Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Matt Bothwell @mattbothwell.com · 1d

I'm delighted that my first children's book, Astrophysics for Supervillains, is featured in BookTrust’s Great Books Guide 2025, chosen as one of their top recommended children’s books of the year 😀🔭

www.booktrust.org.uk/book-recomme...

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Matt Bothwell @mattbothwell.com · 6d

Oh to be a cat in a drawer

A black and white cat, lying in a drawer full of linens and blankets

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Matt Bothwell @mattbothwell.com · 7d

Back at the Royal Institution, as part of the book tour 😀

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Matt Bothwell @mattbothwell.com · 14d

On the contrary, Cornell et al. (1994) was way ahead of its time, positing the existence of quasi-stars (en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quasi-s...) which mainstream astrophysics didn’t predict until 2006.

Glen @vaguebiscuit.bsky.social · Aug 7

If I learned anything from the song Black Hole Sun it's that Chris Cornell didn't know shit about astrophysics

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Reposted by Matt Bothwell

Jason Wright @astrowright.bsky.social · 17d

She basically invented astrophysics.
She proved the laws of chemistry, quantum mechanics, and statistical mechanics, not just gravity, applied universally.
She determined the composition of the sun and primacy of hydrogen in the universe.
She advised the PhDs of Frank Drake and Frank Kameny.

Elise Cutts @elisecutts.bsky.social · 17d

Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin ✨ figured out what stars are made of ✨ when she was just 25. 🔭🧪

Her PhD thesis basically established the Harvard astro department — at a time when Harvard didn't officially allow woman students.

I wrote this little profile to mark the 100th anniversary of her thesis:

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Matt Bothwell @mattbothwell.com · 18d

Google AI doesn’t understand how borders work

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Matt Bothwell @mattbothwell.com · 29d

I’ll be back at the Ri on October 4th, talking about all things dark matter-y. Come along!

Royal Institution @rigb.org · Sep 10

Dark Matter appears to have shaped the cosmos from its earliest moments. Yet despite its profound influence, Dark Matter has never been directly detected.

Join astronomer @mattbothwell.com as he explores the evidence leading scientists to this astonishing conclusion.

Searching for the invisible universe

Explore the mysteries of Dark Matter with Matt Bothwell

www.rigb.org

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Reposted by Matt Bothwell

Chris Lintott @chrislintott.bsky.social · Sep 3

Somehow seems right the best appreciation of In Our Time - and Bragg - is in the New Yorker. Captures the hunour if it - especially thosr abrupt intros. www.newyorker.com/culture/podc...

Escape the News with the British Podcast “In Our Time with Melvyn Bragg”

“In Our Time” feels aligned with the eternal rather than the temporal, and is therefore escapist without being junk.

www.newyorker.com

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Matt Bothwell @mattbothwell.com · Sep 2

Exciting news! I'm going to be giving TWO talks at the Royal Institution on 4th October: an afternoon talk for children about my latest book (The Great Alien Hunt), and an evening talk for adults about the mysteries of Dark Matter. 🔭🧪👽

www.rigb.org/whats-on/gre...

www.rigb.org/whats-on/sea...

The great alien hunt (family)

Join astronomer Matt Bothwell for a journey for life across the Universe

www.rigb.org

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Matt Bothwell @mattbothwell.com · Aug 23

Major discovery

Edd Edmondson @eddedmondson.bsky.social · Aug 23

I note that 'alien observations' is an anagram of 'Avi Loeb's insane rot'

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Matt Bothwell @mattbothwell.com · Aug 9

Absolutely incredible post on the latest piece of silliness produced by the Florida Man of astronomy

Steve Desch @deschscoveries.bsky.social · Aug 8

I have a complaint about Avi Loeb's latest work and I want to speak to management.

medium.com/@steve.desch...

This is not the quality of pseudoscience infotainment to which I have grown accustomed

Teasing the public with fraudulent or self-deluded promises of aliens used to mean something. It took work. It meant slapping together…

medium.com

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Matt Bothwell @mattbothwell.com · Aug 9

Amazing stuff, bravo.

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Matt Bothwell @mattbothwell.com · Aug 8

GPT5 now knows how many 'r's are in the word strawberry. But this seems like a one-off, and fails on similar words.

Has the 'how many 'r's in strawberry' question become easy just because it's now part of the training data?

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Matt Bothwell @mattbothwell.com · Aug 5

The colour-coordinated flowers are on point at Peterhouse College!

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Reposted by Matt Bothwell

Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans @astroroyalscot.bsky.social · Jul 30

Big day for the matriarchy! 🥳 Huge congrats to the awesome Prof. Doughtery, lead on the Jupiter-bound ESA JUICE mission & STFC Exec Chair.

If anyone's confused on the astro royal hierarchy: Michele and I are the astro equivalents of 🇬🇧Westminster and 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿Holyrood 🤗

ℹ️: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... 👩‍🔬🔭🧪

UK gets first female Astronomer Royal in 350 years

Prof Michele Dougherty is the first woman to be appointed to the influential post.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Matt Bothwell @mattbothwell.com · Jul 17

It must have been an irresistible trade-off for a narcissist. You can have millions of lay-people hanging on every word you say and buying your books, and all you have to do is torch your career among a few thousand professionals

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Matt Bothwell @mattbothwell.com · Jul 17

Reset the count!

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Reposted by Matt Bothwell

Corey S. Powell @coreyspowell.bsky.social · Jul 4

It's official: A new interstellar object is currently flying through our solar system at 61 km/sec.

Comet 3I/ATLAS, as it's now known, is only the 3rd known interstellar visitor, but the new Rubin Observatory is likely to find dozens more in the coming years. 🔭🧪

science.nasa.gov/solar-system...

This diagram shows the trajectory of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS as it passes through the solar system. It will make its closest approach to the Sun in October. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

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Reposted by Matt Bothwell

Phil Plait @philplait.bsky.social · Jul 3

OK, looks like 3I/ATLAS is a comet! If it were an asteroid the image would be symmetric circles. The distortion is likely due to ices sublimating to form a gaseous tail.

Robert Rutledge @rerutled.bsky.social · Jul 3

ATel #17264: Deep g'-band Imaging of Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS from the Two-meter Twin Telescope (TTT) www.astronomerstelegram.org?read=17264

-- by Miguel R. Alarcon et al.

An astrophysical image of the isophotes around a near point source, showing an extendedness, indicated to be approximately in the anti-solar direction.

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Matt Bothwell @mattbothwell.com · Jul 3

Aaaaaand… done! The first draft of Astrophysics for Supervillains 3 has been officially sent to my editor 😀

(Due May 2026. Ish.)

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Matt Bothwell @mattbothwell.com · Jul 3

bsky.app/profile/astr...

Jason Wright @astrowright.bsky.social · Jul 3

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Matt Bothwell @mattbothwell.com · Jul 3

Reset the counter!

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Reposted by Matt Bothwell

Jacob Aron @jjaron.bsky.social · Jul 2

A visitor from another star has been spotted speeding through the solar system! This is only the third ever interstellar object we've seen so far - I'm excited to learn more about it in the coming months before it flies away again www.newscientist.com/article/2486...

Interstellar visitor spotted hurtling through the solar system

An object thought to have come from another star has been seen entering the solar system at high speed, and is expected to whip around the sun in the coming months

www.newscientist.com

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Matt Bothwell @mattbothwell.com · Jul 2

Another interstellar visitor? Looks like it could be…

Also, I can’t wait for Rubin to find hundreds of these things. Exciting times!

Michael Busch @michael-w-busch.bsky.social · Jul 2

For any asteroid observers who have not heard about it already:

Newly-discovered #A11pl3Z is a candidate interstellar object.

cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/scout/#/obje...

Scout: NEOCP Hazard Assessment

NASA's Near-Earth Object (NEO) web-site. Data related to Earth impact risk, close-approaches, and much more.

cneos.jpl.nasa.gov

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Reposted by Matt Bothwell

Corey S. Powell @coreyspowell.bsky.social · Jun 30

The details are not yet finalized, but the budget bill would devastate NASA science and the future of US exploration in space and astronomy. Among many other things. 🔭🧪

www.planetary.org/articles/nas...

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