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Galaxy Map @galaxymap.bsky.social · 18h

Meta now provides tools to create and sell avatar clothing, so I thought why not? My first top. Now trying to figure out how to open a clothing store in my Star Central world.

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Galaxy Map @galaxymap.bsky.social · 21h

Star Central under development.

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Galaxy Map @galaxymap.bsky.social · 23h

I'm working on a huge VR astronomy world for Horizon Worlds and there are many maps (and a Star Cinema, and starships to travel the galaxy, and meeting space, and a cafe and ... much more).

I am redoing my maps to put the galactic centre towards the top for this VR app. Here is a revised 10 pc map.

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Galaxy Map @galaxymap.bsky.social · 7d

I think Canada might be closer to what you are looking for. Other than perhaps Alberta, it doesn't have the weird religious fervour seen in the United States or the entrenched class differences of the UK. Pierre Poilievre has been way more successful in whipping up hatred than I expected though ...

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Reposted by Galaxy Map

Emily Hunt @emily.space · Sep 6

bluesky hive mind: is this unhinged conference poster design actually any good?

I really want to make something eye-catching that's not just the normal black-text-on-white-background, so I turned the entire background into the main figure

still needs layout, text, & figure work, but basic concept:

A science poster titled "We will never find most open clusters". The background of the poster is an artist's impression of the Milky Way.

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Galaxy Map @galaxymap.bsky.social · 15d

If you want to support my galactic cartography work, please vote for this VR experience. I could win a big prize if I get enough votes:

devpost.com/software/sci...

Scifi Treasure Hunt (Remixable)

This is a remixable treasure hunt aboard a star station. Players jump and climb to search for alien artifacts and can use a large warehouse of documented components to build their own star stations.

devpost.com

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Galaxy Map @galaxymap.bsky.social · 15d

I'm biased, of course, but as a consumer of astronomy papers, I've seen the quality difference between the great papers you've written and the dodgy papers from a number of other researchers. So ... maybe be a little mean? We need good papers.

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NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory @vrubinobs.bsky.social · 26d

Come to the dark side... 😼

We're looking at dark nebulae in the #RubinFirstLook image of the Trifid & Lagoon Nebulae. Dark nebulae are clouds of gas and dust that are so dense they block visible light. This makes them appear black against their colorful, cloudy background. ☁️🔭🧪

A cosmic tapestry of glowing tan, blue, and pink gas clouds with dark dust lanes. At center, the Trifid Nebula resembles a flower in space. Its soft, pinkish gas petals are surrounded by blue gas, and streaked with dark, finger-like veins of dust that divide it into three parts. It radiates a gentle, misty glow, diffuse and soft like the warmth of breath on a cold hand.

A churning sea of magenta gas, with bright blue pinpricks sprinkled throughout where new stars are born. Short tendrils of dark dust etch the magenta backdrop like scratches in a smooth surface.

A churning sea of magenta gas sandwiched by a tan backdrop made of countless stars. Bright blue, knotted clumps are sprinkled throughout where new stars are born. A vast yet narrow dust lane sweeps down the left side of the image, like a slash in a tapestry. Additional short features of dark dust cut the magenta gas like scratches in a smooth surface.

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Galaxy Map @galaxymap.bsky.social · 26d

Some astronomers speculate that the star formation regions in the direction of W51 trace the origin of the local arm in the inner galaxy, making this region a crucial clue for local galactic structure. Unfortunately the high level of dust in this direction makes optical telescopes almost useless.

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Galaxy Map @galaxymap.bsky.social · 26d

So far as I know the latest consensus is that W51 is not a single complex. But we may need to wait for Gaia-NIR (Gaia Near Infrared) in 30 or 40 years to get a detailed reliable analysis of its structure. 😔

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Galaxy Map @galaxymap.bsky.social · 26d

I've long been fascinated by W51 because it offers perhaps the best opportunity to trace local spiral structure. Is it really a large connected complex or is it a series of star formation regions lined up at different distances in the line of sight?

Cheryl Blanchard @cheribliss.bsky.social · 27d

Westerhout 51A ~17,000 ly distant in constellation Sagittarius

🔭 JWST Program 6151 - The determination of the upper initial mass function in the nearest massive star-forming region, W51A: www.stsci.edu/jwst-program...

data:W51A, released: 2025-09-08
NASA, ESA, CSA/ #JWST MIRI 1280, 1000, 770

data:W51A, released: 2025-09-08, processed: C.Blanchard

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Reposted by Galaxy Map

Emily Hunt @emily.space · 29d

What happens when a star cluster disperses? Well, it forms a stream of stars - and those streams are all around us!

In a new paper by Sebastian Ratzenböck at the CfA / @univie.ac.at, we looked into streams near to the Sun, and found that the Milky Way's disk is *full* of streams! 🔭☄️🧪 #galactic

Figure from the paper showing detected streams in the Milky Way in Cartesian coordinates, where streams are shown as highlighted volumes. The Sun is at X=Y=Z 0 pc (the red cross): so these streams are all around us!

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ESO @eso.org · 27d

A fine example of a reflection nebula.

The ultraviolet radiation from the stars that illuminate Messier 78 is not intense enough to ionise the gas to make it glow — its dust particles simply reflect the starlight that falls on them. 🔭

A glowing, cloud-like structure with a central blue region surrounded by swirling dark dust lanes and reddish-brown gas. Numerous stars are scattered throughout the scene.

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ESA Space Science @science.esa.int · 27d

Welcome, Plato! 🤗

On 1 September, the spacecraft arrived in the Netherlands by boat from Germany via the Rhine River.

In the coming weeks, engineers will add the sunshield & solar arrays and carry out tests to confirm Plato is ready for launch 🚀
www.esa.int/Science_Expl...

🔭 #Exoplanets

A large cargo ship named VAARWEL, painted in blue and white, is sailing through a canal. The ship has a flag at its front and is passing under an open drawbridge in the background. The canal is lined with trees on both sides, and the sky above is bright blue with scattered white clouds. A few people are visible on the bridge and near the water’s edge. In the foreground, at the bottom right, a small boat with a single person inside floats near the ship.

In a cleanroom environment, two individuals wearing blue lab coats and hairnets are working around a large spacecraft. The spacecraft is covered in protective plastic sheeting and mounted on a white transport platform labelled with technical instructions.

In a cleanroom environment, a group of engineers wearing protective coats, gloves, and face masks are working on a large spacecraft component. The component is mounted on a white wheeled platform. The top of the spacecraft carries 26 cylindrical cameras. The workspace is surrounded by structural supports and white fabric walls, creating a clean and controlled environment.

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Galaxy Map @galaxymap.bsky.social · 29d

I would prioritize IAU official names in almost all cases, especially if they were cleaning up a nomenclature mess, which they were for OB associations.

Galaxy Map @galaxymap.bsky.social · 29d

Sco-Cen is a commonly used name (and I believe a very old name) for the Sco OB2 association. The IAU reworked the chaotic naming system for OB associations in the early 1960s and most astronomers typically use the new official names except, mysteriously, for Sco OB2.

Matthew Kenworthy @mattkenworthy.bsky.social · Sep 9

Two papers announcing the discovery of a directly imaged 6 Jupiter mass planet around binary system HD 143811 AB Squicciarini+ and Jones+ in Sco-Cen - Keck, Gemini and VLT all imaging this companion and confirmed with several years of common proper motion. #astrodon #exoplanet #exosci

Figure from Squicciarini et al. showing three panels with a white dot on a black and blue stippled background, indicating the location of the planet in GPI and SPHERE IRDIS data.&10;

Three panel image from Jones et al. showing a white dot on a stippled background. The planet is in the 11 o'clock position in all three images.

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Reposted by Galaxy Map

Emily Hunt @emily.space · Sep 8

Our galaxy is full of clouds of dust and gas. We can guess that they probably move, but it's hard to tell for sure. Until now!

A groundbreaking new paper by Martin Piecka et al. at @univie.ac.at presents the first *ever* direct measurement of the proper motion of the ISM! 🔭☄️🧪 #galactic

Their Figure 2, showing the densest part of the Corona Australis cloud between 2017 (dark red) to 2021 (dark yellow), with two epochs in between. The entire bottom-right of the cloud is consistently moving towards the bottom and left.

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Nereide @drnereide.bsky.social · Aug 30

🧵
A groundbreaking study in A&A (Anderson & Hunt, 2025) has used the third Gaia data release to map stellar evolution, analyzing 34,760 variable stars in 1,192 Galactic open clusters (OCs).

Here are the key points:

- Variable stars as cosmic guides. 1/8

🔭 🧪 #stellarastro @emily.space

The Hubble image of Trumpler 14 shows a brilliant star cluster in the Carina Nebula. The intense blue-white stars shine like diamonds against a darker tapestry, creating an opulent visual effect. At center left, a dark knot of gas and dust stands out in silhouette against the glare. The massive, young stars (500,000 years old) emit strong stellar winds, destined to explode as supernovae. The image, composed of data from 2005-2006, uses blue, visible, and infrared filters, highlighting hydrogen and nitrogen gas. The cosmic background appears as a luminous starry fabric.

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Melina Thévenot🏳️‍⚧️ @melina-iras07572.bsky.social · Sep 6

The Serpens G3-G6 cluster (bright stars on the upper right) and surrounding star-formation. #stars

#JWST NIRCam 🔭

My image processing from today: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Se...

red, sometimes green jets and blue nebulae.

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Reposted by Galaxy Map

ESA Space Science @science.esa.int · Sep 4

✨ Behind the shimmer: beautiful chaos ✨

A cosmic dust cloud is eroded by the power of massive, infant stars in this Webb image.

Step inside this turbulent stellar nursery 👉 www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed... 1/3 🔭 🧪

In what appears as a celestial dreamscape, a blue and black sky filled with brilliant stars covers about two thirds of the image. The stars are different sizes and shades of white, beige, yellow, and light orange. Across the bottom third of the scene is a craggy, mountain-like vista with spire-like peaks and deep, seemingly misty valleys. These so-called mountains appear in varying shades of orange, yellow, and brown. Above their soaring spires is a wispy, ethereal white cloud that stretched horizontally across the scene. Steam appears to rise from the mountaintops and join with this cloud. At the top, right corner of the image, a swath of orange and brown structure cuts diagonally across the sky.

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ESO @eso.org · Sep 4

Omega Centauri in all its glory!

Located about 17,000 light years away and captured in this stunning view that includes about 300,000 stars, Omega Centauri is the most luminous globular cluster in our Galaxy.

Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso1119b/

🔭

A dense globular star cluster set against a dark sky filled with countless stars. The cluster appears as a bright, spherical concentration of stars that becomes more densely packed toward the center, radiating a soft glow.

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Galaxy Map @galaxymap.bsky.social · Sep 2

Cas OB8 image from my Gaia DR3 zoomable searchable map app: gruze.org/dr3_app/

6kpc map

6kpc zoomable and searchable map

gruze.org

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Galaxy Map @galaxymap.bsky.social · Sep 2

New article about the massive young open cluster NGC 663 in the Cas OB8 association in the outer galaxy.

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Kelly Turnbull @coelasquid.bsky.social · Aug 31

Sometimes we’re unsatisfied with a thing we made because when it only existed in our head, we saw all the things it could have been and when it’s done we know all the things that it isn’t, but we can’t see the way it expands into a million new things when someone else unpacks it in their head. 🖊️🦑

Frustrated little dude gripping a pencil saying “how do I pack this down into something I can actually share?” While swirling rainbows labeled “INFINITE POTENTIAL” float around them.

Little dude frowns at a tiny grey box, exclaiming “all that work for THIS?!”

Little dude shoves the grey box into another little guy’s hands; Frowning, stomping off, and saying “Here you go, I made this, it sucks.”

Second little dude cracks open the box, swirling rainbows project out onto their face.

Second little dude stares in awe at all the swirling rainbows now floating around them.

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ESO @eso.org · Aug 28

This vast region of gas, dust and hot young stars is known as the Omega Nebula or the Swan Nebula. It is located in the constellation of Sagittarius, about 6000 light-years from Earth.

https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso1119a/ 🔭

A star-forming region rich in glowing gas and dark dust lanes. The nebula displays a mix of soft green, red, and brown hues, surrounded by a dense field of stars. Wisps of illuminated gas stretch outward, while dark regions hint at thick cloud

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