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sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Professor of astronomy, farmer of goats. Asteroid (42910). She/her. Has mostly lived in warmer places, now learning to live respectfully on Treaty 4 […] [bridged from https://mastodon.social/@sundogplanets on the fediverse by https://fed.brid.gy/ ]
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[satellite doom post] Just had a meeting with my group of collaborators working on calculating collision timescales of satellites and junk in orbit. I keep convincing myself "oh I'm exaggerating it can't possibly be that dangerous." But uh. It's really bad, guys. I'm not going to say any […]

submitted 5 hours ago • 4 comments

I almost forgot! Happy Billionaires-Dropping-Shit-On-Canada-From-Orbit Day!! 1 year ago today, a SpaceX Crew Dragon cargo trunk, ejected by the the Axiom 3 private astronaut mission, made an uncontrolled reentry and sprayed potentially lethal debris across Saskatchewan farmland […]

submitted 10 hours ago • 1 comment

The New Shepard flight carried this individual, who Blue Origin refused to identify. His suit carries the nametag R. Wilson, which may or may not be his actual name. He is the 719th human in space and the first to do so without being identified. Can anyone dox him?

submitted 1 day ago • 16 comments

Anonymous visitors to space now. Privatized space, billionaires. Jonathan McDowell: "The New Shepard flight carried this individual, who Blue Origin refused to identify. His suit carries the nametag R. Wilson, which may or may not be his actual name. He is the 719th human in space and the […]

submitted 1 day ago • 2 comments

Poor astrobiology students. Because of chatgpt and the like, I now make them write exams in person, on paper, with a pencil. I hate how stressed out my students get about exams so I've tried to make the least stressful exams possible. Exams aren't worth a […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

submitted 1 day ago • 5 comments

Looks like I'm going to do this radio interview about 2024 YR4 with a cat in my lap.

submitted 1 day ago • 3 comments

Co-author paper up! https://arxiv.org/pdf/2502.16741 Led by the PhD student I co-supervised (along with @astrokiwi.bsky.social) This paper builds a realistic model of interstellar objects (ISOs) based on how many asteroids/comets are shed by solar systems across the whole Galaxy, then uses […]

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

It's paper day! Led by grad students Rosemary Dorsey and Matthew Hopkins, we bring you a beautifully detailed study of how interstellar objects will be visible to @vrubinobs.bsky.social 🔭🧪

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

Help, the week hasn't even started yet and I already know from how much work I did today that I volunteered to do WAY TOO MANY EXTRA THINGS this week. Yikes.

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

[US pol, Canada] It is really quite disorienting to be simultaneously writing a nice, polite letter in response to a Canadian government consultation about satellite licensing, while watching the US turn off any possibility of any government agency ever responding to nice, polite letters ever […]

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

[poop] Moose poo looks so disturbingly similar to chocolate covered almonds.

submitted 3 days ago • 3 comments

After a couple of Sunday morning zoom calls, a lot of slack messages, and lots of staring at images and orbit predictions, I declare the originally planned observing program for the CLASSY program to be done! Which means I don't have to program the damn telescope again. Hooray! May my team now […]

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

A couple hours ago I got an email from my local amateur astronomy group saying that someone called their help line and asked when my talk starts tonight. I frantically checked all my calendars (I recently switched from google to proton for my main calendar), all my email accounts, and triple […]

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

Lecture recorded and now uploading for my online ASTR 101 class (talked LOTS about SpaceX dumping shit on Poland and us here in Sask 1 year ago), getting some coffee in me, now I have to run out and dig out the gate so I can get my little horse (who desperately needs a hoof trim) into the barn […]

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

If you like Severance, I hope you'll listen to Techtonic, my podcast/radio show on @WFMU . I'm questioning tech & its promises, with help from brilliant interview guests like @sundogplanets @pluralistic & more. Podcast […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

submitted 5 days ago • 1 comment

[grumpy academic complaining] Just re-re-submitted a research paper that I now totally hate and have taken literally months to deal with referee #2 being a total jerk. Feels really good to get that off my plate, but referee #2 is SUCH a jerk, I bet there will be a referee report round 3, with […]

submitted 5 days ago • 1 comment

ONE DAY! 3000 signatures! “to transition official government communications away from Twitter/X to more secure, community-regulated platforms that prioritise public safety, accurate information, and accessibility. We encourage the government to explore publicly accountable alternatives […]

submitted 5 days ago • 2 comments

Just programmed the Canada-France-Hawaii telescope for tonight! The last 2 nights have gone perfectly for my program (except for all the fucking satellite streaks 😭 ) If the weather holds, and nothing breaks, and we continue to get priority on the […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

submitted 5 days ago • 1 comment

House of Commons Petition to have the Government of Canada stop using X. https://www.ourcommons.ca/petitions/en/Petition/Details?Petition=e-5359 #Canada #fediverse

submitted 6 days ago • 1 comment

If you're interested in how anybody knows anything about what's happening in orbit, you should watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKXrFaE0wKY Hint: It's Jonathan McDowell, all the way down! His database is really the ONLY reason we know when a piece of space junk hits the […]

submitted 5 days ago • 5 comments

New Scientist magazine interviewed me about the Space Library www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKXr...

submitted 5 days ago • 8 comments

I just had 4 straight hours of meetings with no break ending with an interview talking about fucking space billboards which some fucking Russian company actually thinks they're going to build (the journalist is going to talk to them in a few hours). I need to eat food, then go outside and […]

submitted 6 days ago • 4 comments

There's still a really long way to go to baby goat time on my farm (about 6 weeks until the first due dates). But the world (and me) needs some cute baby goat pictures right now, so please enjoy this ridiculously cute picture from last year.

submitted 6 days ago • 4 comments

BBC: SpaceX rocket debris crashes into Poland "...At around 10:00 local time (09:00 GMT), Adam Borucki was astonished to find what appeared to be a charred tank measuring around 1.5m by 1m behind his warehouse in Komorniki, Poland. ..." https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c62z3vxjplpo […]

submitted 7 days ago • 4 comments