Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

S.M. Pritchard @smpritchard.bsky.social · 3h

Not good! Really hoping the programs I'm apply to don't cancel (I know one doesn't plan on canceling this cycle so at least I have that assurance)

Laura Lopez @ohdearz.bsky.social · 9h

So far the astronomy PhD programs that have cancelled admissions are Washington, Michigan State, and Case Western.

Meg Schwamb @megschwamb.bsky.social · 1d

Sad to see the University of Washington Astronomy Department has suspended graduate admissions for the 2026-2027 Academic Year. astro.washington.edu/graduate-adm...

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S.M. Pritchard @smpritchard.bsky.social · 9h

If I wasn't poor I'd just replace it with a Losmandy G11G and be done with it

S.M. Pritchard @smpritchard.bsky.social · 9h

Scope is gonna be out of commission for a while until I fix the power connector (the AVX uses a twist-lock design that can easily cause the wires inside to twist and short). Hopefully should be a simple repair once I get the supplies.

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Dr. Lucky Tran @luckytran.com · 18h

🎵 They did the Monster Slash 😭 @ellecordova.bsky.social

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S.M. Pritchard @smpritchard.bsky.social · 1d

If only it was easy to just up and immigrate to those nations

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S.M. Pritchard @smpritchard.bsky.social · 1d

I also use "AI" (machine learning) when processing my astrophotos, mainly for background extraction and noise reduction. Those tools have existed long before generative "AI" was ever a thing, and certainly don't rely on stolen content to work.

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S.M. Pritchard @smpritchard.bsky.social · 1d

M33, the Triangulum Galaxy. Composite image with just under 4 hours of total integration time. It's the third-largest galaxy in the Local Group, the first being Andromeda and the second being our own Milky Way. It's also the second-closest major galaxy, sitting at ~2.7 million lightyears. 🔭

A photo of a large spiral galaxy. The arms are somewhat indistinct and subtle, but two major ones can be made out. Dark dust lanes snake their away through the arms like veins. Several large pink clumps dot the face of the disk, each one a vast star-forming region hundreds to thousands of lightyears across. The center of the galaxy glows with a soft pale yellow light. The outer regions are a dimmer bluish-purple. Many foreground stars are also present, all of which are much closer than the Triangulum galaxy and sit within the Milky Way, just happening to be between the viewer and the galaxy behind them.

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S.M. Pritchard @smpritchard.bsky.social · 1d

Are phages not a good strategy to combat antibiotic resistance? My understanding was that microbes need to swap antibiotic resistance for viral immunity, so we could switch between phages and antibiotics as required. I'm sure it's not so simple IRL but is there a reason phages seem so overlooked?

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S.M. Pritchard @smpritchard.bsky.social · 1d

A truly remarkable feat, when you really sit down and appreciate everything that went into this image.

Hopefully one day things like this become commonplace.

Paul Byrne @theplanetaryguy.bsky.social · 1d

See that small, moving splotch?

That's 3I/ATLAS, a comet that formed in a different star system, photographed from Mars orbit by the ESA Exomars Trace Gas Orbiter.

A comet from a DIFFERENT SOLAR SYSTEM photographed by a ROBOT ORBITING MARS

last Friday

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Phoebe Barton 🚀🇺🇳 @phoebebarton.bsky.social · 2d

i'd be satisfied if we only saw the equivalent of Antarctic research stations on Luna before the 22nd century.

because at least we'd be working toward something. we'd be *doing* something. we'd be *learning* things.

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Alex Arrelia @alexarrelia.bsky.social · 4d

It is unfathomable to me that we’re all just supposed to be okay with higher energy costs and more air and light pollution, in exchange for a machine that steals personal data and copyrighted material and produces slop and wage theft, and big tech can do this to our society unilaterally.

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S.M. Pritchard @smpritchard.bsky.social · 4d

Back when it felt like such a future was still possible for us. Ah well. Maybe in another few centuries with a more responsible, sustainable society.

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S.M. Pritchard @smpritchard.bsky.social · 4d

I agree. A diverse energy mix is needed and every locale/community will have different needs. I just don't see the point in excluding nuclear from that mix.

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S.M. Pritchard @smpritchard.bsky.social · 4d

Not necessarily so. There are control schemes that could allow it to cover PV variable generation, as detailed here

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

A perspective of using nuclear power as a dispatchable power source for covering the daily fluctuations of solar power

The feasibility and the limitations of using nuclear energy as a dispatchable power source for covering the daily fluctuations of the solar electricit…

www.sciencedirect.com

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S.M. Pritchard @smpritchard.bsky.social · 4d

It can be renewable via seawater extraction and "waste" reprocessing, although the latter does also come with proliferation issues. But it's also the most efficient (in terms of power density) and safest forms of energy per kW.

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 5d

As a theoretical cosmologist, I'm frequently asked "what is the benefit of the work you're doing for people's lives?" Nothing I work on makes money or cures disease.

There are a few different answers one can give, at various levels of "convincing" / "actually relevant to why the work is done."

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S.M. Pritchard @smpritchard.bsky.social · 5d

There are still people out there doing good solar punk (Becky Chambers, for example). I don't think we should smear the whole genre as bad and superficial.

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S.M. Pritchard @smpritchard.bsky.social · 6d

Oh shoot, grabbed the wrong one. Thanks for the correction!

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S.M. Pritchard @smpritchard.bsky.social · 6d

They made a post about it, here you go!

American Astronomical Society (AAS) @aas.org · Oct 9

#AAS245 Volunteer at the 245th AAS meeting! We love getting help from undergrads, grads, postdocs & local amateur astronomers to help at registration, usher at events & help with various other essential roles.
cognitoforms.com/AAS5/AAS245M... 🔭

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S.M. Pritchard @smpritchard.bsky.social · 7d

I'd argue it would still be a problem because that electricity could be going to something useful instead of slop-generation mills.

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Stacy McGaugh @dudedarkmatter.bsky.social · 7d

To give some sense of the insane power use of AI, witness this fracking expedition in western PA. All those trucks are hauling sand & fracking fluid. They were going back & forth constantly the time I was there, both Saturday & Sunday. The road they are turning on to was constructed just for this.

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Jacquelyn Gill @jacquelyngill.bsky.social · 7d

I am filled with so much love and gratitude that I cannot grieve. Dr. Goodall worked tirelessly in her gentle, hopeful way for a better world for all life on Earth. She has laid down her field notebook for the last time; now it is for us to fill with wonder, joy, and connection, into infinity.

Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 7d

Jane Goodall's work insisting, with evidence from her brilliant and tenacious fieldwork, that we were not so separate from animals, and they were much more like us than the Eurocentric theorists asserted, was so important.

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Dr. Lucky Tran @luckytran.com · 7d

"If we lose hope, we're doomed."

We must continue Dr. Jane Goodall's mission and all fight for the future of the planet.

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Dr. Lucky Tran @luckytran.com · 7d

"You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you.

What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.”

Rest in power, Dr. Jane Goodall

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S.M. Pritchard @smpritchard.bsky.social · 7d

Genuinely bummed to hear this today. :(