Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Fun Fact Science with Kovi @funfactscience.com · 5d

scariest 15 minutes of my life

2

Fun Fact Science with Kovi @funfactscience.com · 6d

any other #astro folks having issues with VizieR?
🔭☄️

1 3

Reposted by Fun Fact Science with Kovi

Fun Fact Science with Kovi @funfactscience.com · 9d

When a surprise trip to the pet dentist derails your paper-writing plans, but at least you have the bravest dog in the southern hemisphere

White fluffy Spitz/husky dog sitting on wooden floors with a white background. Next to him a hand is holding a certificate of bravery for "showing great courage and being the best boy"

1 8

Reposted by Fun Fact Science with Kovi

Fun Fact Science with Kovi @funfactscience.com · 10d

fresh off the arXiv presses (and accepted to PASP): an absolutely stellar review paper by Lynn Matthews about the radio stars conference held at @haystack.mit.edu last year 📡✨
arxiv.org/abs/2509.21467

Radio Stars in the Era of New Observatories

An international conference Radio Stars in the Era of New Observatories was held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Haystack Observatory on 2024 April 17-19. The conference brought together ...

arxiv.org

1 2 5

Fun Fact Science with Kovi @funfactscience.com · 9d

When a surprise trip to the pet dentist derails your paper-writing plans, but at least you have the bravest dog in the southern hemisphere

1 8

Fun Fact Science with Kovi @funfactscience.com · 10d

I might be a smidge biased but I am especially thrilled to see so much great work from Australian astronomers in this review / at the conference, including the awesome new radio stars catalogue compiled by @astrolaura.com - which more than doubled the number of known radio-bright stellar systems!

astronomical HR diagram with grey dots in the background for optical gaia stars and colourful markers showing the radio stars - colour scaled by radio luminosity from yellow (lower) to purpler (higher)

2

Fun Fact Science with Kovi @funfactscience.com · 10d

fresh off the arXiv presses (and accepted to PASP): an absolutely stellar review paper by Lynn Matthews about the radio stars conference held at @haystack.mit.edu last year 📡✨
arxiv.org/abs/2509.21467

Radio Stars in the Era of New Observatories

An international conference Radio Stars in the Era of New Observatories was held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Haystack Observatory on 2024 April 17-19. The conference brought together ...

arxiv.org

1 2 5

Fun Fact Science with Kovi @funfactscience.com · 10d

*sighs in proper motion

Jason Wright @astrowright.bsky.social · 10d

I feel like we need an Avi Loeb pitchbot that generates these, but he‘s better than most of what it would produce.

(He calculates they came from regions “only” 10° apart on the sky—what are the odds!?—sooo, maybe? 🤣)

Was the Wow! Signal Emitted from 3I/ATLAS?

By Avi Loeb

4

Reposted by Fun Fact Science with Kovi

Andy Casely @deep-twilight.bsky.social · 11d

My social media manager for this one is Helen, but I'm pretty chuffed to win the Solar System category at the Malins for the third time in the last five years (move over Brisbane Lions, I'm doing back-to-back wins too 🤣). Congrats to the other winners and finalists too, some great images again

Helen MC @crystallised-cricket.com · 12d

Proud of @deep-twilight.bsky.social, following his 2024 Solar System category win in the Malin awards (Australia's premier Astrophoto comp) with another in 2025. This time for a beaut sequence of Saturn through equinox.

A composite of four images of Saturn through equinox. In practicality, this means that the rings move from tilted through to straight, then tilted again. Saturn is seen as a pale orange sphere, with band of clouds visible in each of the four images.

An image of a trophy and a certificate for Winner of the 2025 Solar System category of the David Malin awards - awarded to Andy Casely

1 4

Reposted by Fun Fact Science with Kovi

Helen MC @crystallised-cricket.com · 12d

Proud of @deep-twilight.bsky.social, following his 2024 Solar System category win in the Malin awards (Australia's premier Astrophoto comp) with another in 2025. This time for a beaut sequence of Saturn through equinox.

2 2 13

Fun Fact Science with Kovi @funfactscience.com · 13d

Awesome new work by @emilykerrison.bsky.social discovering a whole heap of new peaked spectrum radio galaxies!
📡🔭🧪⚛️
arxiv.org/abs/2509.21233

RadioSED II: discovering the peaked spectrum radio sources in Stripe 82

This paper is the second in a series presenting \textsc{RadioSED}, a Bayesian inference framework for constructing, modelling and classifying radio spectral energy distributions from publicly-availabl...

arxiv.org

2

Reposted by Fun Fact Science with Kovi

Fun Fact Science with Kovi @funfactscience.com · 15d

can we have (data)class outside?!

thankful to have such a peaceful work environment to write/code today

laptop screen with code next to latte out of focus in foreground. background is courtyard of cafe with tables and chairs along the brick walls. plants hand from the wooden rafters.

1 5

Reposted by Fun Fact Science with Kovi

Fun Fact Science with Kovi @funfactscience.com · 14d

Huge congrats to @cosmicrami.com on getting his first paper accepted, for publication in @pasajournal.bsky.social

Let's goooo pulsar boy!

💫

📡

arxiv.org/abs/2509.18972

1 2 15

Fun Fact Science with Kovi @funfactscience.com · 14d

Congrats Sarah!

Fun Fact Science with Kovi @funfactscience.com · 14d

Last chance to catch @raynerexplainer.bsky.social tonight at Sydney Fringe!

Fun Fact Science with Kovi @funfactscience.com · 15d

Made it back from the US just in time to see @raynerexplainer.bsky.social's show at Sydney Fringe: Atomically Correct.

Opening night was hilariously nerdy! If you like science and puns I'd highly recommend getting tickets for the remaining shows: sydneyfringe.com/events/rache...

Autographed (squiggled) tickets from the show. In black and white (which makes everything better). Shows a person sitting in a hula hoop.

1 1

Fun Fact Science with Kovi @funfactscience.com · 14d

Are they singing about their preference for TEMPO2 over PINT?

Fun Fact Science with Kovi @funfactscience.com · 14d

Huge congrats to @cosmicrami.com on getting his first paper accepted, for publication in @pasajournal.bsky.social

Let's goooo pulsar boy!

💫

📡

arxiv.org/abs/2509.18972

1 2 15

Reposted by Fun Fact Science with Kovi

Fun Fact Science with Kovi @funfactscience.com · Sep 8

We've already recorded our first episode with one of the guests who filled in this EOI. No spoilers but I'll say it was probably the hardest I've ever laughed during an episode!

Fun Fact Science with Kovi @funfactscience.com · Aug 28

If you or someone you know likes talking about science let us know! 🧪
We're looking for guests to join us on the next season of @scienceactually.bsky.social Presents: The Nerd and the Scientist: forms.gle/Y5kdvmuVJ1Qu...

forms.gle

1 2

Reposted by Fun Fact Science with Kovi

Fun Fact Science with Kovi @funfactscience.com · 15d

americans will do literally anything to avoid using the metric system en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoot

Smoot - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1 1

Reposted by Fun Fact Science with Kovi

Fun Fact Science with Kovi @funfactscience.com · 15d

Just returned from the 6th (and sadly final) data science workshop of my LSST fellowship. I'll eventually write a longer piece describing the program, and its importance in the era of big-data astronomy. But suffice to say that the experience has had a profound impact on the trajectory of my career