Thomas Carpentier
LightNews LightNews
banner
thocarp.bsky.social
Thomas Carpentier
@thocarp.bsky.social
7.4K followers 520 following 930 posts
PhD Researcher at the EUI in Firenze, studying the history of the European Space Agency.
Processing space telescopes data for fun

28

He/him
Posts Replies Media Videos
Pinned
thocarp.bsky.social
Thomas Carpentier @thocarp.bsky.social · Oct 11
Introduction post! I am Thomas Carpentier, I studied (and plan to continue) History of space in Toulouse, France. 🔭

My main contribution here is the data processing of space telescopes observations! Here are some examples and more on my Flickr page: www.flickr.com/people/19746...
Reposted by Thomas Carpentier
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 Thomas Carpentier
eurospacehistory.bsky.social
#OTD: 12 November 2014, @esa.int's Rosetta Philae lander made history by touching down on the surface of a comet, the first spacecraft ever to do so. The landing was confirmed at 16:03 GMT/17:03 CET 🧪🔭

www.esa.int/Science_Expl...

@cnes.fr @dlr-de.bsky.social @operations.esa.int @science.esa.int
Rosetta’s lander Philae is safely on the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, as these first two CIVA images confirm. One of the lander’s three feet can be seen in the foreground. The image is a two-image mosaic (pic: ESA/Rosetta/Philae/CIVA)
November 12, 2025 at 11:19 AM
Reposted by Thomas Carpentier
tyleraking.com
Reposting to correct an error: trump admin is quietly gutting 13 buildings and about 100 laboratories at Goddard campus that has been instrumental to Hubble and James Webb telescope missions. Staff say they’ve be locked and told to move equipment. Anything left behind will be thrown away.
NASA may be quietly gutting an iconic campus with what it calls strategic closures, workers fear
(CNN) — Alarm is growing among federal workers at NASA’s iconic Goddard Space Flight Center’s main campus in Greenbelt, Maryland — the nerve center for groundbreaking missions like the Hubble
www.wkow.com
November 5, 2025 at 3:54 PM
Reposted by Thomas Carpentier
ec-euclid.bsky.social
We are releasing seven new science publications today, based on our Q1 data release earlier this year. All revolve around galaxies, from dust to interactions to active centers.These are accompanied by two new image collages drawn from the same release.

1/

🔭 #astronomy #space #ESA
November 5, 2025 at 9:15 AM
thocarp.bsky.social
Recently I started to learn how to obtain and process data from Herschel, a former ESA space telescope (2009-13). Here's an image from one observation of that telescope! 🔭

This is the Eagle Nebula seen in infrared, and if you zoom in: the Pillars of Creation are there!

HD: flic.kr/p/2rD4JDu
An infrared observation of a dense gas cloud region, the Eagle Nebula. The whole image is covered by the gas, mostly appearing orange and blue. On the right hand side of the image lie the Pillars of Creation: three finger-like gas formations, looking like a claw. Some bright dots can be spotted as well: stars being born in that region! A focus on the Pillars of Creation
November 2, 2025 at 5:49 PM
Reposted by Thomas Carpentier
eui-eu.bsky.social
🚨 Applications Now Open for the EUI PhD Programmes 2026-2027!

📊 Economics |⚖️ Law |📘 History | 🏛 Political and Social Sciences

Join the EUI's 50th PhD cohort!

Apply by 15 January 2026 (14:00 CET) for the academic journey of a lifetime! 👉: eui.eu/phd

#EUIPhD #PhDOpportunity
November 1, 2025 at 8:15 AM
thocarp.bsky.social
A JWST wonder, once again! 🔭

This is the image of the NGC-2440 planetary nebula as seen by the JWST one year ago, that I processed last night! Look how wonderful that thing is 😍
And if you zoom on the centre, you can see a little dot which is suspect is the white dwarf!

HD: flic.kr/p/2rCzjR1
The NGC-2440 planetary nebula seen in infrared light. The outer part looks like a bubble that is expanding in every directions, appearing mostly in grey and violet colours. In the middle of that bubble lie the outer layers, appearing in orange, of the dead star being pushed away, mostly towards the right and left side of the bubble. In the very centre of that lies a little white dot, which I suspect is the remnant of the dead star: the white dwarf. Several stars and far away galaxies can be spotted in the background.
October 31, 2025 at 3:25 PM
Reposted by Thomas Carpentier
colourfulcosmos.bsky.social
Today in PASA we published a new image of our Milky Way at low radio frequencies, in unprecedented colour and detail. Here's just a tiny piece of it -- the whole thing is ten times bigger!

We're seeing high energy electrons whirl around cosmic magnetic fields from exploded stars, and more!
October 29, 2025 at 3:24 AM
thocarp.bsky.social
Achievement of the day: one of my images on the cover of a French journal, "Les Reflets de la Physique" 😎 🔭

A big thank you to @oliberne.bsky.social who made it possible!
October 22, 2025 at 12:21 PM
thocarp.bsky.social
The violent beauty of stars being born in full display thanks to the JWST! 🔭

This is the region around the HOPS-108 protostar in the Orion Nebula. There are so many beautiful jets produced by baby stars tantrum 🤩

HD: flic.kr/p/2rAgnuW
A gas region seen in infrared light. At the centre of the image lies a protostar creating jets. Other jets can be spotted in the image. The gas appears brown and blue where there is no star; orange, red and violet where stars are.
October 19, 2025 at 3:38 PM
thocarp.bsky.social
Welcome to Westerhout 3 (or W3) as seen by the JWST! 🔭

This is just a small part of the giant molecular cloud, which is itself located 6,000 light years away from us. It is actively producing new massive stars at a high rate!

HD: flic.kr/p/2rz8d85
Observation of a gas cloud in infrared light. The gas can be seen in the whole image in different colours: some blue parts, which are hotter, beige, orange and violet. A orange/red little cloud can be spotted on the left handside of the image, in front of the giant cloud. Dozens of stars can be seen as well. A nice detail: a faint bubble-like cloud can be seen on the right handside!
October 13, 2025 at 4:02 PM
thocarp.bsky.social
Last night, the JWST observed Uranus for calibration. Even like that the result is awesome, so here you go with my processed image of that observation! 🔭

HD: flic.kr/p/2ry78y3
Observation of Uranus by the JWST. The planet itself appears mostly blue, but the pole, a big patch, is white. Some storms can also be spotted near the pole. The rings of the planet can be spotted in infrared light, so they appear in that image (in orange color).
October 8, 2025 at 2:23 PM
thocarp.bsky.social
The best part of processing space telescopes' data is to discover new regions that I didn't even know existed in the first place! 🔭

This is G054.093+01.748, a star forming region in our galaxy, as seen by the JWST recently, located in the Outer Scutum–Centaurus spiral arm.

HD: flic.kr/p/2rxLQyT
A big gas cloud where new stars are being born seen in infrared light. The gas cloud itself appears in red, orange, and violet colours, occupying almost the entire image. Hundreds of dots are spread across the picture, as they are stars in our own galaxy.
October 7, 2025 at 4:47 PM
Reposted by Thomas Carpentier
kojamf.bsky.social
Dr. Jane Goodall filmed an interview with Netflix in March 2025 that she understood would only be released after her death.
October 5, 2025 at 9:08 AM
thocarp.bsky.social
There were so many people in the streets in Florence this morning, it was amazing! 🇵🇸✊

Firenze lo sa da quale parte stare!
October 3, 2025 at 2:18 PM
Reposted by Thomas Carpentier
science.esa.int
All eyes on #3I/ATLAS ☄️

Our Mars Express & ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter will observe the comet around its closest approach to Mars on 3 October 2025, when 3I/ATLAS will be around 30 million km from the red planet.

Stay tuned and follow esa.int/3IATLAS 🔭🧪
Infographic showing the path of comet 3I/ATLAS, the third known interstellar object to enter our Solar System. It displays the orbits of Earth, Mars and the Juice spacecraft around the Sun, along with key dates and events as comet 3I/ATLAS travels through the inner Solar System in 2025. Coloured and numbered dots mark important observation points by telescopes and spacecraft.
October 1, 2025 at 1:04 PM
thocarp.bsky.social
I am bringing your TL some sparkles! 🔭 ✨

This is the NGC-1850 star cluster in the LMC, as seen by Hubble! The number of stars in that part of the cluster is bonkers 🤯

Processing that data was really fun!

HD: flic.kr/p/2ruwYSH
An observation of a star cluster by the Hubble Space Telescope. Thousands of stars can be seen in the image, appearing in blue, red, orange or white colors. A blue and white veil of gas goes from the upper left part of the image to the middle down part of it.
October 1, 2025 at 12:59 PM
thocarp.bsky.social
The JWST had a new look into the IC348 star forming region last year, and here's my processed image of that observation! 🔭

IC348 is located some 1,000 light years away from us and is made of hundreds of new stars born there.

HD: flic.kr/p/2ruCvCz
A focus on a star forming region seen in infrared light. Hundreds of white dots, big and small ones, can be seen everywhere in the image as they are stars! A lot of gas can be seen in the image, covering almost every part of it. This gas is what is helping the new stars to be formed there. In the upper left part, multiple jets can be spotted: they are stars being born at this very moment! A lot of background galaxies can also be spotted in the whole image
September 21, 2025 at 10:03 AM
Reposted by Thomas Carpentier
seanfaywolfe.bsky.social
Here are some things that Charlie Kirk said in his life.

The man is dead, and so it only seems fair to share his legacy by cataloguing the values he spread while alive.
September 10, 2025 at 11:52 PM
Reposted by Thomas Carpentier
eso.org
Astronomers spot mysterious gamma-ray explosion, unlike any detected before! 💥

Our VLT revealed that its source lies outside our galaxy. Yet its cause is still unknown 🤔 Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2514/

🔭 🧪 ☄️
#extragalactic
#highenergyastro
September 9, 2025 at 12:02 PM
Reposted by Thomas Carpentier
mommunism.bsky.social
For 58€ a month I can ride on almost any public transport anywhere in Germany. Within a 15 minute walk from my house I can access 4 S Bahn lines, 3 UBahn lines, regional trains (I honestly don’t even know how many of those), 3 tram lines and at least 4 city bus lines (probably more).
economist.com The Economist @economist.com · Sep 5
Will the absence of robotaxis in Europe mark the moment its citizens notice how far their continent has fallen behind?
Robotaxis will be the Sputnik Moment for a declining Europe
A slow-motion car crash on Europe’s roads
econ.st
September 5, 2025 at 8:23 AM
thocarp.bsky.social
This is a big one! 🔭

A few weeks ago, I worked with a team of astronomers, led by Anne-Marie Lagrange, on SPHERE and MIRI data. It was about the TWA7 exoplanet, something you probably read about in June.

They asked me to produce another image, so here's the result:
A star, which has been blocked by a black circle, surrounded by three rings (the smaller one is the nearest, the biggest one the farthest). A red dot can be spotted on the right side of the second ring. The rings are in orange colour.
September 3, 2025 at 2:16 PM
thocarp.bsky.social
Starting next Monday and for the next 4 years, I will be a PhD Researcher at the EUI in Florence!

As I arrived yesterday, I decided to visit, for the first time, the historic centre of Florence, and it's just incredible!! I can't wait to see even more
The entrance and the tower of the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence The Duomo of the Cattedrale The Palazzo Vecchio The Basilica of Santa Croce
August 26, 2025 at 12:55 PM
thocarp.bsky.social
I have arachnophobia, but when it's the JWST that observes a spider, I am not scared: I am in awe! 🔭

This is the Red Spider Nebula, a planetary nebula located ~5,000 light years away, as seen by the JWST last year!

Every dot here is a star in a small part of our own galaxy

HD: flic.kr/p/2robFBx
A planetary nebula seen in near-infrared. The whole nebula looks like a spider or a scorpion, with the centre being extremely bright with red clouds around it, while the gas structure is mostly orange and yellow. Thousands of stars can be seen everywhere in the image appearing like big bright object, or little bright dots.
August 18, 2025 at 12:02 PM
thocarp.bsky.social
87M light years away from us lies this lenticular galaxy, NGC-1482. Here you can its beauty thanks to JWST/MIRI data released earlier today! 🔭

It is a starburst galaxy as well, meaning a lot of new stars are born there every years, way more than in our own Milky Way!

HD: flic.kr/p/2rnj5cs
A lenticular galaxy seen in mid-infrared light. A lenticular galaxy is a galaxy with a circular shape, but with no distinct spiral arm. The gas and dust seen in mid-infrared appear orange in the image, everywhere in the disk. The centre is way brighter than the rest. A blue veil encompasses the entire galaxy: this is the gas and dust visible in the shorter wavelength filters.
August 13, 2025 at 6:32 PM