iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jonathan O'Callaghan @astrojonny.bsky.social · 3h

Two asteroids larger than 2km have been found spinning every 5 minutes! It suggests these ultra-fast rotators must be surprisingly monolithic, 30 times strong than clay. Story by me in New Scientist www.newscientist.com/article/2593...

newscientist.com

Two large asteroids found spinning as fast as a fairground ride | New Scientist

Rocks in the asteroid belt rotating at ultra-fast speeds suggest our understanding of asteroid structure might be wrong

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Jonathan O'Callaghan @astrojonny.bsky.social · 3h

Ha oh yeah I didn’t pick this headline… little bit odd!

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Jonathan O'Callaghan @astrojonny.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Just booked flights to Tokyo in April. Will be ten years since we were last in Japan!

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Jonathan O'Callaghan @astrojonny.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Hello quantum gravity experts, I am looking for anyone that can comment on this paper for a story I'm writing: www.ox.ac.uk/news/2026-08... If that's you, or you know someone, do let me know. jdaoca[at]gmail[dot]com Thanks!

ox.ac.uk

Scientists observe Einstein’s gravity in the quantum world

An international team including Oxford physicists has observed a long-predicted effect of gravity on a falling quantum object for the first time. The study provides an experimental connection between ...

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Jonathan O'Callaghan @astrojonny.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

We get some pretty nice views from our balcony

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Jonathan O'Callaghan @astrojonny.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Wild lightning over Bangkok last night

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Jonathan O'Callaghan @astrojonny.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

I’ve driven several different EVs, and always find they don’t maintain speed the same way a petrol car does. There’s often constant slight acceleration and deceleration, which naturally makes you feel quick sick. www.bbc.com/news/article...

bbc.com

Why electric cars might be making some passengers feel sick

“I’ve heard about it many, many, many times” says one doctor who treats motion sickness.

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Jonathan O'Callaghan @astrojonny.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Okay hear me out - what if a monster neutrino detected off the coast of Sicily came from a primordial black hole inside a fifth dimension that was formed by cosmic strings? Class this as just a little bit speculative. Story by me in Scientific American www.scientificamerican.com/article/this...

scientificamerican.com

Scientists saw a very weird particle. Some say it came from an exploding, five-dimensional black hole

An unexplained high-energy neutrino detected three years ago could be linked to a primordial black hole, perhaps one more even unusual than previously thought

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Jonathan O'Callaghan @astrojonny.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Nice to see this story on searching for alien life I originally wrote in 2024 back on the BBC home page today. Still as relevant today as it was back then! www.bbc.com/future/artic...

bbc.com

Where we might find aliens in the next decade

Forget UFOs and alien abductions, here's how scientists are really looking for life on other worlds.

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Reposted by Jonathan O'Callaghan

Sridhar Ramesh @radishharmers.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

I'm old enough to remember smoking on airplanes as a child. I hated it but they made you do it.

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Jonathan O'Callaghan @astrojonny.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Science journalism is alive and well! Probably.

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Jonathan O'Callaghan @astrojonny.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I have not been but would love to do so, hopefully one day! I also really want to go see Rubin at some point, if possible.

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Jonathan O'Callaghan @astrojonny.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I read this and thought it was great, particularly the mirror being suspended in a magnetic field, as well as the other pieces in the series. Have enjoyed following them!

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Jonathan O'Callaghan @astrojonny.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Yes it does seem to have changed a bit in the last few years given how popular arXiv is!

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Jonathan O'Callaghan @astrojonny.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Did some space talking yesterday at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand!

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Jonathan O'Callaghan @astrojonny.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

It varies per publication. Some will report on preprints, others won't. Generally it's assumed anything in the public domain (eg arXiv) is fair game. Journals have guidelines on handling preprints too, eg Nature: www.nature.com/nature-portf...

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Reposted by Jonathan O'Callaghan

Jonathan O'Callaghan @astrojonny.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I'm back in The New York Times, with news that we might have spotted a first magnetic field on an exoplanet! If so it would be more than 2,000 times stronger than Earth's, and could be a key tool in future hunts for habitability. Exciting! www.nytimes.com/2026/09/29/s...

nytimes.com

Radio Waves Coming From an Alien Planet May Be a Cosmic First (Gift Article)

Beta Pictoris b appears to have an aurora caused by a powerful magnetic field. If confirmed, it would be the first such field known outside our solar system.

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Jonathan O'Callaghan @astrojonny.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Look! A nice comment! You know it must be good.

Comment: I enjoy articles like this so much. A very welcome respite from the constant drone of political garbage and innumerable horrors of our spoiled world. There are so many wonderous things to find and understand. So sad that mankind is so much more focused on selfishness and cruelty.

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Jonathan O'Callaghan @astrojonny.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

nytimes.com

Radio Waves Coming From an Alien Planet May Be a Cosmic First (Gift Article)

Beta Pictoris b appears to have an aurora caused by a powerful magnetic field. If confirmed, it would be the first such field known outside our solar system.

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Jonathan O'Callaghan @astrojonny.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I mean, I would prefer they were coming home in the early 2030s!

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Jonathan O'Callaghan @astrojonny.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I'd be fine with that. The tubes cover an area greater than a human mission could feasibly cover.

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Jonathan O'Callaghan @astrojonny.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I still retain a faint hope of them one day being picked up. They can survive many years on the surface!

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Jonathan O'Callaghan @astrojonny.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Do the macarena they said, which was the style at the time

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Jonathan O'Callaghan @astrojonny.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Next week Perseverance will reach 2,000 Mars sols (days) on the Red Planet. Please bring its samples home 😶

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Reposted by Jonathan O'Callaghan

Paul Voosen @voosen.me · 28/09/2026

New Horizons is now *three days away* from shutting off its two heliophysics instruments, simply because NASA has not provided the $2M in funding it had promised to the mission last year or this year. There is no science basis for shutting these off. Our earlier coverage:

science.org

NASA’s New Horizons mission may shut down two instruments over lack of funding

Decision risks “incalculable loss” of data from the edge of the Sun’s influence, scientists say

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Jonathan O'Callaghan @astrojonny.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Sorry, the 16,810 figure was active satellites, not including dead satellites.

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Jonathan O'Callaghan @astrojonny.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Pretty wild graph from ESA's latest space environment report, out this month. It anticipates hundreds of collisions in orbit in the coming decades. The report also says that three satellites/rocket bodies enter Earth's atmosphere every day on average at the moment 😶

Graph of cumulative space collisions from ESA environmental report

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Jonathan O'Callaghan @astrojonny.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

This article is infuriating because I presume most of these people are leaving property to their children in the hundreds of thousands of pounds, which is not mentioned once. www.bbc.com/news/article...

bbc.com

Meet the pensioners spending the kids' inheritance

The phenomenon sees retirees spend all their money on enjoying life to the full.

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Jonathan O'Callaghan @astrojonny.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Updated satellite statistics per planet4589.org/space/stats/... Satellites orbiting Earth: 16,810 Starlink satellites: 11,114 Dead satellites: 3,087 Empty rockets: 2,065

Graph of active satellites orbiting Earth

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Jonathan O'Callaghan @astrojonny.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

My debut article for Popular Mechanics! It's all about time travel paradoxes, and the actual experiments and research that have investigated them. Come for the closed timelike curves, stay for the retrocausality. Enjoy 🕙 www.popularmechanics.com/science/a738...

popularmechanics.com

Time Travel May Not Break Reality, Experiments Suggest. It May Reveal That All of Reality Exists All at Once.

Could that mean time travel is technically possible?

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Jonathan O'Callaghan @astrojonny.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

My bugbear is when I submit an article I've spent a long time on, and don't get a reply for weeks. Please just say you received it!

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Jonathan O'Callaghan @astrojonny.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

If anyone wants to teach undergradaute cosmology in Thailand, I just heard that Mahidol University in Bangkok has lacked a cosmology lecturer for 8 years but would really like one. Just throwing it out there!

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Jonathan O'Callaghan @astrojonny.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Everyone with a monopoly lowers prices right?

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Jonathan O'Callaghan @astrojonny.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Hey space people, I need an exoplanet magnetic field expert that could comment on a story in the next hour. If that's you, do let me know. Thanks!

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Jonathan O'Callaghan @astrojonny.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Momentum is growing for Europe to develop its own sovereign space capabilities, including satellite launches and human spaceflight. Story by me in Nature www.nature.com/articles/d41...

nature.com

Europe pushes for space independence amid geopolitical rifts

The European Union is easing its reliance on US space infrastructure — and is seeking to grow its satellite and launch operations.

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Jonathan O'Callaghan @astrojonny.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Will drop you an email, thanks Julien

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