Chara
@astrochara.bsky.social
Astronomy student, planetary science and exoplanet enthusiast, amateur artist.
Reposted by Chara
⚪️ Kulou – ι Cen
Bright white star in #Centaurus, mag 2.73.
🌡️ 9160 K | 2.36 M☉ | 2.1 R☉ | 58 ly
Name Kùlóu (“Arsenal”), from a 2nd-century BCE Chinese super-constellation spanning Centaurus & Lupus.
Shows strong IR excess from a warm debris disk.
#Kulou #IAUStarNames
Bright white star in #Centaurus, mag 2.73.
🌡️ 9160 K | 2.36 M☉ | 2.1 R☉ | 58 ly
Name Kùlóu (“Arsenal”), from a 2nd-century BCE Chinese super-constellation spanning Centaurus & Lupus.
Shows strong IR excess from a warm debris disk.
#Kulou #IAUStarNames
November 28, 2025 at 7:53 PM
⚪️ Kulou – ι Cen
Bright white star in #Centaurus, mag 2.73.
🌡️ 9160 K | 2.36 M☉ | 2.1 R☉ | 58 ly
Name Kùlóu (“Arsenal”), from a 2nd-century BCE Chinese super-constellation spanning Centaurus & Lupus.
Shows strong IR excess from a warm debris disk.
#Kulou #IAUStarNames
Bright white star in #Centaurus, mag 2.73.
🌡️ 9160 K | 2.36 M☉ | 2.1 R☉ | 58 ly
Name Kùlóu (“Arsenal”), from a 2nd-century BCE Chinese super-constellation spanning Centaurus & Lupus.
Shows strong IR excess from a warm debris disk.
#Kulou #IAUStarNames
Reposted by Chara
techbros have like so poisoned some really interesting areas of science with capitalism; it is like, some things would be so cool but nah, Techbros have ruined it.
November 26, 2025 at 8:25 PM
techbros have like so poisoned some really interesting areas of science with capitalism; it is like, some things would be so cool but nah, Techbros have ruined it.
Reposted by Chara
If patriarchy, inequality, and violence are inherent to human nature, then let's surgically alter human nature until they aren't.
November 26, 2025 at 8:30 PM
If patriarchy, inequality, and violence are inherent to human nature, then let's surgically alter human nature until they aren't.
Reposted by Chara
It's wack how much the image of transhumanism has been captured by techbros whose vision of "using technology to improve the human" is, like, putting electrodes in your head to make you productive, and not anything actually transformative
November 26, 2025 at 8:21 PM
It's wack how much the image of transhumanism has been captured by techbros whose vision of "using technology to improve the human" is, like, putting electrodes in your head to make you productive, and not anything actually transformative
Reposted by Chara
I've been deleting comments from the bathroom police but I am annoyed that people pretend to care about the safety of women when they literally elected a rapist felon president. No one is falling for your lies. We know you don't care about women. Stop pretending. It's pathetic. You're pathetic.
May 11, 2025 at 2:48 PM
I've been deleting comments from the bathroom police but I am annoyed that people pretend to care about the safety of women when they literally elected a rapist felon president. No one is falling for your lies. We know you don't care about women. Stop pretending. It's pathetic. You're pathetic.
Many years ago I was working with @trolligi.bsky.social on writing about Wolf-Rayet stars, when I learned about how nuts those stars are. Back then I'm pretty sure I saw an inkling of what it was, but it seems their WR catalogue is finally on a website!
massivestars.org/xshootu/wrpa...
massivestars.org/xshootu/wrpa...
Wolf-Rayet Parameter Database
massivestars.org
November 24, 2025 at 10:14 AM
Many years ago I was working with @trolligi.bsky.social on writing about Wolf-Rayet stars, when I learned about how nuts those stars are. Back then I'm pretty sure I saw an inkling of what it was, but it seems their WR catalogue is finally on a website!
massivestars.org/xshootu/wrpa...
massivestars.org/xshootu/wrpa...
Reposted by Chara
I'm fully aware that citation numbers and indices are not a good metric for much of anything. However, I'm proudly going to share this one:
One of my papers has now been cited over 1000 times! Unsurprisingly, it's the original REBOUND paper.
One of my papers has now been cited over 1000 times! Unsurprisingly, it's the original REBOUND paper.
November 23, 2025 at 3:01 PM
I'm fully aware that citation numbers and indices are not a good metric for much of anything. However, I'm proudly going to share this one:
One of my papers has now been cited over 1000 times! Unsurprisingly, it's the original REBOUND paper.
One of my papers has now been cited over 1000 times! Unsurprisingly, it's the original REBOUND paper.
Reposted by Chara
Arabic numerals are better than Roman numerals or even Chinese numerals, and I WILL die on this hill.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
when I was young, i used to wonder how people like this would fare in life, as they didn't seem suited for gainful employment. it turns out, the internet allowed them to accumulate a massive audience of similar idiots, enriching them and turning them into a presidential advisor
November 20, 2025 at 5:42 PM
Arabic numerals are better than Roman numerals or even Chinese numerals, and I WILL die on this hill.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
How many stars does the Milky Way have, I wonder…
November 22, 2025 at 7:07 PM
How many stars does the Milky Way have, I wonder…
Reposted by Chara
Massive shoutout out to whoever handles the Royal Canadian Air Force’s social media account. They responded to every single comment on their already very solid Trans Day of Remembrance post and they responded like this…
November 22, 2025 at 1:03 AM
Massive shoutout out to whoever handles the Royal Canadian Air Force’s social media account. They responded to every single comment on their already very solid Trans Day of Remembrance post and they responded like this…
Reposted by Chara
Proxima Centauri but as a girl
November 22, 2025 at 1:56 AM
Proxima Centauri but as a girl
Reposted by Chara
The organisers of the world's biggest planetary science conference are outlawing any DEI-related submissions because their lawyers are afraid they'll lose federal support.
They're losing the support of the planetary science community fucking fast.
www.science.org/content/arti...
They're losing the support of the planetary science community fucking fast.
www.science.org/content/arti...
‘This is censorship.’ Conference requires abstracts to comply with Trump anti-DEI order
NASA-funded planetary science institute previously scrubbed hundreds of records from its archive
www.science.org
November 21, 2025 at 12:30 AM
The organisers of the world's biggest planetary science conference are outlawing any DEI-related submissions because their lawyers are afraid they'll lose federal support.
They're losing the support of the planetary science community fucking fast.
www.science.org/content/arti...
They're losing the support of the planetary science community fucking fast.
www.science.org/content/arti...
Reposted by Chara
'Our central hypothesis is that poetic form operates as a general-purpose jailbreak operator' huh
Looks like LLMs are *very* vulnerable to attack via poetic allusion: "curated poetic prompts yielded high attack-success rates (ASR), with some providers exceeding 90% ..."
https://arxiv.org/html/2511.15304v1
https://arxiv.org/html/2511.15304v1
November 20, 2025 at 5:36 PM
'Our central hypothesis is that poetic form operates as a general-purpose jailbreak operator' huh
Reposted by Chara
Since the CDC site can no longer be trusted, what are your alternative go-to sites for science-based medical information. Mayo Clinic? Cleveland Clinic? JHU medical? European sites? Thoughts welcome.
November 20, 2025 at 4:34 PM
Since the CDC site can no longer be trusted, what are your alternative go-to sites for science-based medical information. Mayo Clinic? Cleveland Clinic? JHU medical? European sites? Thoughts welcome.
Reposted by Chara
Reposted by Chara
Let's talk about this group (Gas Giants of the Solar System):
🧡 Jupiter - walking red flag trying to redeem himself
💛 Saturn - attracted to said red flag
🩵 Uranus - deceitful permanent smile; always sleepy
💙 Neptune - can be both hypercritical of self AND self unaware
🧡 Jupiter - walking red flag trying to redeem himself
💛 Saturn - attracted to said red flag
🩵 Uranus - deceitful permanent smile; always sleepy
💙 Neptune - can be both hypercritical of self AND self unaware
November 20, 2025 at 5:38 PM
Let's talk about this group (Gas Giants of the Solar System):
🧡 Jupiter - walking red flag trying to redeem himself
💛 Saturn - attracted to said red flag
🩵 Uranus - deceitful permanent smile; always sleepy
💙 Neptune - can be both hypercritical of self AND self unaware
🧡 Jupiter - walking red flag trying to redeem himself
💛 Saturn - attracted to said red flag
🩵 Uranus - deceitful permanent smile; always sleepy
💙 Neptune - can be both hypercritical of self AND self unaware
Reposted by Chara
i struggled with the gardener's hands.
gardener & big sis timelapse.
gardener & big sis timelapse.
November 19, 2025 at 2:42 PM
i struggled with the gardener's hands.
gardener & big sis timelapse.
gardener & big sis timelapse.
Reposted by Chara
Interesting discussion with @astrochara.bsky.social. Quoting it here for people interested in galactic structure.
Indeed…I wonder if it could be that the distribution of OB stars within even a continuous spiral arm are naturally patchy, and that’s why we’re seeing them as disconnected structures here.
November 19, 2025 at 11:21 AM
Interesting discussion with @astrochara.bsky.social. Quoting it here for people interested in galactic structure.
Reposted by Chara
mokou kaguya wip
November 19, 2025 at 5:17 AM
mokou kaguya wip
Reposted by Chara
Perhaps there are spiral structures elsewhere in the Milky Way but the local structure is less coherent.
November 18, 2025 at 2:57 PM
Perhaps there are spiral structures elsewhere in the Milky Way but the local structure is less coherent.
Reposted by Chara
I was looking through Gaia papers for the first time in a few months and I see the long-awaited third Alma paper on OB stars has finally arrived. Looking forward to looking at the expanded hot star catalog.
ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2025MNRA...
ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2025MNRA...
The Alma catalogue of OB stars ─ III. A cross-match with Gaia DR3 and an extension based on new spectral classifications
We present the third installment of the Alma Luminous Star catalogue, aimed at creating the most comprehensive and clean sample of Galactic massive stars. This update extends the sample by adding appr...
ui.adsabs.harvard.edu
November 18, 2025 at 2:08 PM
I was looking through Gaia papers for the first time in a few months and I see the long-awaited third Alma paper on OB stars has finally arrived. Looking forward to looking at the expanded hot star catalog.
ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2025MNRA...
ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2025MNRA...
Reposted by Chara
This is the kind of shit that triggers the contrarian side of my brain. I would include the words "inclusion", "diversity", and "equity" in my Ionian volcanism abstract an obnoxious number of times. Equity might be a bit hard, but I would sure as shit try to find a way to make it work.
November 18, 2025 at 3:58 PM
This is the kind of shit that triggers the contrarian side of my brain. I would include the words "inclusion", "diversity", and "equity" in my Ionian volcanism abstract an obnoxious number of times. Equity might be a bit hard, but I would sure as shit try to find a way to make it work.
Reposted by Chara
New paper from my group!
Stars aren’t born alone—they form in massive associations. If we want to understand how stars and planetary systems form, we need to figure out where today’s clusters came from… and where all their long-lost siblings ended up.
arxiv.org/abs/2511.07533
Stars aren’t born alone—they form in massive associations. If we want to understand how stars and planetary systems form, we need to figure out where today’s clusters came from… and where all their long-lost siblings ended up.
arxiv.org/abs/2511.07533
Lost Sisters Found: TESS and Gaia Reveal a Dissolving Pleiades Complex
Most star clusters dissolve into the Galaxy over tens to hundreds of millions of years after they form. While recent Gaia studies have honed our view of cluster dispersal, the exact chronology of whic...
arxiv.org
November 18, 2025 at 4:25 PM
New paper from my group!
Stars aren’t born alone—they form in massive associations. If we want to understand how stars and planetary systems form, we need to figure out where today’s clusters came from… and where all their long-lost siblings ended up.
arxiv.org/abs/2511.07533
Stars aren’t born alone—they form in massive associations. If we want to understand how stars and planetary systems form, we need to figure out where today’s clusters came from… and where all their long-lost siblings ended up.
arxiv.org/abs/2511.07533
Reposted by Chara
Lots of fun work out from APEx postdocs in the past week! first up was Sophia Vaughan @sophiavaughan.bsky.social on a deep search for reflected light from a hot Neptune w/ the VLT. This summed up light from ALL FOUR 8m telescopes over 2 nights- a preview of ELT-like data! arxiv.org/abs/2511.08691
November 18, 2025 at 4:52 PM
Lots of fun work out from APEx postdocs in the past week! first up was Sophia Vaughan @sophiavaughan.bsky.social on a deep search for reflected light from a hot Neptune w/ the VLT. This summed up light from ALL FOUR 8m telescopes over 2 nights- a preview of ELT-like data! arxiv.org/abs/2511.08691