More info and guides in this thread. SpaceX comment period closes today!
bsky.app/profile/phil...
@ridingrobots
Robotic solar system exploration, astrophotography, exasperating earnestness. My day job is impersonating your favorite planets and spacecraft on social media for one of your favorite government agencies. Opinions are my own.
More info and guides in this thread. SpaceX comment period closes today!
bsky.app/profile/phil...
Snowy pine trees under a starry night sky filled with the colorful clouds and stars of the Milky Way core. Photo: Bill Dunford. Fuck Musk.
Want to say FU to Musk and save worldwide skies from two supervillain plans to disfigure them?
SpaceX wants to launch a million sats. Reflect Orbital wants to provide "sunlight on demand" using huge space mirrors.
Step-by-step how-to for FCC comments. Takes 15 min:
darksky.org/news/two-sat...
SHOULD THE U.S BLOT OUT THE SUN AND USHER IN AN AGE OF ETERNAL DARKNESS? - Gallup 2/20/26-3/5/26
NO - 41%
YES - 38%
UNSURE - 21%
More info and guides in this thread. SpaceX comment period closes today!
bsky.app/profile/phil...
Snowy pine trees under a starry night sky filled with the colorful clouds and stars of the Milky Way core. Photo: Bill Dunford. Fuck Musk.
Want to say FU to Musk and save worldwide skies from two supervillain plans to disfigure them?
SpaceX wants to launch a million sats. Reflect Orbital wants to provide "sunlight on demand" using huge space mirrors.
Step-by-step how-to for FCC comments. Takes 15 min:
darksky.org/news/two-sat...
Also from NASA
Having an impact on the effort to protect Earth: In 2022, NASA's DART mission tested a technique for deflecting a hazardous asteroid by impacting tiny Dimorphos. Now, new research reveals that DART also changed the orbit of its larger companion, Didymos. go.nasa.gov/3MYP5Ix
From NASA
βοΈWe're happy to announce that on Dec. 22, 2032, asteroid 2024 YR4 will sail by the Moon at a distance of 13,200 miles based on new data from JWST. Our Planetary Defense Program has tracked this potentially hazardous asteroid since late 2024.
science.nasa.gov/blogs/planet...
Curiosity proudly brandishing her instrumented turret, somewhere on the eastern edge of the boxwork unit. What a sight, looks like scifi!
This is just another small part of the Sol 4821 Mastcam 360Β° panorama. #Mars π§ͺπ
Looking forward to catching one someday.
An ochre toned image capturing a Martian landscape, acquired by Perseverance on March 3, 2026, on the 1790th sol (martian day) of her mission. The rover casts her shadow on the foreground. A small nearby rocky mound occupies the centre of the image. A landscape of soft hills is seen in the background.
Martian vista with shadow selfie, captured two days ago by Perseverance
#Mars π§ͺπ
π· areo.info/mars20/ecams... @areoinfo.bsky.social
An image of the Earth from space.
05:55 on Tuesday March 3rd, over the Indian Ocean
Not as much as Europa, but yeah :)
Our tax dollars were being used to save children and now they are being used to murder them
2/2
Here's one of Juno's views of Ganymede's day side.
Image processed from raw JunoCam data by Kalleheikki Kannisto missionjuno.swri.edu
A bright crescent slices through a mostly dark frame. It's interrupted by a dark round silhouette. Image: NASA/JHUAPL
From NASA
A slice of exploration. OTD in 2007 while en route to Pluto, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft captured this look at Jupiter's moon Ganymede silhouetted against the planet's crescent. Today, our Juno mission orbits Jupiter, and Europa Clipper is on its way: science.nasa.gov/jupiter/expl...
Yep. And a treasure trove of results.
I, too, always measure things in Cassinis.
(It's a *very* depressing exercise these days.)
Thoughts & prayers to the EPA :(
Sweet dreams, everyone π€ (art Lucy Campbell)
gonna need a bigger hague
After weeks of confusion and public outcry, ICE is no longer planning a mega detention center in Lebanon, TN. Many are relieved, including Wilson County mayor Randall Hutto, who joins us today to explain how the whole thing went down, and why he pushed back.
This is what weak and insecure people think confidence looks like: buffoonish bluster and swagger, like a 12-year-old bully. It doesnβt inspire trust or security. It inspires grave concern for the lives of the people serving our nation whose fate is in the hands of these overcompensating oafs.
When someone says βScientists do not want you to knowβ you can dismiss everything from there on. Scientists want you to know. They are desperate that you know. They canβt shut up about what they found out and want you to know.
Niiiiice!
Click the fish.
View of Jupiter's mid-high latitudes, featuring countless turbulent cloud systems near the planet's pole and further into the cloud bands.
A bit of #Jupiter (NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / MSSS / Justin Thompson)
The full, eclipsed Moon glows red amid a patch of cloud in a star field that includes the bright stars of the constellation Leo. Photo: Bill Dunford
Blood moon near the heart of the Lion
This composite image from New Horizons shows Jupiter and its moon Io during the 2007 flyby. Jupiter, in false-color infrared, displays swirling cloud bands with the Great Red Spot as a prominent bluish-white oval storm. Warmer lower clouds appear reddish, higher hazes blue, highlighting atmospheric dynamics. Io, in near-true color, is superimposed. Its night side reveals a bright red glowing lava eruption at Tvashtar volcano, with a 330-km-high blue-tinged plume rising above, lit by scattered sunlight. The montage contrasts Jupiterβs vast atmosphere with Ioβs intense volcanic activity during the gravity-assist maneuver.
In Feb 2007, New Horizons passed Jupiter & its active moon Io. βοΈ
In this nice montage, Jupiter was captured in 3 bands of infrared light making the Great Red Spot look white.π§ͺ
Io is digitally superposed in natural color, showing an ongoing eruption.π
β‘οΈ apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap08010...
#science 1/3
I just left a classified briefing with the Trump Administration about the war in Iran.
I was worried before, but Iβm more worried now.
I feel like we typically see these sorts of completely outraged opinions from federal judges a couple times a year across the whole country, maybe a little more often in last few years. Now, in cases stemming from Trump's immigration crackdown, judges are ringing the alarm bell several times a week.