Dr. Natalie Hinkel

The killing of Alex Pretti is a heartbreaking tragedy. It should also be a wake-up call to every American, regardless of party, that many of our core values as a nation are increasingly under assault.

Library (and useful links) - NASA Science Please direct questions or corrections on this page to SARA@nasa.gov

if many people request that the XRP due date be delayed for the storm, maybe it will actually happen and we won't have to scramble to finish by Friday. 😅

For more information, check out SPD-02 here:
science.nasa.gov/researchers/...

Get your organizations to request a delayed XRP due date!

Are you submitting an XRP this round? And are you afraid that the weekend snow storm will shut down your work, preventing your org from submitting your proposal? Me too!

Orgs can email the PO (hq-xrp@mail.nasa.gov) and SARA@nasa.gov to make an official request that NASA delay the due date! So...

Thanks, Vikki. I really appreciate that. 💜

It really isn't. But thanks so much, it's much appreciated.

Little brown cat passed out in a bit hotel bed surround by white sheets. The walls are yellow and there is a lamp and TV in the background. This is one of my favorite pictures of Tatertot.

Tatertot is in a ball, licking the face of a white woman with blonde and brown hair, wearing a maroon shirt. There is a print of painting in the background.

A brownish-orange cat with green eyes sits on a grey couch and white blanket.

A brown cat with green eyes sits in the foreground in front of a computer which shows a Zoom window with many smaller windows.

Thinking of my Tatertot (Tot) today, on what would have been her 19yr adoption anniversary. She passed in Dec at 20.3yrs old. I had her for nearly half of my life, she was my constant companion, my buddy. And now her absence is so loud. Miss you always, my babycat.

BREAKING: ‘This hurts’: UNL eliminates 4 programs despite faculty, student pleas The University of Nebraska-Lincoln eliminates the Earth and atmospheric sciences 8-0, educational administration 7-1, statistics 7-1, textiles, merchandising and fashion design 7-1 programs.

It's over.

Despite the fact that the academic council recommended against it, despite the fact that the program brought in more tuition than it cost, and despite the fact that Nebraskans need & deserve this expertise, Earth & Atmospheric Sciences will be cut.

www.dailynebraskan.com/news/adminis...

Why are planetary scientists, astrobiologists and and SETI scientists so negative (pissed off, even) about Avi Loeb’s repeated claims that 3I/Atlas may be an invading alien spaceship?
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Abstracts submitted to LPSC 2026 are required to comply with White House (non-legally binding) executive orders forbidding mention of topics related to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

At least USRA/LPI isn't hiding it.

But is this what our community wants? Or deserves? I don't think so.

I'm finally getting a real* office at work! I'm looking for couch recommendations and links (note: internal rules say I have to buy through Amazon, sigh).

Also, other recommendations for Things You Could Not Live Without are appreciated!

*Current office is 6x9 ft and was meant for a postdoc. ☹️

Similarly, I couldn't decide what to wear the night before my talk, so I opted to let tomorrow's Natalie figure it out since she was the one who had to actually wear it all day.

But also that dress DOES look great on you and you should get many versions. 🥰

Laypeople often learn about science from expert explanations & those explanations often contain JARGON. Does jargon make explanations better or worse? In a paper out today in Nature Human Behaviour, @cruzf.bsky.social and I find that jargon can support illusions of understanding...

NSF and NASA Budget Requests Pose an Unprecedented Threat to Astronomy The president's budget requests for NASA and the NSF were released last week. This post summarizes the major cuts and the impacts they would have, and provides resources to help fight back against thi...

From Skylar Grayson @skylargrayson.bsky.social : This post summarizes the proposed major cuts to NASA and the NSF and the impacts they would have, and provides resources to help fight back against this wasteful and unnecessary attack on science. 🔭✨☄️
astrobites.org/2025/06/02/b...

Don't miss our new NASA Science spending and economic impact resource at dashboards.planetary.org/nasa-science.html — see space science spending in every state and congressional district and custom reports for each region. A unique resource.

They must be chasing you. You should figure how to use this as some kind of super power. But, of course, only for good. 😉

I won the "Outstanding Undergraduate Faculty Teaching Award" in my department, as nominated by my students. That's after being at LSU for only 2 years and not even teaching this semester.

It's honestly carried me through the whole week. 😊

Astronomy is in trouble, but you can help! 🔭🧪

I made this video as part of the @aas.org #savescience week of action. Check out their resources on how you can help here

aas.org/advocacy/get...

I know there are SO SO SO so sooo many things going on right now.

But y'all, I went to the airport Baton Rouge TWICE today. 2 times, round trip. And I will still be sleeping in my own bed tonight. The storm in Dallas caused two of my flights to be cancelled. 🤬🚫✈️

NASA Is Terminating The GISS Lease In Five Weeks This was just sent to all NASA Goddard and GISS employees by Makenzie Lystrup

NASA Is Terminating The GISS Lease In Five Weeks
nasawatch.com/personnel-ne...

"NASA’s lease of Columbia University’s Armstrong Hall in New York City, home to the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, will end effective May 31, 2025."

The Planetary Society: reported cuts to NASA would amount to an… The Planetary Society, the world’s largest independent space interest organization, issued a statement in response to recent reports that the White House…

There are reports The White House is considering a 50% cut to NASA’s science programs, and 25% of its overall budget, which would be catastrophic for both current and planned missions. But, there is still time for the administration to reconsider. Read our full statement ⬇️

Ah ok. Good to know, thanks! 😁

I completely agree. I'm having déjà vu from the '08 recession that also saw a huge loss of opportunities and the brain drain is still felt today. But when the larger opportunities go away, I think it's vital that people do what they can to support students locally in whatever way they can.

Truly sad to see, although not unexpected. I was able to do 2 REUs, UMich and UCLA, which was incredibly important coming from a small undergrad (Oberlin). I often credit the REUs as giving me the varied research understanding/skills that I needed to get into and later use in grad school. 💔🪐👩🏻‍🔬🧪🛰️🚀🔬

How A Balloon-Borne Antarctic Telescope Could Help Detect An Earth 2.0 An LSU-led team would like to use a high-flying Antarctic balloon-borne infrared telescope to detect the chemical makeup of some 300 red dwarf stars.

Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's an Antarctic balloon mission!
www.forbes.com/sites/bruced...

Thanks to @bdorminey.bsky.social for talking with me about my team's high res, near infrared spectrograph proposal to measure M-dwarf compositions for planets and galactic chemistry!
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All of the new data, upgrades, and changes from beta have been pushed to the main website: hypatiacatalog.com!

So, if you go to the "new" page, it will either redirect you or give you a certificate warning.

Thanks to all of our users and for the great feedback. 😃

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mr bean is wearing a tuxedo and bow tie . ALT: mr bean is wearing a tuxedo and bow tie .

While the discussion is centered around astronomy, the overall plan and technology is fairly generalized. So I think it's useful to a broad range of scientists and people. 😉

Also, thank you! What's better than conveying an intent than a meme.

Oh that sounds interesting! I'll add it to my to-read list of books. Thanks.

Exactly. And the truth of the matter is that it took Caleb Wheeler (the lead author of the paper) about 4-5 years to really hash out the project, work with the students, and build up the website. And all of that work is SO important to make the connection to NASA observations. 😃

Totally fair. But make sure that you give yourself the credit for the climb, since that tends to be a huge amount of effort and persistence. 😉

✨ You Too Can Database: A Roadmap for Creating Specialty Databases & Web Portals ✨

Creating astro databases is like building higher and higher stories in a castle which can eventually reach the castle towers, or NASA observatories, which can see the furthest! 🤩

bit.ly/41gkxGI

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