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jengupta.bsky.social
Jen Gupta
@jengupta.bsky.social
2.4K followers 180 following 77 posts
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.
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jengupta.bsky.social
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 😉
A photo of me in the radio studio with Chris Jarvis the presenter. We are standing next to each other in front of a BBC Radio Solent background and smiling at the camera. Chris is on the left of the photo in a blue t-shirt and black trousers. I'm on the right of the photo wearing a red and black check shirt over a black t-shirt and blue jeans. The radio desk is in the foreground of the photo with a purple BBC Radio Solent microphone hanging down.
January 15, 2025 at 4:39 PM
jengupta.bsky.social
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!
A photo of the outside of the BBC Southampton building with a big black sign on the wall that has the BBC Radio Solent logo on it.
January 15, 2025 at 10:58 AM
jengupta.bsky.social
A proper daytime moon spotted on today's lunchtime dog walk 🤩
A photo of a brilliant blue sky with a faint gibbous moon visible in the bottom right quadrant between phone lines. There are house roofs visible at the bottom of the photo.
January 9, 2025 at 1:10 PM
jengupta.bsky.social
The perfect ceiling lampshade doesn't exi-
A photo of a Saturn shaped lampshade hanging from the ceiling. It's made from rattan. The sphere of the planet is a natural light brown wood colour and the ring is a dark green/black colour.
January 6, 2025 at 3:34 PM
jengupta.bsky.social
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!
A photo taken from the floor looking up at the underneath of a top bunk bunk bed. There's a black Institute of Physics lanyard looped around the railing with a colourful Christmas stocking attached to the other end.
December 24, 2024 at 9:20 PM
jengupta.bsky.social
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...
A selfie of me outside my office building. I'm to the left of the photo wearing a Christmas jumper with a black jacket over it. You can see the building behind me with a sign that says "Dennis Sciama Building" and "Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation".
December 19, 2024 at 5:13 PM
jengupta.bsky.social
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
A photo of a mini Mars Rover model on a wooden desk. A photo of a strip of coloured LED lights snaked around on a grey carpet. The first LEDs at the top are off and then the LEDs go from blue to orange as they go down.
December 18, 2024 at 7:48 PM
jengupta.bsky.social
It's the 30th November which means it's time to refill the most excellent advent calendar that has ever existed! 🚀
A photo looking down at a wooden advent calendar in the shape of a rocket, with two packets of small chocolates next to it on the right. The rocket is green with a glittery red top and fins. Most of the rocket has drawers on it which are either green or white with Christmas designs on them.
November 30, 2024 at 11:05 PM
jengupta.bsky.social
Another day, another beautiful daytime moon to keep me company while I wait for my car tyres to be changed before work!
A photo taken looking up into the pale blue early morning sky. A thin crescent moon can just be seen in the upper left quadrant of the photo and the top of a building is in the bottom right corner.
November 26, 2024 at 8:01 AM
jengupta.bsky.social
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??
A photo of an academic poster stuck up on a grey fabric board on the wall in the office. There are lots of pins stuck around the edge to make it stay up. The poster title is "Working Strategically at a Departmental Level) and there are several boxes on it with text and images.
November 22, 2024 at 7:44 PM
jengupta.bsky.social
If you've followed me on other platforms you'll know I'm a big fan of a daytime moon and this mornings's was a particularly nice one!
A photo taken looking up into the sky this morning. The sky is bright blue. There is a tree on the right side lit up by the Sun and a half moon in the lower left quadrant.
November 22, 2024 at 9:09 AM
jengupta.bsky.social
My three year old asked for "all the books about space" at bedtime tonight and I feel like his indoctrination has finally commenced...
A selection of the books we read at bedtime. Clockwise from top left there's 8 Little Planets, Pop-Up Space, Hey Duggee: The Space Badge, Bizzy Bear: Space Rocket and To The Moon.
November 19, 2024 at 9:59 PM
jengupta.bsky.social
My brain is still processing yesterday's Institute of Physics Communicators and Outreach conference - so many great presentations and lots of food for thought. Did feel like our keynote speakers were trolling me slightly with the number of photos of me that they included though...
A photo of our keynote speaker Trent Burton standing on the stage at a podium, with a slide on the screen behind him that's showing a photo of me on stage at the Latitude music festival.
November 15, 2024 at 3:29 PM
jengupta.bsky.social
Forgot to post this at the weekend but here's some of the Winchester Fireworks, through some slightly less-battered diffraction grating glasses that my friend gave me when we managed to bump into each other within the crowd of thousands!
November 12, 2024 at 12:22 PM
jengupta.bsky.social
It's the big Bonfire Night fireworks display in my hometown tonight and I forgot to bring some diffraction grating glasses home so I rooted around and found these that have definitely seen better days but will have to do!
Two pairs of white cardboard diffraction grating glasses with the University of Portsmouth logo in black on the arm. They've both got several folds and tears on them and look quite battered.
November 9, 2024 at 2:42 PM
jengupta.bsky.social
Went to IKEA today and they have a new kids space range and it's epic and I need it all!

Check it out here - www.ikea.com/gb/en/cat/af...
A screenshot from my Instagram stories showing IKEA furniture on display in a shop with a space background painted on the wall behind. There's a range of boxes on the furniture unit including white ones with a space print on them, and the top of the unit has been made to look like a rocket.
December 27, 2023 at 6:33 PM
jengupta.bsky.social
They used a photo of me while they were talking about this on the One Show earlier so I guess the cat's out of the bag - I'm so excited to be in a couple of episodes of Tim Peake's Secrets Of Our Universe which is airing later this month on Channel 5!
A photo of my TV with an image of me standing next to Tim Peake on it. We're both looking at the camera and smiling.
September 7, 2023 at 9:04 PM
jengupta.bsky.social
Is there anything more perfect than the sight of a daytime moon in a bright blue sky??
A photo looking up into a blue morning sky. The half moon is in the centre of the photo with the top of a tree in the bottom left corner and a line of whispy white cloud at the top.
August 7, 2023 at 7:34 AM