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Reposted by Heidi B. Hammel

US National Gemini Office @usngo.bsky.social · 6d

Gemini South finds Hayabusa2’s target asteroid is 3x tinier and spinning 2x faster than previously thought! #astronomy noirlab.edu/public/news/...

Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/T. Santana-Ros
ESO/M. Kornmesser. Asteroid: T. Santana-Ros et al. Hayabusa2 model: SuperTKG (CC-BY-SA)

Gemini Data Critical to Revealing that Hayabusa2 Target is Tinier and Faster than Thought - Gemini South paves the way for characterizing small asteroids from the ground with new data on spacecraft Ha...

Astronomers using observatories around the world, including the Gemini South telescope, the SOAR telescope and the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope funded in part by the U.S. National Science Founda...

noirlab.edu

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Heidi B. Hammel @hbhammel.bsky.social · 7d

chonky and chonkier somehow makes me think there are oodles of delightfully large cats inhabiting the subsurface ocean of Enceladus 😸

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Reposted by Heidi B. Hammel

Mark Boslough @boslough.bsky.social · 9d

My opinion piece on the pseudoscience of the Younger Dryas impact hypothesis was published today by Skeptical Inquirer.

skepticalinquirer.org/exclusive/th...

The Problem with Inadequately Reviewed Fringe Science | Skeptical Inquirer

Skeptics usually recognize pseudoscience when we see it. Our heuristics include an assessment of the qualifications and reputations of an idea’s proponents ...

skepticalinquirer.org

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Reposted by Heidi B. Hammel

Lee Billings @leebillings.bsky.social · 8d

Now on @sciam.bsky.social: NASA’s next-gen Habitable Worlds Observatory may be our best chance to find alien life. But can a nation busy ripping itself apart unite to launch a mission to solve life’s cosmic mysteries? By @nadiadrake.bsky.social (and me).

www.scientificamerican.com/article/are-...

NASA’s First-Ever Alien-Hunting Space Telescope Could Enlighten Our New Dark Age

The Habitable Worlds Observatory is poised to tell us whether Earthlike planets are common—if it can get off the ground

www.scientificamerican.com

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Reposted by Heidi B. Hammel

Don Davis @ddavisspaceart.bsky.social · 9d

A recent vista from Mars obtained by the Perseverance Rover on its 1635th Martian day, or 'Sol', Clouds far above the eternal dust pall are unusually well shown in this afternoon view. This is a mosaic of two wide angle color Navcam images.

This mosaic of two wide angle photos from the Perseverance rover shows the Martian surface stretching into the distance beyond two foreground hills. The rover tracks can just be seen winding into the distance. In this view clouds are unusually well defined as they float well above the tan dust that eternally colors the Martian skies.
In the original photos the area near the Sun is 'burned out' by the limitations of the camera sensor. I have addressed this by manually painting over the overexposed areas to reconstruct something of the brightness contours as they probably would have appeared to a human observer. I have also 'warped' the lower corners to fill the rectangular format. Artist's prerogative :-)

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Reposted by Heidi B. Hammel

American College of Medical Toxicology @acmtmedtox.bsky.social · 14d

Position Statement: ACMT Supports the Safe Use of #Acetaminophen in Pregnancy.

Read our full statement here➡️ bit.ly/3VxbKw8

ACMT Position Statement: ACMT affirms the safety of acetaminophen in pregnancy and calls for an evidence-based approach to the search for causes and treatment of autism.

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Heidi B. Hammel @hbhammel.bsky.social · 14d

"All that remained was to complete the crew capsule, called Orion, connected to SLS and to complete ground tests." 👀 Oh, that's "all"? Um . . . www.bbc.com/news/article...

Artemis II: Nasa plans crewed Moon mission for February

The mission around the Moon will pave the way for a lunar landing as soon as 2027.

www.bbc.com

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Reposted by Heidi B. Hammel

Noel Casler Comedy @noelcaslercomedy.bsky.social · 15d

If you think Tylenol is bad for children’s health what until you see what guns do.

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Heidi B. Hammel @hbhammel.bsky.social · 15d

I'll admit that Mars is not one of my favorite planets, but even I can't get enough Martian dune images from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's HiRISE camera, like this one colorized to look like the planet Uranus 😉 More stunning HiRISE pix at www.uahirise.org/catalog/

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Heidi B. Hammel @hbhammel.bsky.social · 21d

Oh my! That is weird!

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Heidi B. Hammel @hbhammel.bsky.social · 22d

Thx - I did encounter that graphic already but it has simultaneously too much info and too little info 😂

Heidi B. Hammel @hbhammel.bsky.social · 22d

Thx, Andy - audience is people who are not asteroid folks or even scientists - we can talk offline sometime about it

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Heidi B. Hammel @hbhammel.bsky.social · 23d

asteroid skymind - I am looking for a figure that shows asteroid spectral type as a function of near IR wavelength (0.9-2.5 micron) spectroscopy. Like this chart, but perhaps generalized and also with C and M type asteroids. Any leads? @asrivkin.bsky.social?

Pic shows reflectance spectroscopy for four different asteroids (Hektor, Eros, Kalliope, and Elektra) in the near infrared. Source: Emery et al "Chapter 19 - Spectral Analyses of Asteroids" in the book: Remote Compositional Analysis Techniques for Understanding Spectroscopy, Mineralogy, and Geochemistry of Planetary Surfaces.

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Heidi B. Hammel @hbhammel.bsky.social · 26d

Cole Gregg explores whether interstellar material might come from circumstellar debris disks (it probably can!), and if so, where that material might come from and what would be the physical characteristics thereof #epscdps #epscdps2025

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Reposted by Heidi B. Hammel

Meg Schwamb @megschwamb.bsky.social · 26d

Leah Albrow's talk (given by John Forbes who stepped in to give it) planet dynamical instabilities leave their mark on the ISO population #EPSCDPS2025

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Heidi B. Hammel @hbhammel.bsky.social · 26d

John Forbes: according to a model based on stellar populations, our galaxy contains a tapestry of streams of interstellar objects (ISOs) as illustrated in this still from a video that has been shown repeatedly in this ISO session #epscdps #epscdps2025

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Heidi B. Hammel @hbhammel.bsky.social · 26d

Close encounters of the average kind: Yukon Huang explores an analytic model of interstellar objects are scattered out of their planetary systems #epscdps #epscdps2025

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Heidi B. Hammel @hbhammel.bsky.social · 26d

Have interstellar objects ever hit Earth? No confirmed instances based on fireball statistics but intriguing hints. Dusan Marčeta explores the possibilities with a simulation and it could happen! #epscdps #epscdps2025

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Reposted by Heidi B. Hammel

Chris Lintott @chrislintott.bsky.social · 26d

Followed by Rosemary Dorsey who points out how hard it is to find these things: with @vrubinobs.bsky.social completeness of population will be less than a percent. arxiv.org/abs/2502.16741

The visibility of the Ōtautahi-Oxford interstellar object population model in LSST

With a new probabilistic technique for sampling interstellar object (ISO) orbits with high efficiency, we assess the observability of ISOs under a realistic cadence for the upcoming Vera Rubin Observa...

arxiv.org

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Heidi B. Hammel @hbhammel.bsky.social · 26d

Rosemary Dorsey reviews a simulation of the interstellar objects that NSF-DOE Rubin Observatory might reveal - how many, what their characteristics may be (maybe 6-51 objects - hard to detect!) @vrubinobs.bsky.social #epscdps #epscdps2025

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Reposted by Heidi B. Hammel

Meg Schwamb @megschwamb.bsky.social · 26d

Chris Lintott (@chrislintott.bsky.social) talking about the Ōtautahi-Oxford model - "know thy galaxy, know thy ISO" - ISOs outlive their parent stars, so we need the sine morte stellar population. #EPSCDPS2025

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Heidi B. Hammel @hbhammel.bsky.social · 26d

@chrislintott.bsky.social kicks off the “interstellar objects” session with an interesting discussion of how the orbits can link to potential sources of stellar populations, which gives us us context for their potential chemistry #epscdps2025 #epscdps

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Reposted by Heidi B. Hammel

Dr. Nick Attree @nickattree.bsky.social · 27d

some interesting results from #JWST in the outer solar system in an absolutely packed room. Who put the session on the biggest, best new space telescope in the smallest room? 😅
#EPSCDPS #EPSCDPS2025.

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Reposted by Heidi B. Hammel

Nola Taylor Tillman @astrowriter.bsky.social · 27d

"How do you think about this from a philosophical standpoint?" is a question that was just asked in the ice giant session.

#epscdps2025

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Heidi B. Hammel @hbhammel.bsky.social · 27d

No notes for the next #espcdps2025 JWST session because I am chairing it. But there will be lots of great spectra for sure - from ultra faint TNOs to mainbelt asteroids, JWST gotchu 🔭

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