Kiona N. Smith
@kionasmith07.bsky.social
Science reporter and author. Also knitter, crocheter, cross-stitcher, tabletop gamer, Pokemon Go player, and #NAFOFella. Actually 2 goblins and a magpie in a trenchcoat. She/they. https://linktr.ee/kionasmith
Reposted by Kiona N. Smith
Radio is beyond red
Gamma rays, beyond blue
There are 80 octaves of the electromagnetic spectrum
But only one we can view 🧪
Gamma rays, beyond blue
There are 80 octaves of the electromagnetic spectrum
But only one we can view 🧪
February 14, 2026 at 6:27 PM
Radio is beyond red
Gamma rays, beyond blue
There are 80 octaves of the electromagnetic spectrum
But only one we can view 🧪
Gamma rays, beyond blue
There are 80 octaves of the electromagnetic spectrum
But only one we can view 🧪
Reposted by Kiona N. Smith
Oh my GOD King County Public Health is just wilding out for Valentines Day (and a lovely one).
February 13, 2026 at 11:51 PM
Oh my GOD King County Public Health is just wilding out for Valentines Day (and a lovely one).
Reposted by Kiona N. Smith
"That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives." —Carl Sagan
Voyager 1 captured the "Pale Blue Dot" image #OTD in 1990. 🧪 🔭 🔵
Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Voyager 1 captured the "Pale Blue Dot" image #OTD in 1990. 🧪 🔭 🔵
Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech
![The "pale blue dot" photo. It shows three or four colored beams of light – optical artifacts – passing from the left side of the image to the right. The background is dark, empty space. In the topmost light beam is a single pale blue pixel. That's Earth. Sagan's quote is printed on the image. It reads ""We succeeded in taking that picture [from deep space], and, if you look at it, you see a dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived, lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history..."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:6435lftcmpvxasbkrtsw22i7/bafkreicpbthbsbsmlfm3fjysre3sbt3gyu2gjxmacrnofhibatrts2xwga@jpeg)
February 14, 2026 at 1:12 PM
"That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives." —Carl Sagan
Voyager 1 captured the "Pale Blue Dot" image #OTD in 1990. 🧪 🔭 🔵
Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Voyager 1 captured the "Pale Blue Dot" image #OTD in 1990. 🧪 🔭 🔵
Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Reposted by Kiona N. Smith
Roses are red,
But that's not quite true,
They absorb every wavelength of the visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum,
*Except* for that hue.
But that's not quite true,
They absorb every wavelength of the visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum,
*Except* for that hue.
February 14, 2025 at 5:06 PM
Roses are red,
But that's not quite true,
They absorb every wavelength of the visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum,
*Except* for that hue.
But that's not quite true,
They absorb every wavelength of the visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum,
*Except* for that hue.
Reposted by Kiona N. Smith
I feel this way about pretty much all vaccine-preventable infectious diseases. You shouldn't be allowed to dump cyanide into municipal drinking water and you shouldn't be allowed to recreationally spread viruses around shared public spaces.
My most authoritarian opinion is that the MMR vaccine should be mandatory, with only medical (not religious or floofy) exemptions allowed. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
This Is How a Child Dies of Measles
When your family becomes a data point in an outbreak
www.theatlantic.com
February 13, 2026 at 5:09 PM
I feel this way about pretty much all vaccine-preventable infectious diseases. You shouldn't be allowed to dump cyanide into municipal drinking water and you shouldn't be allowed to recreationally spread viruses around shared public spaces.
Breaking news: local space reporter keeps forgetting the 🧪 for the science feed. Film at eleven (metaphorical).
My latest for @space.com is also about the search for missing space objects: comet C/2019 Y4 ATLAS, in this case. I'm very on brand this week.
Could the remains of a 'dead' comet still be in the solar system?
The fate of a comet that was predicted to pass close to Earth remains a mystery five years after its dramatic breakup in the inner solar system.
www.space.com
February 12, 2026 at 1:48 AM
Breaking news: local space reporter keeps forgetting the 🧪 for the science feed. Film at eleven (metaphorical).
My latest for @space.com is also about the search for missing space objects: comet C/2019 Y4 ATLAS, in this case. I'm very on brand this week.
Could the remains of a 'dead' comet still be in the solar system?
The fate of a comet that was predicted to pass close to Earth remains a mystery five years after its dramatic breakup in the inner solar system.
www.space.com
February 11, 2026 at 11:58 PM
My latest for @space.com is also about the search for missing space objects: comet C/2019 Y4 ATLAS, in this case. I'm very on brand this week.
My latest for @forbes.com is about the search for the Soviet Luna 9 Moon lander... and two very different claims about its location. Also I got to use the phrase "the Soviets loved their space balls," which brought me joy in these trying times. 🧪
Two Teams Say They’ve Found The Luna 9 Moon Lander, In Different Places
Only one of these patches of lunar plain can be Luna 9’s actual landing site – and there’s no guarantee that either of them is. But the search is oddly compelling.
www.forbes.com
February 11, 2026 at 11:57 PM
My latest for @forbes.com is about the search for the Soviet Luna 9 Moon lander... and two very different claims about its location. Also I got to use the phrase "the Soviets loved their space balls," which brought me joy in these trying times. 🧪
Reposted by Kiona N. Smith
I really *love* when we get these conjunctions!
Depth is hard to perceive when looking into the cosmos, but images like this give us an idea.
Comet - our Solar System
Stars - further out, but our Galaxy
Galaxy - very far away with a void between
Looking across space & time!
📸 Daniele Gasparri
Depth is hard to perceive when looking into the cosmos, but images like this give us an idea.
Comet - our Solar System
Stars - further out, but our Galaxy
Galaxy - very far away with a void between
Looking across space & time!
📸 Daniele Gasparri
February 11, 2026 at 11:49 PM
I really *love* when we get these conjunctions!
Depth is hard to perceive when looking into the cosmos, but images like this give us an idea.
Comet - our Solar System
Stars - further out, but our Galaxy
Galaxy - very far away with a void between
Looking across space & time!
📸 Daniele Gasparri
Depth is hard to perceive when looking into the cosmos, but images like this give us an idea.
Comet - our Solar System
Stars - further out, but our Galaxy
Galaxy - very far away with a void between
Looking across space & time!
📸 Daniele Gasparri
Reposted by Kiona N. Smith
Over on threads someone just use ai;dr and we all need to adopt that right quick
February 11, 2026 at 7:56 PM
Over on threads someone just use ai;dr and we all need to adopt that right quick
Reposted by Kiona N. Smith
Reposted by Kiona N. Smith
Friends from Minneapolis reporting to me that things are at the point where folks are being hidden in other people's houses and we are in the "again" part of "never again" which the "never" was supposed to preclude
February 10, 2026 at 10:54 PM
Friends from Minneapolis reporting to me that things are at the point where folks are being hidden in other people's houses and we are in the "again" part of "never again" which the "never" was supposed to preclude
She's not technically wrong.
![Comic. [Person with ponytail pointing to diagram on wall as she talks to two other people, one with short hair.] PERSON 1: The high carbon content of the skeleton indicates that the individual lived less than 12.6 billion years ago, after the first round of stellar nucleosynthesis. [caption] Cosmologist carbon dating](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:cz73r7iyiqn26upot4jtjdhk/bafkreiaaaa2fduedn5fusan4xvikaehxgps2yxdlv7vb3j7ep323zta2u4@jpeg)
February 10, 2026 at 11:22 PM
She's not technically wrong.
Reposted by Kiona N. Smith
@drspacejunk.bsky.social on preserving the ISS www.iflscience.com/what-if-we-d...
What If We Don’t Crash The ISS Back Down, And Turn It Into A Space Museum Instead?
Between a fiery end and an uncharted future, we know what we would pick.
www.iflscience.com
February 10, 2026 at 10:23 PM
@drspacejunk.bsky.social on preserving the ISS www.iflscience.com/what-if-we-d...
Reposted by Kiona N. Smith
Simple, really. To create good art you need to have empathy for other people.
From Melania to Kid Rock’s halftime show: why is Maga art so dreadful?
From Melania to Kid Rock’s halftime show: why is Maga art so dreadful?
As the right stokes culture wars, their alternatives to ‘woke’ Hollywood prove to be shoddily made and uninspired
www.theguardian.com
February 10, 2026 at 7:41 PM
Simple, really. To create good art you need to have empathy for other people.
Reposted by Kiona N. Smith
If I were reading a novel about an anti-filth crusade led by "Congressman Ogles" and "Congressman Randy Fine," I'd think it all a bit heavy-handed.
Congressman wants to round up and deport people who liked Bad Bunny’s show. This is the Republican Party.
February 10, 2026 at 8:50 PM
If I were reading a novel about an anti-filth crusade led by "Congressman Ogles" and "Congressman Randy Fine," I'd think it all a bit heavy-handed.
Reposted by Kiona N. Smith
A bit late (our article came out in August 2024), but coverage of our first publication of the SQuARE experiment on the ISS. "Archaeology conducted in space": www.earth.com/video/space-...
Archaeology conducted in space
Archaeology conducted in space - Earth.com
www.earth.com
February 10, 2026 at 12:23 AM
A bit late (our article came out in August 2024), but coverage of our first publication of the SQuARE experiment on the ISS. "Archaeology conducted in space": www.earth.com/video/space-...
Reposted by Kiona N. Smith
Don’t believe the lies you hear about immigrant and undocumented workers.
The real villains are the greedy corporations that want workers fighting one another while they rake in record profits at all workers’ expense.
Former Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su explains.
The real villains are the greedy corporations that want workers fighting one another while they rake in record profits at all workers’ expense.
Former Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su explains.
The Truth About Immigrant Workers
Don’t believe the lies you hear about immigrant and undocumented workers.The real villains are the greedy corporations t
youtu.be
February 10, 2026 at 3:21 PM
Don’t believe the lies you hear about immigrant and undocumented workers.
The real villains are the greedy corporations that want workers fighting one another while they rake in record profits at all workers’ expense.
Former Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su explains.
The real villains are the greedy corporations that want workers fighting one another while they rake in record profits at all workers’ expense.
Former Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su explains.
Reposted by Kiona N. Smith
AOC on DHS Warehouses: I think every American should be alarmed. They are building—and have built—a black box system that disappears people, both immigrants and U.S. citizens alike.
February 10, 2026 at 1:30 AM
AOC on DHS Warehouses: I think every American should be alarmed. They are building—and have built—a black box system that disappears people, both immigrants and U.S. citizens alike.
Excuse me while I scream into the void for a moment.
Trump administration removes rainbow flag from the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ civil rights movement
Trump administration removes Rainbow Flag from Stonewall National Monument
The Trump administration removed a large Rainbow Flag from a flagpole at the Stonewall National Monument, the National Park Service confirmed to Gay City News
gaycitynews.com
February 10, 2026 at 3:29 PM
Excuse me while I scream into the void for a moment.
Reposted by Kiona N. Smith
"A threat to anyone’s constitutional rights is a threat to us all. Today, immigrants are being detained without due process. Tomorrow, under the Government’s [view], American citizens could be subject to the same treatment. This Court will not allow such an unraveling of the Constitution."
BONUS RULING: Judge Thomas Johnston, a George W. Bush appoiintee in West Virginia, used a recent ruling to warn of the dangers of defying due process for immigrants because of what it could also mean for Americans. It's worth a read.
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
February 10, 2026 at 1:54 PM
"A threat to anyone’s constitutional rights is a threat to us all. Today, immigrants are being detained without due process. Tomorrow, under the Government’s [view], American citizens could be subject to the same treatment. This Court will not allow such an unraveling of the Constitution."
Reposted by Kiona N. Smith
Oh, also - if your vision for the future of space exploration is dependent on mining the Moon for resources - think of a better future! Use your imagination! We don't HAVE to do anything, and that includes mining the Moon
The same ethical problems of Mars apply to the Moon. It is a challenge to all who do space exploration to commit to building a relationship to the Moon that respects the Moon itself. Taking the Moon seriously, as a planetary body and as a sacred space, is integral.
February 10, 2026 at 3:07 PM
Oh, also - if your vision for the future of space exploration is dependent on mining the Moon for resources - think of a better future! Use your imagination! We don't HAVE to do anything, and that includes mining the Moon
Reposted by Kiona N. Smith
Smart people have already written about the many problems of generative AI better than I could, but I’ll tell you this about the thing I know: writing is about writing. It’s an action. A verb. It’s what we do. I write, you write, they write. Skip that and you’re not a writer.
February 8, 2026 at 10:57 PM
Smart people have already written about the many problems of generative AI better than I could, but I’ll tell you this about the thing I know: writing is about writing. It’s an action. A verb. It’s what we do. I write, you write, they write. Skip that and you’re not a writer.
Reposted by Kiona N. Smith
Crockett: "The US is falling apart, partially bc he's allowing for killings in the street, but also bc we have a 34 count convicted felon being shielded from any type of accountability as it relates to a child sex trafficking ring. I don't understand why we're pretending any of this is normal."
February 9, 2026 at 3:55 PM
Crockett: "The US is falling apart, partially bc he's allowing for killings in the street, but also bc we have a 34 count convicted felon being shielded from any type of accountability as it relates to a child sex trafficking ring. I don't understand why we're pretending any of this is normal."
February 9, 2026 at 10:12 PM