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Alastair Williams

@alastairwilliams.bsky.social
359 followers 218 following 224 posts

Space engineer, science writer, and author of The Quantum Cat

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Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
For a moment the Sun turned black and all around it white flames burned. Night fell, and the evening star shone high in the sky. 🔭 #eclipse #spain #photography
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Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Reflect Orbital plan to ruin the night sky by putting thousands of mirrors in orbit. They are not the first to try doing this - thirty years ago the Russians put the first, and so far only, reflective mirror in orbit. 🧪🔭
open.substack.com
Reflections on Placing Mirrors in Space
On plans, new and old, to put mirrors in orbit
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Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
Imagine the outrage if Iran bombed an American school. Imagine the hatred, the violent revenge attacks on innocents, the indiscriminate bombings of Iran that would follow. What a stain this attack is on the USA and all of its citizens. www.bbc.com/news/article...
bbc.com
'What was their crime?': BBC visits Iran school in Minab where strike killed 120 children
Nearly five months on, grief is still raw as a teacher and a mother recall the horror of the attack in Minab.
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Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Unlucky number 13. In comparison, after thirteen flights the Saturn V had put a dozen people on the Moon and launched a space station.
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Jonathan McDowell @planet4589.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Starship Flight 13 aborted at booster ignition at 2245:29 UTC. No launch occurred, scrub for today, safe engine shutdown.
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Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
"Las Malvinas" are for the penguins, not the Argentines.
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Kelly Lynne D’Angelo ✨ @kellylynnedang.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Please blow up the public comment (included below): BREAKING NEWS (7/15) — The administration wants to destroy Chaco Canyon without consulting Tribal Nations. It’s an irreplaceable historic & cultural site with 4,700 archeological sites that could be lost to the bulldozers of oil & gas development
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Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
The potential evacuation is almost certainly from an abundance of caution, but also a very serious and apparently unexpected situation. #iss #space
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Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
New post on the dawn of astrophotography #space #astrophotography #historyofastronomy
open.substack.com
Seizing The Light: The First Photographs Of The Heavens
On the dawn of astrophotography
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Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
Is sending a nuclear ship to Mars a good idea? #space #technology #NASA #Mars
substack.com
A Nuclear Ship For Mars: Making Sense of Space Reactor Freedom
On NASA's quest to send a nuclear reactor to Mars
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Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
Early 2000's concept art from NASA is just fantastic #NASA #Space
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Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
The more I read this article on a 'surge' in meteor strikes, the more skeptical I become. Is there any reason to think the increase it talks about is not simply down to random chance? The analysis itself seems to read like something an AI would cook up... amsmeteors.org/ams-q1-2026-...
amsmeteors.org
Q1 2026: Has Something Changed in the Near-Earth Fireball Environment? — American Meteor Society
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Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
The great comet of 1882 was extraordinarily bright, so much so that it could be seen even in the middle of the day as it approached the Sun. Here it was photographed from Cape Town by David Gill. #historyofastronomy #space #comets #photography
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Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
🔭🧪
open.substack.com
The Week in Space and Physics: Back To The Moon
On Artemis II, the future of NASA, the fate of a comet, and eleven thousand new asteroids
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Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 04/04/2026
Space exploration should never be about trying replace the Earth. It must be about inquiry, about a desire to learn and to better ourselves, to explore. There is great beauty out there, but there is no other home for humanity.
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Meade Krosby @meadekrosby.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
How anybody can look at this image and think there are better options out there is entirely beyond me. The only planet with whales, and butterflies, and giant sequoias. Home.
Full image of Earth taken by the crew of Artemis II.

Credit: NASA/Reid Wiseman
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Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
The Orion Nebula, photographed by George Ritchey in 1901. #historyofastronomy #space #photography #history
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Ghostblackout🏳️‍🌈 @ghostblackout.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
Posting this here because @nasaspaceflight.com hasn't yet NASA's engineering cameras for #Artemis2 images-assets.nasa.gov/video/KSC-20...
images-assets.nasa.gov
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Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
Imagine waking up to that view! #NASA #ArtemisII
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Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
Quite unfortunate that most of the exciting Artemis activities are taking place during European sleeping hours!
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Talia al Ghoul 🏳️‍⚧️ @usili.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
Oh wow, the photos already released from NASA for the launch of Artemis II from the NASA HQ flickr.
Artemis II just lifting off the pad.Artemis II fully off the pad.Artemis II ascending into space.SRB Sep for Artemis II
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Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
The lunar plain of Mare Humorum sketched by Etienne Trouvelot in 1875. To the bottom right is the crater Gassendi, on the top left the craters of Vitello and Doppelmayer. #historyofastronomy #space #artemis #art #science
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Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
Before the age of astrophotography, the night sky had to be drawn. Here is the work of one of the greatest. #historyofastronomy #art #space #history
open.substack.com
The Moth and The Aurora: The Work of Étienne Léopold Trouvelot
On the life and the art of Étienne Léopold Trouvelot
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Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
The Orion Nebula, photographed in 1883 by Andrew Ainslie Common. This image was the first to reveal stars too faint to be seen by the human eye. #historyofastronomy #space #photography #history
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Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
The Earth, seen by the crew of Apollo 17. Since that flight no human has gone high or far enough to see the entirety of the Earth silhouetted against the void. #space #historyofastronomy #NASA #artemis #apollo #photography
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Anonymous Don @anondon.bsky.social · 22/03/2026
It worries me less that the president—whose is, as we all learned long ago absent of morals and decency—would say this, but more that 40% of the U.S. population remain unmoved by such despicable comments.
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Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 22/03/2026
Oh okay, we're now at the point where America is threatening to commit terrible war crimes. What more red flags do you need to realise something is terribly wrong?
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Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
Have you ever heard of the red supergiant problem? 🧪🔭
open.substack.com
The Strange Problem With Red Supergiants
Are the biggest stars vanishing without a trace?
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Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
The world is a wonderful place
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Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
LLMs do not offer objective feedback. If you ask them is something is good they will tell you it is. If you ask them to criticise they will. Even if you ask them to criticise their own output!
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Andrew Parsonson @andrewparsonson.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
Unfavorable weather conditions have pushed the launch date of the next Isar Aerospace Spectrum flight to no earlier than 23 March. Image credit: Isar Aerospace
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Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
Got to love tech CEOs announcing future products that break the laws of thermodynamics. Don’t worry though, they have their best engineers at work on it. #nvidia
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Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 15/03/2026
This week's newsletter looks at the changing face of WOH G64, covers the latest plans to return to the Moon, examines the newest pictures of 3I/Atlas, and asks if it is time to take panspermia seriously. 🔭🧪
open.substack.com
The Week in Space and Physics: The Life of a Giant Star
On the changing nature of an extreme star, Isaacman's new approach to Artemis, a new view of comet 3I/Atlas, and more evidence in support of panspermia
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Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 07/03/2026
"I would not be surprised if we fly 400 Starship launches in the next four years,” Shotwell said in 2024. Considering they have flown just six times in the fifteen months since, they are really going to have to pick up the pace if they want to hit this ridiculous target!
arstechnica.com
SpaceX president predicts rapid increase in Starship launch rate
It's going to be hard to catch us, but I certainly hope people try."
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Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
It's not just you, orbiting data centres really are a stupid idea. #space #spacex #ai #astronomy
open.substack.com
Data Centres In Orbit Are Just As Crazy As You Think
On the latest space hype
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Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
Is anyone running the US not currently a psychopath?
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Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
The Chinese networks are a big threat to Starlink's dominance. They are unlikely to be used in the US, but there are plenty of places around the world that will see the value of an alternative and likely cheaper system.
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Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
I never see anyone address the question of how Musk's massive arrays of solar panels are supposed to dodge debris and avoid collisions...
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Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
Cool solar eclipse seen from orbit this week! Plus a look at the possibilities of nuclear electric propulsion, a possible sighting of a failed supernova, a revision to the dimensions of Jupiter, and another delay to Artemis II. #space #scicomm #astronomy #science 🧪🔭
thequantumcat.space
The Week in Space and Physics: Atoms For Space
On the possibilities of nuclear propulsion, a vanishing star, the shape of Jupiter, and Artemis II.
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Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
In 2012 the Hinode satellite photographed Venus silhouetted against the Sun. This will not happen again until December 2117. #space #art #astronomy
Venus (a dark circle) against the yellow background of the Sun.
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Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
...and started asserting that he can build a city on the Moon instead. I wonder what happens when he learns how long the lunar night is?
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Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 25/01/2026
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Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
New post today: Hubble picks up signs of dwarf worlds colliding around Fomalhaut. 🧪🔭
thequantumcat.space
The Debris of Creation: Hubble Watches Worlds Collide
On the discovery of violent collisions around Fomalhaut
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Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 17/01/2026
Time to stand up to the bully
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Count Mysterioso @mysteriosox.bsky.social · 17/01/2026
This is quite a post www.planetearthandbeyond.co/p/reality-is...
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Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 17/01/2026
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Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 27/12/2025
What do the colours of astronomical images actually mean? And why can the same object appear very different depending on the telescope we use to look at it? 🔭🧪
thequantumcat.space
The False Colours of Astronomy
The stars don't look like the telescopes say they do
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Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
New post up, looking this week at how the sister-stars of the Pleiades are now scattered across the night sky. 🧪🔭
thequantumcat.space
The Week in Space and Physics: The Lost Sisters of the Pleiades
On the stars of the Pleiades, a superflare from a black hole, the second flight of New Glenn, and the aurora.
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Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
This is 1) a stupid idea and 2) something that will never work economically anyway.
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Reposted by Alastair Williams
Paul Byrne @theplanetaryguy.com · 24/11/2025
This is an incredible image of comet 3I/ATLAS, taken by Satoru Murata ICQ Comet Observations group on 16 November 2025 from western New Mexico. Structure within the major dust tail from the comet is clearly visible, together with two smaller jets trailing the nucleus and maybe even an anti-tail.
A bright, greeny–white splotch in the centre of the image is the nucleus and coma of comet 3I/ATLAS. To the upper right streams the major dust tail. The background comprises distant stars against a black background, with the NGC 4691 galaxy at upper left.
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