coachpayne.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

A spiral galaxy, observed with the Hubble Space Telescope in the COSMOS survey. It is at redshift 0.56 (lookback time 5.63 billion years) with coordinates (149.70974, 2.76978). 49 volunteers classified this galaxy in Galaxy Zoo: Hubble.

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

Yosemite National Park workers hung an upside-down U.S. flag on El Capitan as a distress signal www.sfchronicle.com/outdoors/art...

submitted 8 days ago • 8 comments

☄️ 🔭 The impact probability of asteroid 2024 YR4 has dropped from 2.8% to 0.16%. Thanks to new observations, Earth is now at the edge of our shrinking ‘uncertainty window.’ If this trend continues, the risk may soon reach 0%.

submitted 10 days ago • 40 comments

Today, below our home, along the Eno River...

submitted 11 days ago • 0 comments

Just think how much time and effort went into each one of the 10k NSF grants that are being flagged for cancellation? Not just the lost/stopped grant activities, but the time writing the proposal, getting support from Co-Is & deans, whole panels of reviewers, etc.. This is govt efficiency?

submitted 27 days ago • 0 comments

Incredible to see a president tanking the world’s economy simply because he doesn’t understand it and is too dedicated to belligerent posturing to learn

submitted 28 days ago • 26 comments

The Quickening of the Year Again Today would be the first day of teaching in Semester at Maynooth University, were it not for the fact that it is a Bank Holiday in Ireland. The holiday marks Imbolc, an old Celtic festival occurring halfway between the winter solstice and vernal equinox in the…

submitted 28 days ago • 1 comment

❗❗NASA is pausing program analysis groups activities. These are the groups that provide community input to the Astrophysics and Planetary Divisions to help shape the science that NASA supports. Source: I'm on the ExoPAG executive committee (repost with more emails blocked)

submitted 30 days ago • 12 comments

Withdrawing US funding from the World Health Organization is a potential disaster for public health worldwide, due to the impact it will have on the important work the WHO does. Preventing the CDC from even talking with WHO personnel is a step much farther toward undermining global health & safety

submitted 34 days ago • 346 comments

I think some people hear “grants” and think that without them, scientists and government workers just have less stuff to play with at work. But grants fund salaries for students, academics, researchers, and people who work in all areas of public service. “Pausing” grants means people don’t eat.

submitted 34 days ago • 1661 comments

Omfg "broligarch" is my new favourite word

submitted 34 days ago • 1 comment

Meet my daughters favorite bug — the blushing phantom ❤️. In the cloud forest in Ecuador, her clear wings make a little flutter of pink skip along a few meters in front of us on the hiking trails. They slowly blip along always just out of reach. This is the first I’ve gotten to cooperate for a photo

submitted 46 days ago • 23 comments

this confirms something i have long suspected, which is that certain people are told that their professional and academic failures are because of “affirmative action” or “DEI” as a way to avoid difficult conversations about their mediocrity www.wsj.com/lifestyle/ca...

submitted 46 days ago • 1157 comments

The @esa.int Gaia satellite will take its final scientific measurements on Wednesday. 🔭 This will conclude a 12 year series of continuous observations. Larger Gaia data releases are still in progress, but Gaia has already had a HUGE impact on our understanding of the #milkyway. (Image: ESA)

submitted 49 days ago • 17 comments

nautil.us/the-magic-of... Still true for me - whiteboards are okay as well, but chalk on a board is still magic to me and my thoughts mathematically...

submitted 51 days ago • 0 comments

North Carolina snow/ice event - first measurable in Durham in nearly three years!

submitted 51 days ago • 0 comments

First snow in nearly three years...A bit icy, but walkable. <2" ice-glazed...from our bird cam...about to dog walk shortly...

submitted 51 days ago • 0 comments

Stephen Hawking was born #OTD in 1942. He developed theorems with Penrose that determine when general relativity produces singularities, established classical laws of black hole mechanics, and hypothesized that quantum effects cause black holes to radiate. 🧪 ⚛️ 🔭 Image: Santi Visalli/Getty

submitted 54 days ago • 6 comments

Just got distracted for a surprisingly long time by how beautiful and detailed this image of M83 (the Southern Pinwheel galaxy) is. So join me. :) Worth visiting the link to Zoom in: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Th...

submitted 54 days ago • 2 comments

Physicist Marguerite Perey discovered Francium #OTD in 1939. It was the last element to be found in a naturally occurring state, rather than synthesized by humans. 🧪 ⚛️ 👩‍🔬 Image: Musée Curie/ACJC Collection

submitted 55 days ago • 2 comments

Pretty cool. I did not know this. Awesome! nautil.us/when-earth-h...

submitted 55 days ago • 0 comments

After health issues, I set a goal of 1500 miles of hiking/running. Lowest mileage in several years, but I'm pleased with my 1561.51 miles. Per the song, "You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, well, you just might find you get what you need." Oh, I'm 73.

submitted 59 days ago • 0 comments

The Quadrantid meteor shower peaks tonight/tomorrow! Best viewing is in the hours before dawn on January 3. The Moon is new so it doesn't interfere. Likely 50-ish meteors per hour, depending on your location and timing, but the peak is sharp so you'll likely see fewer. earthsky.org/astronomy-es...

submitted 59 days ago • 4 comments

Happy new year! The latest episode of the astrophysics podcast is now available! Dr. Abigail Polin is hosting this episode. And she's interviewing a MYSTERY GUEST. (ok fine, she's interviewing me, big deal) 🧪🔭 rss.com/podcasts/ast...

submitted 61 days ago • 0 comments

Off to a good start to the year!

submitted 60 days ago • 0 comments

Multiple instances of the SAME ads during ACC basketball games on ESPN/ABC and ACC Network are HORRIBLE!!! I think I'll have the games on without sound, or do something else. So annoying. Multiple repeats of multiple repeats. That's a shame as I enjoy sports.

submitted 60 days ago • 0 comments

Getting ready to help design a Coriolis Effect interactive for our local Life and Science museum. I found a good one from NASA, but other suggestions are welcome! Thank you!

submitted 64 days ago • 0 comments

Awesome program! Strong recommendation here! I was a member of the first IPA and still use quite a bit of the material in various parts of the Honors Physics course I teach around NC as well as in Comp Phys.

submitted 64 days ago • 0 comments

submitted 72 days ago • 313 comments

Why raindrops don't kill #ITeachPhysics 🎢

submitted 67 days ago • 0 comments

NASA's Chandra X-Ray Telescope team has a long history of converting openly available data from Chandra, supplemented by open data from other observatories, into dozens of “sonification's,” with more on the way. Read(and hear) more here - science.nasa.gov/open-science... via #NASA

submitted 69 days ago • 3 comments

Chemist and educator St. Elmo Brady was born #OTD in 1884. He was the first Black American to receive a PhD in Chemistry (University of Illinois, 1916). Brady worked on organic acids, IR spectroscopy, and halogen compounds, and significantly expanded chem programs at four HBCUs. 🧪 (1/n)

submitted 70 days ago • 5 comments

The comments are priceless! 😀

submitted 71 days ago • 0 comments

Mathematical physicist Cécile DeWitt-Morette was born #OTD in 1922. She made foundational contributions to Feynman functional integrals, organized the first American conference on general relativity (important for gravitational waves), and started the Les Houches Summer School. 🧪 ⚛️ 👩‍🔬 (1/n)

submitted 71 days ago • 12 comments

Semester grades submitted tonight.Tomorrow - hiking a few miles, maybe a bit of running, reading, perhaps some time learning more about the Unreal Engine for Game design as I teach that next semester. Plus a virtual meeting of physics teachers tomorrow evening. And maybe some rest time. We'll see!

submitted 75 days ago • 0 comments

Stopped by X and saw a post asking what you learned in school that turned out to be wrong. Most answers were conspiracy theories concerning climate change, the moon landing, and other "popular" topics. Wow!! Glad I left X and landed here!

submitted 78 days ago • 0 comments

Astronomer Annie Jump Cannon was born #OTD in 1863. She was a pioneer of stellar classification and co-creator of the Harvard Classification Scheme. Over her lifetime she manually classified around 350,000 stars. (1/n) 🧪 🔭 👩‍🔬 ⚛️ Image: Harvard University, Radcliffe Archives

submitted 82 days ago • 7 comments

I’m curious what astronomers think this means for NASA science 🪐🧪🔭🌌⭐️

submitted 88 days ago • 3 comments

Honored to be in such fine company, and for all of the love from folks here.

submitted 86 days ago • 934 comments

The @NCSSM-Durham Girls State Cross Country Championship Team was honored by our Board of Trustees today. They won four straight Championships and since we are a two-year school, it means none of the current team were at NCSSM when the streak started. You've earned this! Very proud coach here.

submitted 86 days ago • 0 comments

That’s an absolutely crazy story 🤯 Also what are US secret agencies gonna do about non US based facilities mapping the sky?Could they could force similar procedures on other survey telescopes?

submitted 90 days ago • 4 comments