look as we'll get!
A black and white image of a sand-filled crater surrounded by broken and tilted boulders of rock.
December 14, 2024 at 12:32 AM
terrasabaea.bsky.social
This law comes from Tumblr/Wordpress CEO Matt Mullenweg, who in the midst of death threats directed towards tumblr's trans users, reported this post from a trans woman to the FBI as a bomb threat, used site records to find a twitter acct tied to her, and began a harassment brigade against her there.
Quote from tumblr user predstrogen: "I hope photomatt dies forever a painful death involving a car covered in hammers that explodes more than a few times and hammers go flying everywhere"
December 13, 2024 at 11:40 PM
terrasabaea.bsky.social
Every time I read shit like this, I just feel sick about what's coming. I know despair is the intended effect, but knowing that doesn't make it any less miserable.
Fight back against the trans agenda. Investigate the doctors, therapists, hospitals, and others who deceptively pushed gender confusion, puberty blockers, hormone replacement, and sex-change surgeries on children and adults while failing to disclose strong evidence that such interventions are not helpful and carry enormous risks.
December 7, 2024 at 3:04 PM
terrasabaea.bsky.social
MAHLI's cal target over the course of Curiosity's mission. This is a regular MAHLI observation taken about four times a year (~150-200 sols). The lighting reflects different times of day and amounts of dust in the air. It's neat to see how much the terrain has changed over the years!
December 6, 2024 at 11:52 PM
terrasabaea.bsky.social
A human wrote this post as a honeypot! DNI if you are a real human, otherwise let's build each other up and REPOST IF YOU AGREE WITH PRESIDENT BIDEN

#NoDemUnder1k #NoDemUnder5k #bluewave #proudblue #bluecrew
December 4, 2024 at 11:23 PM
terrasabaea.bsky.social
Jupiter Viewer appears to be using an out-of-date orbit for Juno, but inclined to say this is Amalthea. Metis and Thebe may be visible in this sequence as well, but they are so much smaller I do not think they will be obvious. Adrastea is probably too faint.
November 26, 2024 at 5:35 PM
terrasabaea.bsky.social
Spent the evening at the botanical garden's winter light show. Nice light display, a little kitsch-y, but I'm a sucker for lantern strings.
Aster standing in front of a willow lit up by underlighting with strings of Japanese lanterns hanging over a path.
November 26, 2024 at 3:08 AM
terrasabaea.bsky.social
A neat ChemCam RMI observation from Sol 4370 (November 21, 2024). What could it be? It's an odd feature that's too far away to drive over to, so we needed to point ChemCam's telescope at it to get a closer look.
A pile of dark, jagged rocks surrounded by field of smooth, lighter rocks.
November 23, 2024 at 6:21 PM
terrasabaea.bsky.social
Wednesday was a day where I was really struggling to maintain hope, but seeing images that I helped plan come down this morning remind me why it's worth gritting onwards. These are self-processed public raws of the MAHLI targets Buttermilk and Lee Vining, respectively.
MAHLI photo of a Martian rock. The rock has a gritty texture with paper-thin layers. Veins with a honeycomb-like pattern appear in the rock. MAHLI image of a Martian rock. A smooth rock has numerous thin stripes. Hairline fractures making a cellular pattern are visible across the rock face.
November 23, 2024 at 12:38 AM
terrasabaea.bsky.social
😈 nice
Screenshot of @terrasabaea's follower count. 666 followers are listed
November 19, 2024 at 11:42 PM
terrasabaea.bsky.social
Ooh, we arrived at really similar colorizations of this dataset! Makes me a little more confident in my process!
A flattened fisheye view of Jezero Crater from Perseverance's lander vision navigation system camera. The crater rim curves away into the haze.
November 19, 2024 at 12:05 AM
terrasabaea.bsky.social
uh oh
Three girls standing together. They are labeled "random internet users just trying to be comedic". A fourth girl, labeled "Apollo", is getting ready to throw a dodgeball, labeled "the gift of prophesy" at them.
November 16, 2024 at 6:57 PM
terrasabaea.bsky.social
Your last saved meme is your moral philosophy
Top text: roses are red, it's only the second week of november crying face emoji. A grid of comparisons. "What the professor covered: a rubics cube. What's on the exam: a cube pillow with hundreds of squares on it. What you remember: a panel from a yuri manga"
November 14, 2024 at 7:50 AM
terrasabaea.bsky.social
Today's giving me a lot of Rosetta memories... It's hard to believe it's been a full decade since that incredible mission. Even harder to believe I can still remember how to spell Churyumov-Gerasimenko without having to looking it up to double check!
A distant photo of Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko taken by Rosetta. The half-lit comet is partially silhouetted against its coma. On the sun-facing side, bright jets point in many directions. A long shadow projects from the night side.
November 12, 2024 at 3:59 PM