Astronomers have a love-hate relationship with the atmosphere: it's great for, you know, not dying, but it blurs astronomical images. In the latest episode of Chasing Starlight we tell you the inner workings of adaptive optics, a technique where we use powerful lasers and fast shape-shifting mirrors to measure and correct atmospheric turbulence:
astrophysics
#Introduction Hi #fediverse ! We’re the European Southern Observatory, and we design, build and operate ground-based telescopes.
One of them is our Extremely Large Telescope, currently under construction in #Chile. It will have a 39 m mirror, and its rotating enclosure will weigh 6100 tonnes, or about 700 mastodons!
We’re looking forward to chatting with all of you about #astronomy
📷 ESO/G. Vecchia
#HappyNewYear 🎉 Boost your #NewYear resolution with adaptive optics. By deforming a thin flexible mirror a thousand times per second you can correct atmospheric turbulence and get sharp astronomical images!
➡️ https://www.eso.org/public/teles-instr/technology/adaptive_optics/
📷 ESO/P. Weilbacher (AIP)
Edited 1y ago
Astronomers have long thought that the upper clouds of Jupiter, which create the planet’s iconic pale brown belts, are made of frozen ammonia.
But the joint efforts between an amateur astronomer with his backyard telescope 🔭 and professional scientists with ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT), have now shown that they're actually made of something completely different 😲
Most likely, they are made of ammonium hydrosulphide mixed with smog, although vertical convection can sometimes bring ammonia ice clouds to the top.
Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/videos/potw2502a/?lang
8pm Tuesday Boston time
#lispyGopherClimate #commonLisp #astrophysics #supercomputing #softwareEngineering #archive , https://communitymedia.video/w/9kysH4ZwVuP4J4erZozqFT we will have (now done) a live interview with
https://as.tufts.edu/physics/people/faculty/ken-olum
about the recent largest-ever cosmic string simulation also introducing their new spacetime-volume pseudo-parallel simulation technique, relating to gravitational backreaction.
People sometimes ask, "who uses common lisp today".
Olum learned #lisp from John McCarthy.
Edited 1y ago
Astronomers trace massive cosmic explosion back 12 billion years. 'This is the most distant event where we can directly see light escaping from around stars'. Via @spacedotcom #Space #Astrophysics #OrbitalMechanics #Astronomy 🚀 🌌 ☄️ 🛰️
Astronomers trace massive cosm...
Since this https://chaos.social/@Skorpy/115037963703138114 is getting some traction right now, I would like to alert #astrodon folks that I have created this starter pack https://fedidevs.com/s/NjA2/ and that you may be in it: for a *very* loose definition of Germany, it's "Astronomy in Germany".
Accounts that have opted in to discovery features can be added to starter packs without further confirmation. So if you find yourself a part of this and want me to *remove* you, please let me know and I'll try to do this quickly, before it spreads too widely.
If you think you should be on that list, but are not, because of oversight on my part, or because of missing opt-in to account discovery so far, which you would now like to change, also feel free to let me know.
The idea is to have a presentable starter pack ready at the time of #ag2025goerlitz for https://ag2025.astronomische-gesellschaft.de/view_abstract.php?id=39
Starter packs for geosciences, astronomy and physics (partly Germany-centric):
Earth and Geoscience: https://fedidevs.com/s/OTk1/ by @pikarl
Astronomy and Space: https://fedidevs.com/s/NjA2/
Physics: https://fedidevs.com/s/ODg2/
As I find I am running into limits with pinned posts, I've decided to consolidate three starter packs I like to recommend into this one single post. Enjoy!
#FollowFriday #StarterPacks #Science #Physics #Astrodon #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Geosciences #Geology #EarthSciences #PlanetaryScience
Earlier today, the discarded upper stage of a Falcon 9 rocket impacted on the Moon. As part of a coordinated observing campaign, our Very Large Telescope detected spectral lines of sodium and lithium gas in the impact plume lasting for 5-10 minutes after impact.
📷 ESO/C. Schmidt et al.
1/4
Possible Link Between Earthquakes and Solar Activity? Here's What We Know. Via @whatdamath #Space #Astrophysics #OrbitalMechanics #Astronomy 🚀 🌌 ☄️ 🛰️ #Geology #RocksForJocks #EarthScience #seismology
Possible Link Between Earthqua...
***PLEASE SPREAD IF YOU CAN***
my Physics & Astro department in Bologna (Italy) just opened a call
for 2 contracts for 1 year (24kE) for young researchers from #Palestine:
https://bandi.unibo.it/ricerca/incarichi-di-ricerca?id_bando=162
Deadline: 15/06/2026
Eligibility: young scholars in Physics/Geo/Astro citizens of Palestine, refugees from Palestine, refugees residing in Palestine, or holders of a permanent residence permit or international protection in Palestine
The International Space Science Institute is an interdisciplinary research institute studying the Solar System, planetary sciences, astrophysics, cosmology, astrobiology and Earth sciences. You can follow their video account at:
➡️ @issi_media
Don't worry if it looks blank to you, that just means no one from your server has followed it yet. Follow the account and its videos will start gradually showing up on your server too.
#FeaturedPeerTube #PlanetaryScience #Space #Astrophysics #PeerTube
Europlanet is an organisation for all kinds of planetary science people in Europe, including academia, industry, government and amateurs. You can follow their video account at:
(Don't worry if it looks blank, that just means no one from your server follows it yet. If you follow the account, the videos will start gradually showing up on your server too.)
#FeaturedPeerTube #PlanetaryScience #Science #Space #Astrophysics #SolarSystem #PeerTube
How to Unteach Relativity
------------------------
You may know I found the Unified Field Theory: https://github.com/chemoelectric/iris-numbers-and-unified-field-theory
So Relativity needs unteaching. Do it thus:
Einstein treated c as ‘the speed of light in a vacuum’.
But c is ‘the speed of waves in an electromagnetic field’.
Putting the two definitions side by side makes Einstein’s error obvious: an EM field is not a vacuum! It is, in fact, the medium for EM waves the ether had been presumed to be...
Open PhD positions: The IMPRS for Solar System Science at the University of Göttingen and at TU Braunschweig is offering PhD projects in Star-Planet Interactions and in Planet Formation https://www.mps.mpg.de/phd/open-projects
Star-Planet Interactions with E. Ilin: https://www.mps.mpg.de/phd/star-planet-interactions
Planet Formation with J. Drążkowska: https://www.mps.mpg.de/phd/planet-formation
Application deadline: October 1st, 2026
Want to get notified when new PhD projects become available in the #IMPRS? This way, please: https://www.mps.mpg.de/phd/new-project-notification
@unigoettingen @thegoecampus @tubraunschweig @maxplanckgesellschaft
#SolarSystemSchool #MPSGoettingen #JobAd #FediHire #PhD #Jobs #PhDPositions #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Astrodon #Stars #Planets #PlanetFormation #Space
Posts under the #ag2026garching conference hashtag are starting to come in, follow the hashtag for the latest in astronomy!
Or tag along on this particularly convenient fediwall view: https://fediwall.social/?servers=mastodon.social,scicomm.xyz,wisskomm.social,fedi.buzz&tags=ag2026garching,ag2026,agtagung2026&[email protected]&lang=en,de&hide=nsfw&title=AG+2026+Garching&interval=20
Here's hoping that we here on the fediverse will be simultaneously able to
- show the live posters from the conference how much we appreciate that they're keeping us informed
- communicate that we really appreciate ALT text and would love to have it on all their posts with media attached
#ag2026garching #astrodon #astronomy #astrophysics #fediwall
Edited 7d ago