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usfastro.bsky.social
@usfastro.bsky.social
9 followers 43 following 5 posts
We're the astronomers at the University of South Florida in the Department of Physics.
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Reposted
stsci.edu
🔹 Researchers have shared preliminary but tantalizing results after a detailed analysis of James Webb Space Telescope archival data: a small sample of tiny galaxies that don’t fit in existing categories: go.nasa.gov/49psHPL

🧵 (4/4)
James Webb Space Telescope image showing a broad area of space with thousands of small galaxies, four of which are highlighted in pull-out boxes. The four highlighted galaxies are very small, appearing as points of light. The image isn’t continuous. Black areas of the overall image indicate where the telescope did not collect data: a vertical section in the center and a square in the lower left corner.
January 7, 2026 at 3:24 PM
Reposted
thenrao.bsky.social
NEW from #AAS247: NSF NRAO Radio Telescopes Help Reveal Cloud-9, a Starless Dark-Matter “Failed Galaxy” Near M94

https://public.nrao.edu/news/starless-dark-matter-failed-galaxy-near-m94/

#AAS #Astronomy #RadioAstronomy #VeryLargeArray #GreenBankTelescope
NSF NRAO Radio Telescopes Help Reveal Cloud-9, a Starless Dark-Matter “Failed Galaxy” Near M94 - National Radio Astronomy Observatory
Astronomers using NSF’s VLA and GBT, along with NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, have confirmed Cloud-9 near M94 as a starless, dark-matter–dominated gas cloud—offering rare evidence for long-predicted ...
public.nrao.edu
January 5, 2026 at 6:10 PM
Reposted
mcnees.bsky.social
Edwin Hubble announced OTD in 1925 that Andromeda and other spiral nebulae were in fact separate galaxies outside the Milky Way, in a paper read to an AAS meeting by H.N. Russell. The Universe was far larger than what many astronomers had imagined; more than just our little island of stars. 🧪 🔭
A black and white photo of M31, the Andromeda galaxy. It is characterized by spiral arms and dark lanes of dust and gas, with a bright center.
January 1, 2024 at 4:01 PM
Reposted
eso.org
The Eagle Nebula is a dazzling stellar nursery. In it, a cluster of massive, hot stars, NGC 6611, has just been born.

The powerful light and strong winds from these massive new arrivals are shaping light-year long pillars.

https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso0926/ 🔭

📷 ESO
A view of a Nebula, filled with glowing pink and red clouds of gas illuminated by bright, young stars. Dark, finger-like pillars of dust stretch upward from the nebula’s center. Countless stars of varying brightness sparkle across the scene.
December 25, 2025 at 1:01 PM
Reposted
spacemarschall.net
What are asteroids made of? Among others, these tiny iron oxide crystals. These come from samples returned from Bennu by NASA's OSIRIS-Rex mission.

This image is also up for the planetary science image of 2025: bsky.app/profile/spac...

Credit: R. Wardell/T. Gooding/T. McCoy/Smithsonian
#SciComm 🧪
The Bennu samples revealed magnetite (iron oxide) crystals less than 1 micrometer in size. The individual crystals included hexahedra (six-sided cubes) and octahedra (eight-sided polyhedra). Rob Wardell/Tim Gooding/Tim McCoy/Smithsonian Source: https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/29/science/asteroid-bennu-building-blocks-of-life
December 16, 2025 at 7:32 PM
Reposted
drfunkyspoon.bsky.social
Here astrophysicist Jason Wright does an excellent job explaining why Avi is wrong:
(7/7)
sites.psu.edu/astrowright/...
Loeb’s 3I/ATLAS “Anomalies” Explained
Avi Loeb continues to claim that 3I/ATLAS has many anomalous behaviors that lead to the conclusion that it “might” be an alien spacecraft.  He carefully hedges the probability that it is a spacecraft ...
sites.psu.edu
November 10, 2025 at 11:58 PM
Reposted
hbhammel.bsky.social
Here are the #I/ATLAS releases from varied NASA/ESA missions. Having worked with such telescope & spacecraft data for 40 years, my perspective is: no surprises. It's a comet; its differences from Solar System comets are intriguing but every comet is different! science.nasa.gov/solar-system...
November 19, 2025 at 8:42 PM
Reposted
astroryan.bsky.social
Very excited to share the NASA/ESA/STScI press release of our team's work on Apep! It's a terrific writeup, complete with a brand new beautiful visualisation of the nebula geometry.
1/? ⚛️🔭🧪
science.nasa.gov/missions/web...
Webb First to Show 4 Dust Shells 'Spiraling' Apep, Limits Long Orbit - NASA Science
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has delivered a first of its kind: a crisp mid-infrared image of a system of four serpentine spirals of dust, one expanding
science.nasa.gov
November 19, 2025 at 10:08 PM
Reposted
astrokiwi.bsky.social
3I/ATLAS is the first interstellar object bright enough for amateurs to image: so fabulous to see the delight ☄️😍
stuartatkinson.bsky.social Stuart Atkinson @stuartatkinson.bsky.social · Nov 16
I got it... I actually got it... Interstellar comet 3i, imaged from the middle of light-polluted Kendal, at 6am this morning, using my Seestar S50... This comet was already billions of years old before our Sun was even *born*... Very chuffed with this!
November 16, 2025 at 8:51 AM
Reposted
esa.int
📷 This NASA/ESA #Hubble Space Telescope image shows NGC 1511, a spiral galaxy experiencing a burst of star formation. 🧪🔭
🔗 esahubble.org/images/potw2...

@science.esa.int @stsci.edu
A spiral galaxy, tilted away so that it is seen mostly from the edge. The disc of the galaxy glows blue from its centre, due to younger stars in the spiral arms. There are large and small patches of gas, glowing in red and pink colours, where new stars are forming. Webs of dark dust are spread over the disc. The glow of the disc fades into a dark background, with a couple of stars.
November 10, 2025 at 10:54 AM
Reposted
ligo.org
We are pleased to announce our discovery of #GW241011 and #GW241110

Both come from binary black holes where one black hole is much larger than the other. The larger black holes have large spin. Could these black holes have formed in a previous merger?

ligo.org/science-summ...

#O4IsHere 🔭🧪⚛️☄️
Infographic about GW241011 and GW241110 GW241011's source contained black holes about 13 and 8 times the mass of our Sun. The spin of the bigger black hole is high and bear aligned with the orbit. GW241110's source contained black holes about 17 and 8 times the mass of our Sun. The spin of the larger black hole is high and near anti-aligned with the orbit. Credit: Shanika Galaudage/Northwestern University/Adler Planetarium
October 29, 2025 at 1:58 PM
Reposted
astroroyalscot.bsky.social
🔊Announcing a new Physics/Astro PhD scholarship scheme in Edinburgh, for students from a Black heritage, inc mixed Black background. Please help me spread the word. The scholarship covers all tuition fees, living costs & research travel. #blackinSTEM 🔭👩‍🔬⚛️

ℹ️: www.ph.ed.ac.uk/studying/pos...
October 20, 2025 at 3:52 PM
Reposted
niais.bsky.social
Are you someone who is interested in astronomy graduate school? This is a list of many/most departments and their expectations for admissions this year. Please feel free to spread it far and wide. If you are doing admissions and you'd like to update your entry, reach out as per the form!
US Astronomy Graduate Admissions, AY 2025-2026
docs.google.com
October 10, 2025 at 6:44 PM
usfastro.bsky.social
We had a wonderful colloquium today on the search for Earth-like exoplanets by Dr. Alan P. Boss, astrophysicist @carnegiescience.bsky.social and a USF graduate from way back when!
October 1, 2025 at 8:42 PM
Reposted
elisecutts.bsky.social
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin ✨ figured out what stars are made of ✨ when she was just 25. 🔭🧪

Her PhD thesis basically established the Harvard astro department — at a time when Harvard didn't officially allow woman students.

I wrote this little profile to mark the 100th anniversary of her thesis:
September 24, 2025 at 9:14 AM
Reposted
apodunofficial.bsky.social
#apod 2025-09-18
Comet C/2025 R2 (SWAN)
Image Credit: Team Ciel Austral
Web page: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250918.html
apod.180453610.bin
September 18, 2025 at 6:30 AM
usfastro.bsky.social
Ten years ago TODAY we added a 4th way to observe the universe!

The other 3:
1. electromagnetic waves (light)
2. go places with people/robots (hard/far)
3. things collide with Earth (rare-ish)
ligo.org LIGO Scientific Collaboration @ligo.org · Sep 14
Back from September 2015, this month in Physics history: Detection of waves emitted by colliding binary black holes opened a new era in astrophysics and proved that Einstein was right

www.aps.org/apsnews/2025... by Katherine Bourzac

#GW10Years 🧪⚛️🔭
September 2015: Physicists detect gravitational waves for the first time
Detection of waves emitted by colliding binary black holes opened a new era in astrophysics and proved that Einstein was right.
www.aps.org
September 14, 2025 at 7:11 PM
Reposted
mbkplus.bsky.social
Ever wonder what two merging black holes look like? Here's the clearest signal that LIGO has ever measured, of two black holes that were each approximately 33 times as massive as the Sun. The merger converted 5% of that mass into gravitational radiation — stretching and squeezing of spacetime. 🧪
waveforms versus time and frequency versus time for 2 gravitational wave detectors, showing a signal increasing with frequency and then decreasing after ~0.22 s
September 10, 2025 at 4:56 PM
Reposted
stsci.edu
Take a look at some of the nebulous gas clouds the James Webb Space Telescope has observed in its three years of science operations. #NASAWebb

Credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI. 🔭 🧪
August 24, 2025 at 7:28 PM
usfastro.bsky.social
For our first post on Bluesky, a little bit of history: from 1957-1970, the first president of USF was John S. Allen. Before leading USF, he was an astronomer! Here's his report on visual binary star 20 Persei in the Astronomical Journal in 1934:
articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1934AJ....
1934AJ.....43..104A Page 104
articles.adsabs.harvard.edu
August 20, 2025 at 1:08 PM