Natasha van Bentum
@vanbentum.bsky.social
EPO (Education and Public Outreach) for green legacies, also astronomy, heliophysics. Keen snooker player.
Pinned
Natasha van Bentum
@vanbentum.bsky.social
· Nov 19
Photons take thousands and thousands of years on their 'Random Walk' from Sun's core to its surface. www.nationalgeographic.com/science/arti...
Reposted by Natasha van Bentum
The world’s largest and oldest iceberg A23a has finally come to a standstill ✋
It appears to have run aground on the sea bed near the sub-Antarctic Island of South Georgia.
Here's an illustration of its position over the last few days by @magic.bas.ac.uk ⬇️
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It appears to have run aground on the sea bed near the sub-Antarctic Island of South Georgia.
Here's an illustration of its position over the last few days by @magic.bas.ac.uk ⬇️
🧵 1/4
March 4, 2025 at 4:52 PM
The world’s largest and oldest iceberg A23a has finally come to a standstill ✋
It appears to have run aground on the sea bed near the sub-Antarctic Island of South Georgia.
Here's an illustration of its position over the last few days by @magic.bas.ac.uk ⬇️
🧵 1/4
It appears to have run aground on the sea bed near the sub-Antarctic Island of South Georgia.
Here's an illustration of its position over the last few days by @magic.bas.ac.uk ⬇️
🧵 1/4
Reposted by Natasha van Bentum
Before any plants were taller than three feet, and before any animal with a backbone had made it out of the water, the earth was dotted with two-story-tall, silo-like fungi.
The Secret Lives of Fungi
They shape the world—and offer lessons for how to live in it.
www.newyorker.com
March 1, 2025 at 2:03 AM
Before any plants were taller than three feet, and before any animal with a backbone had made it out of the water, the earth was dotted with two-story-tall, silo-like fungi.
Reposted by Natasha van Bentum
If the US agrees to become our 11th province, we'll offer them many exciting benefits—including free Bhangra lessons for every US citizen, delivered with our signature Canadian politeness, warmth and welcoming spirit.
February 8, 2025 at 5:16 PM
If the US agrees to become our 11th province, we'll offer them many exciting benefits—including free Bhangra lessons for every US citizen, delivered with our signature Canadian politeness, warmth and welcoming spirit.
Reposted by Natasha van Bentum
🌙✨ A Night with the Moon ✨🌙
We're chasing the Moon all week for National Astronomy Week, but let's give it some special attention tonight. It's lit from the side, which creates wonderful shadows in its craters.
⤵️
We're chasing the Moon all week for National Astronomy Week, but let's give it some special attention tonight. It's lit from the side, which creates wonderful shadows in its craters.
⤵️
February 5, 2025 at 6:30 PM
🌙✨ A Night with the Moon ✨🌙
We're chasing the Moon all week for National Astronomy Week, but let's give it some special attention tonight. It's lit from the side, which creates wonderful shadows in its craters.
⤵️
We're chasing the Moon all week for National Astronomy Week, but let's give it some special attention tonight. It's lit from the side, which creates wonderful shadows in its craters.
⤵️
Reposted by Natasha van Bentum
To me the cool thing about this image is that the sprinkling of blue stars are in the foreground, some 5 million light years away, while all those gorgeous colorful swirly galaxies are almost unimaginably more distant, out in the far depths of the cosmos. More info: www.stsci.edu/contents/med...
Oh come ON now. This new JWST image is just ASTOUNDING.
I feel like I’m falling looking into it, and that I would fall forever, and that I would enjoy it.
NASA, ESA, CSA, K. McQuinn (STScI), J. DePasquale (STScI)
I feel like I’m falling looking into it, and that I would fall forever, and that I would enjoy it.
NASA, ESA, CSA, K. McQuinn (STScI), J. DePasquale (STScI)
January 18, 2025 at 5:32 PM
To me the cool thing about this image is that the sprinkling of blue stars are in the foreground, some 5 million light years away, while all those gorgeous colorful swirly galaxies are almost unimaginably more distant, out in the far depths of the cosmos. More info: www.stsci.edu/contents/med...
Good piece for nonprofits by Harvey McKinnon on making the move to BlueSky. hilborn-charityenews.ca/articles/soc... @hmassociates.bsky.social
January 10, 2025 at 4:46 PM
Good piece for nonprofits by Harvey McKinnon on making the move to BlueSky. hilborn-charityenews.ca/articles/soc... @hmassociates.bsky.social
Reposted by Natasha van Bentum
What’s the origin of the dusty crescents in the disk around the young star MWC 758? Researchers have tracked the movements of two crescents to find out. aasnova.org/2024/12/11/d... 🔭🧪
Dusty Crescents Around a Baby Star - AAS Nova
What's the origin of the dusty crescents in the disk around MWC 758? Researchers have tracked the movements of the crescents to find out.
aasnova.org
December 11, 2024 at 5:29 PM
What’s the origin of the dusty crescents in the disk around the young star MWC 758? Researchers have tracked the movements of two crescents to find out. aasnova.org/2024/12/11/d... 🔭🧪
Reposted by Natasha van Bentum
I honestly believe all LLM results should come with a disclaimer reminding people that the thing doesn’t (and absolutely cannot) know any facts or do any reasoning; it is simply designed to *sound* like it knows facts and frequently sweeps some up accidentally in the process.
I really think many if not most of the LLM fail cases are people trying to use it as a search engine. It is the opposite of a search engine.
December 4, 2024 at 12:53 PM
I honestly believe all LLM results should come with a disclaimer reminding people that the thing doesn’t (and absolutely cannot) know any facts or do any reasoning; it is simply designed to *sound* like it knows facts and frequently sweeps some up accidentally in the process.
Reposted by Natasha van Bentum
Which of the nearly 6,000 known exoplanets have atmospheres? New observations of a super-Earth planet around a low-mass star help to define the dividing line between planets with atmospheres and planets without. aasnova.org/2024/11/20/c... 🪐🧪
Charting the Cosmic Shoreline: Which Planets Have Atmospheres? - AAS Nova
New observations of exoplanet Gl 486b help astronomers map out which planets have atmospheres and which do not.
aasnova.org
November 20, 2024 at 5:07 PM
Which of the nearly 6,000 known exoplanets have atmospheres? New observations of a super-Earth planet around a low-mass star help to define the dividing line between planets with atmospheres and planets without. aasnova.org/2024/11/20/c... 🪐🧪
Reposted by Natasha van Bentum
It's a little chilly out there 🥶 ❄️... so how about a good ol' galaxy smash-up to generate a bit of heat? 🥵
A team of researchers led by the University of Hertfordshire have observed in unprecedented detail a massive collision of galaxies – sparked by one travelling at 2 million mph! 💥
(1/2)
A team of researchers led by the University of Hertfordshire have observed in unprecedented detail a massive collision of galaxies – sparked by one travelling at 2 million mph! 💥
(1/2)
November 22, 2024 at 12:18 PM
It's a little chilly out there 🥶 ❄️... so how about a good ol' galaxy smash-up to generate a bit of heat? 🥵
A team of researchers led by the University of Hertfordshire have observed in unprecedented detail a massive collision of galaxies – sparked by one travelling at 2 million mph! 💥
(1/2)
A team of researchers led by the University of Hertfordshire have observed in unprecedented detail a massive collision of galaxies – sparked by one travelling at 2 million mph! 💥
(1/2)
Photons take thousands and thousands of years on their 'Random Walk' from Sun's core to its surface. www.nationalgeographic.com/science/arti...
November 19, 2024 at 9:27 PM
Photons take thousands and thousands of years on their 'Random Walk' from Sun's core to its surface. www.nationalgeographic.com/science/arti...
Reposted by Natasha van Bentum
Updated periodic table with origin of elements in the Solar System (for boron and lithium at least)
November 18, 2024 at 2:53 PM
Updated periodic table with origin of elements in the Solar System (for boron and lithium at least)