Robert Massey
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robertmassey.bsky.social
Robert Massey
@robertmassey.bsky.social
Dad, Deputy Director RAS and Honorary Visiting Professor Sussex University. All views my own. Makes 'good' trouble.
Reposted by Robert Massey
Everything you need to know about the US’ slow turn against the EU.
December 6, 2025 at 7:28 PM
Reposted by Robert Massey
The Super Massive Podcast talks about Protecting Our Dark Skies!

Hosts @robertmassey.bsky.social, @drbecky.bsky.social, and Izzie Clarke.

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Protecting Our Dark Skies
pca.st
December 5, 2025 at 6:04 PM
Reposted by Robert Massey
Dr Paul Bate @ukspaceagency.bsky.social announces at #Appleton2025 that the #Beagle2 programme will be celebrated in 2026 with the installation of 10 plaques around UK linked to UK and Europe’s first successful landing of a probe on another planet.👏👏👏 #spacepolicy #space @esa.int
December 4, 2025 at 10:35 AM
Reposted by Robert Massey
Check out the latest Supermassive podcast episode, about Dark Skies and all them pesky satellites. With Izzie Clarke, @drbecky.bsky.social, @robertmassey.bsky.social, yours truly, and @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy, aka Sam Lawler. Then lobby your MP. shows.acast.com/the-supermas...
Protecting Our Dark Skies | The Supermassive Podcast
shows.acast.com
December 2, 2025 at 5:32 PM
Reposted by Robert Massey
Just imagining how much better it would be if ALL news stories about vaccine-preventable illnesses were illustrated with pictures of people with the disease, not pictures of needle injections. If you must show something that people will find scary & unpleasant, make it the disease, not the cure.
I'm so tired of measles.

I'm also tired of people using needle shots on stories like this.

Show what measles looks like.
Gallatin Co. reports 2nd measles case, warns of exposure sites nbcmontana.com/news/local/g...
December 2, 2025 at 4:40 AM
Reposted by Robert Massey
Was asked to give a 30 min talk to my @ukspaceagency.bsky.social Alumni about my back-garden astronomy imaging today. It did drift on a bit to 40 mins but @robertmassey.bsky.social @royalastrosoc.bsky.social @astroroyalscot.bsky.social may be pleased to note that I left them with a firm last slide!
November 26, 2025 at 2:38 PM
Reposted by Robert Massey
People were arguing in my mentions today about whether the Earth is "round" when it's technically an irregular oblate spheroid and look "round" doesn't mean "absolutely perfect sphere" it means round. A soccer ball is round, a cantaloupe is round, a fluffy borb in winter is round, just go with it.
November 21, 2025 at 11:23 PM
Reposted by Robert Massey
Biologic treatment for Crohn's disease makes me a bit more clinically vulnerable. As a result I'm grateful every single day for vaccines. The conspiracists are an absolute menace for public health and trust more generally.
November 20, 2025 at 5:54 PM
Reposted by Robert Massey
The Covid inquiry’s findings are shocking but unsurprising now, so the main thing it left me thinking is that without a vaccine we wd’ve been utterly screwed. & if you worked round the clock to make a thing that saved millions of lives globally, to see that legacy trashed by anti-vaxxers…
November 20, 2025 at 5:50 PM
Reposted by Robert Massey
If you're here at the Dynamic Earth science centre and planetarium come and say "Hi"! We're here until 7.30pm.
November 19, 2025 at 3:41 PM
Reposted by Robert Massey
Hello from the 25th annual Science and the Parliament event in Edinburgh! 🪐🔭👋

Our Deputy Executive Director @robertmassey.bsky.social has been joined by Professor Andy Lawrence, from the University of Edinburgh, and Dr Sophie Butcher, of the British Geological Survey.

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November 19, 2025 at 3:41 PM
Reposted by Robert Massey
Bonus episode of The Super Massive Podcast - Gone Rogue!

Hosts, @robertmassey.bsky.social, @drbecky.bsky.social, and Izzie Clarke!

Share and Enjoy!

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Also, join the Super Massive Club! No ads!!!
BONUS: Supermassive Gone Rogue
pca.st
November 15, 2025 at 2:03 PM
Reposted by Robert Massey
Do we really want 250,000 mirrored satellites in Low Earth Orbit? Hasn't the Starlink megaconstellation already done enough damage?
🧪 @mjibrown.bsky.social
A US startup plans to deliver ‘sunlight on demand’ after dark. Can it work – and would we want it to?
Satellites beaming sunlight down to Earth sound like science fiction – and they have astronomers very worried.
theconversation.com
October 10, 2025 at 10:21 AM
Reposted by Robert Massey
The Super Massive Podcast helps us prepare for the big storm!

Izzie Clarke, @drbecky.bsky.social, and @robertmassey.bsky.social host!

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Don't Panic…but a solar storm could be a disaster
pca.st
September 24, 2025 at 11:57 PM
Reposted by Robert Massey
A wonderful and thought provoking talk by @robertmassey.bsky.social this evening to @bathastronomers.org.uk and visitors from the public.

So kind of Dr Robert Massey to travel to us from London. It is the kind hearts of people like Robert that keep astronomical societies fun and vibrant communites.
September 24, 2025 at 10:06 PM
Reposted by Robert Massey
Amid all the stuff about ‘dangerous London’ and ‘broken Britain’, new figures show the homicide rate in London is at a 10-year low. Killings dropped by 26% over the last year, from 78 to 58. No one under 25 was murdered during the school summer holidays.
September 3, 2025 at 8:45 AM
Reposted by Robert Massey
Murder rates aren’t just dropping steeply in Britain — they’re even dropping in the US (though of course they’re far higher there). The 2024 homicide rate in the US decreased by about 15%, one of the largest drops in American history — and mostly in the largest cities.
September 7, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Reposted by Robert Massey
Bonus Episode of The Super Massive Podcast!

Help support the podcast by joining The Super Massive Club! Ad free and it helps the @royalastrosoc.bsky.social!

@robertmassey.bsky.social, Izzie Clarke, and @drbecky.bsky.social host!

🔭🛰️🪐
BONUS - Are we Living in a Black Hole?
pca.st
September 10, 2025 at 9:24 PM
Reposted by Robert Massey
Shouldn't the response to this be that Ukraine & its allies view any Russian troops in Ukraine as legitimate targets, since they're there in violation of the UN Charter and a variety of bilateral Ukraine-Russia agreements?
September 6, 2025 at 8:07 PM
Reposted by Robert Massey
The UK couldn't take Reform's Trumpism. It doesn't print the world's currency; it doesn't have a vast internal market; it can't just ignore the bond markets; it doesn't have loads of really strong sub-national government. It would just break up like a satellite hitting the atmosphere.
September 6, 2025 at 6:45 PM
Reposted by Robert Massey
In large part it's the fault of the Conservative Party just kind of... falling apart and giving up that we've got this massive threat burgeoning right in front of us. But if you asked me (I know you didn't) I'd recommend leaving the blame games at home and focus on stopping the UK doing the same.
September 6, 2025 at 6:39 PM
Reposted by Robert Massey
This is what I mean. I'd vote for almost anyone to stop this lot. Doesn't matter what your political stripe, I'd recommend you do too. They are a clear danger to basic state functions. Just ask RFK Jr.
The Reform party conference has been told that Covid vaccines are the probable cause of cancer for the King and the Princess of Wales

The party chose to platform Dr Aseem Malhotra, a prominent ally of RFK Jr in their dangerous maverick campaigns against vaccines

www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/202...
September 6, 2025 at 6:35 PM
Reposted by Robert Massey
I've got no doubt that Reform UK are a threat to state security - to internal cohesion, intel co-operation with the EU27, to continued use of Faslane and to the Coalition of the Willing. And yet here we are.
September 6, 2025 at 6:29 PM
Reposted by Robert Massey
So many people are soooo complacent about liberal freedoms they take for granted. Just like they were complacent about Trump and Putin. Don't be those people.
September 6, 2025 at 6:26 PM
Reposted by Robert Massey
The interesting thing is that far more of the UK population remain tethered in reality. RefUK would have won, what, only 30% and a bit of the vote. And after this lot got going on science, vaccines, Ukraine, the BBC, the EHRC, the Reset and everything else they'd be in single figures within months.
It's clear from today's Reform UK Conference that if they gained an overall majority the UK would in some ways be even worse off than the US under Trump 2.0. Utterly unhinged Call of Cthulu-style stuff. Wouldn't take much for the country to become an autocratic semi-democracy either.
September 6, 2025 at 6:19 PM