Jen Gupta
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jengupta.bsky.social
Jen Gupta
@jengupta.bsky.social
Professional Space Nerd. Emo kid at heart. Expect astronomy, physics, science, sci-fi, outreach, public engagement, dogs, parenting, emo, pop-punk & general geekiness. Own views. She/her.
Calling all space fans! World Space Week starts on Saturday and we have a bunch of public events happening in Portsmouth and Gosport. Check out the listings at the link below and please spread the word!

www.port.ac.uk/news-events-...
World Space Week 2025
Join us this October as we celebrate World Space Week 2025 in Portsmouth and discover more about the wealth of space activity taking place in our region.
www.port.ac.uk
September 30, 2025 at 11:27 AM
I'm terrible at being online these days but last year I somehow persuaded STFC (the UK astrophysics research funding council) to give me one of their Leadership Fellowships in Public Engagement and today I had my first project meeting with my team and I'm very excited!
April 23, 2025 at 9:22 PM
Honoured and excited to have been elected President of the Society for Popular Astronomy this afternoon, taking over from the wonderful Prof Lucie Green! The SPA is the UK's leading entry-level astronomical society, find out more at www.popastro.com
Welcome to the Society for Popular Astronomy - Society for Popular Astronomy
Click to find out more! Featured content
www.popastro.com
January 25, 2025 at 5:35 PM
Reposted by Jen Gupta
Watching astronauts Suni Williams and Nick Hague work on repairs of our baby, X-Ray 🔭 NICER!!

streaming live from space:
www.youtube.com/live/RYPk8fz...

🧪
YouTube
Share your videos with friends, family, and the world
www.youtube.com
January 16, 2025 at 2:48 PM
I talked about SaxaVord and UK vertical launches and the possibility of the first launch happening this year on the radio yesterday and then this news comes out today! It feels like there's so much happening in the space sector right now, it's hard to keep up!
Congratulations to Rocket Factory Augsburg who have received the first licence for vertical orbital launches from Europe from the UK Civil Aviation Authority. 🚀

Another step forward for UK launch capabilities, supporting jobs and growth across the space sector. 🛰️
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Shetland Spaceport: Firm secures vertical rocket launch licence
Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA) have been awarded a licence allowing them to launch rockets from Shetland.
www.bbc.co.uk
January 16, 2025 at 1:56 PM
Reposted by Jen Gupta
ICYMI … the NRAO is on The Sky!

[radio astronomy is slowly taking over the socials and this is the future envisioned dot tumblr]
Hi Bluesky! 👋 We are the NSF National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NSF NRAO). #RadioAstronomy

Telescopes:
📡 Very Large Array (VLA)
📡 Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA)
📡 Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA)
📡 Green Bank Telescope (GBT)
📡 Next Generation VLA (ngVLA)

🔗: public.nrao.edu
January 15, 2025 at 10:25 PM
I had a blast talking to Chris Jarvis (of Cbeebies fame!) on BBC Radio Solent this morning about lots of exciting things that are happening in space this year. Putting this photo out there for when they get us to do the next series of Cbeebies Stargazing together 😉
January 15, 2025 at 4:39 PM
At the BBC Radio Solent studio this morning to talk about space in 2025. Think I'm on around 11.10, UK peeps should be able to listen online!
January 15, 2025 at 10:58 AM
Spending a bit of time reading up on highly protected marine areas and I think this is another entry to "things I never thought would form part of my future job when I did a PhD in astrophysics"
January 14, 2025 at 11:25 AM
A proper daytime moon spotted on today's lunchtime dog walk 🤩
January 9, 2025 at 1:10 PM
The perfect ceiling lampshade doesn't exi-
January 6, 2025 at 3:34 PM
Cold nights = clear skies! Driving to get the kids and spotted a gorgeous crescent moon with an incredibly bright Venus nearby, then Jupiter above Orion who's just peeking up over the horizon.
January 2, 2025 at 5:47 PM
My aurorawatch notifications have been pinging this afternoon - completely cloudy here (and possibly too far south) but if you're in the north and have clear skies it might be worth keeping an eye out!
New Year’s Day Geomagnetic activity is building up, so if you have clear skies and a view of the northern sky between the clouds from northern England or Scotland it would be worth a peak.
Central Europe, if there are no clouds in your area, watch out for #aurora tonight! The 4th strongest geomagnetic storm in cycle 25 as measured by Dst is ongoing and likely persisting into the night. A #solarstorm magnetic rope with a very favorable west-south-east configuration sweeps over Earth.
January 1, 2025 at 6:27 PM
When your kid has a different bedroom setup since last year and you suddenly realise you have nowhere to hang the stocking - it's an Institute of Physics lanyard to the rescue!
December 24, 2024 at 9:20 PM
And that's me done with work for 2024! It's been quite the year - a challenging time for the UK higher education sector with redundancies and cost saving measures all over the place, but also a brilliant year personally for me as I grew my team and won grants to do exciting projects...
December 19, 2024 at 5:13 PM
Last week of work and everyone seemed to get their toys out! A mini Mars rover and a work in progress from @trayford.bsky.social
December 18, 2024 at 7:48 PM
I love the work that my colleague @trayford.bsky.social is doing with the sonification of astronomical data! Truly groundbreaking stuff. You can read more about it in the blog post he links in his post.
Check out this article from STFC about our sonification of astronomical data, and beyond! including a new sonification at the end - perceive multi-scale information about galaxy formation in our cosmological simulations... 🧪🔭⚡🐡. medium.com/big-science-...
The sound of silence: how sound brings space to life
The vacuum of space is famously silent, but what if you were able to use sound to help you visualise the Universe? What would a black hole…
medium.com
December 13, 2024 at 12:36 PM
OK friends, can someone please tell me how to say in an email when I'm free so people actually understand me?? I say I'm free apart from 2-3pm, they send me an invite for 2pm. I say I'm free 9-11am or 12-5pm they ask to meet at 11am. I give up!
December 10, 2024 at 4:21 PM
Co-presented our internal seminar on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion yesterday & it dredged up a memory of the time I was in the pub during my PhD and our visiting colloquium speaker (a senior academic) became convinced I was Latina and wouldn't let it go as if I didn't know my own heritage 🙃
December 3, 2024 at 4:12 PM
It's the 30th November which means it's time to refill the most excellent advent calendar that has ever existed! 🚀
November 30, 2024 at 11:05 PM
I had no idea about this - just up the road from where I am in Winchester! Will have to go see it next time we're in Andover!
Archaeologists excavated a meteorite at Danebury hill fort in 1974, but it's true nature wasn't discovered until 1989. 🧪 🏺
Danebury Meteorite
The earliest meteorite ever discovered in Britain was nearly missed.
www.atlasobscura.com
November 30, 2024 at 9:12 AM
Spending the morning in a school with a bunch of 9/10 year olds talking about space is one of my all-time favourite things to do. Questions today included "what happened before the Big Bang?" "how can birds fly if gravity is pulling them down?" and "how many stars are there in space?" 🤩
November 29, 2024 at 11:52 AM
It's blooming cold out there but at least it means breathtaking views of the night sky! I had my first glimpse of the season of Orion last night when I popped outside before bed, and now Mars is looking lovely and red out of the back door while I make breakfast!
November 29, 2024 at 6:46 AM
Another day, another beautiful daytime moon to keep me company while I wait for my car tyres to be changed before work!
November 26, 2024 at 8:01 AM
I moved into my own office at work recently (from a shared one) and have slowly been making it feel like mine. Finally got this poster to stay up today after many attempts (rumour has it these are sound proofing rather than pin boards) - what do we think are the chances it'll still be up on Monday??
November 22, 2024 at 7:44 PM