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mcmillan-astro.bsky.social
Astrophysicist working on Milky Way dynamics and Gaia data. University of Leicester. I try to read and post about a different new paper every week as an #arXivoftheweek Website: https://paulmcmillan-astro.github.io/
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A little part of me (my name, and a short slightly soppy message) will be floating around with Gaia in its retirement.

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

What an incredible mission. The deluge of data has changed our understanding of the Milky Way, and we have so much more still to process!

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

I'm not sure I'm emotionally prepared to say goodbye to Gaia. This video, shared by @esa.int, is the spacecraft fading from view for the final time. It's still alive, but will be switched off on Thursday. 🔭 www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NGh...

submitted 12 days ago • 4 comments

We are celebrating our centenary on Saturday 17th May this year. We're holding an open day on campus and we welcome all friends of the School to come and join us! You can reserve a place via this link: alumni-events.le.ac.uk/event11.html

submitted 12 days ago • 0 comments

A heads up for any members of the RAS who haven't looked at the candidates for Council: One candidate has strong objections to treating trans women as women. So use your vote to ensure that the other candidates win!

submitted 16 days ago • 2 comments

🪐Jupiter or Saturn? Which gas giant is best? Our Dr Paul Abel joins @robinince.bsky.social & @briancoxtalks.bsky.social in The Infinite Monkey Cage to debate it on Radio 4 tomorrow (Sat 15 March) or already available on BBC Sounds! 🪐 www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

submitted 22 days ago • 1 comment

🔭 Question I'd never really thought about: Why do we so often refer to "hydrodynamics" within astrophysics? It's very rare that we're actually dealing with a liquid. Shouldn't it be "aerodynamics"? Or do we fudge it because neither really applies to plasmas? 🔭

submitted 26 days ago • 3 comments

The ancient question, do I call something in an application "unique", risking that something similar is pointed to as contradictory? Do I wimp out and say "innovative"? "Idiosyncratic?" "Odd?"

submitted 46 days ago • 0 comments

Archbishoppy McArchbishopface.

submitted 57 days ago • 13 comments

Making some art for my 4th year lectures

submitted 64 days ago • 0 comments

Move with care. And make things.

submitted 65 days ago • 3 comments

TV character "I have three doctorates in [three loosely related things]" Audience without PhD: "Ah, a genius" Audience with a PhD: "Ah, a time waster"

submitted 72 days ago • 2 comments

🔭 Reposting this tribute to Gaia on the day that it stops revolving smoothly through space 🔭

submitted 80 days ago • 0 comments

Thanks for all the data, Gaia! We've still got a lot of work to do to turn the data into science, but Gaia's last science observation today marks the end of a decade of incredible data gathering.

submitted 80 days ago • 0 comments

🔭 To mark the first Gaia data release, Louise & I made some Gaia cupcakes 🔭 🧁

submitted 81 days ago • 2 comments

🔭 Tomorrow is the last day of observations for @esa.int's Gaia. It has observed for over a decade, revolutionising our view of the Milky Way. The work is far from done. Thus far only 3 years of data are reflected in the public release. Nonetheless this is a moment to celebrate Gaia... 🔭 #MilkyWay

submitted 81 days ago • 3 comments

PSA: If you are going to write to someone 8 years after they wrote a paper accusing them of scientific misconduct for not citing you, do check carefully if they cited you. It's right there in Section 7. FFS.

submitted 82 days ago • 0 comments

Taking James at his word, I will be taking 1.5% of the credit and would like to thank my parents and Taylor's Deli on St Giles

submitted 85 days ago • 0 comments

BepiColombo, carrying an instrument designed and built by University of Leicester scientists, has completed its final flyby of Mercury. Its orbiters will start circling the planet next year! le.ac.uk/news/2025/ja...

submitted 85 days ago • 0 comments

So many emotions all at once!!! On December 6, I became a Doctor in Astrophysics and I am so very grateful to everyone who has been a part of this journey since the 11-year-old me wanted to get a PhD in 'astro-stuff'. Here is a digital copy of my thesis: doi.org/10.33612/dis...

submitted 93 days ago • 3 comments

submitted 110 days ago • 1 comment

Always check the maths

submitted 110 days ago • 0 comments

I’m such a lucky person to have such brilliant friends! Travelled to Lund to attend two thesis defences of friends - they both did amazingly! Two more doctors to help untangle the world! 🌌🌸 And walking the familiar streets here, I truly feel that Lund will always be home. ❤️

submitted 113 days ago • 0 comments

🔭 Can you build a snail using dark matter? Sounds like something my nephew might ask, but also the question Gilman et al ask, with maybe my favourite plot of the year arxiv.org/abs/2412.02757 #arXivoftheweek 🔭

submitted 120 days ago • 2 comments

My supervisor, Jens Hoeijmakers, is advertising a 4-year PhD position in exoplanet atmospheres in Lund! 🪐🔭 I’ve absolutely loved working with Jens, and I’ll be very sad to leave after defending my PhD. Jens is an excellent supervisor and mentor! 🔗 lu.varbi.com/en/what:job/... Deadline: January 15

submitted 120 days ago • 0 comments

As Mao Zedong said about the question "Which artist have I listened to the most in 2024?": it's too soon to tell

submitted 121 days ago • 0 comments

I'm not sure that "7% of the teens we studied had long covid symptoms 2 years after infection" is quite the good news story that its reported as here #longcovid www.theguardian.com/world/2024/d...

submitted 122 days ago • 1 comment