iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Eddie Clark @dreddieclark.bsky.social · 21h

I honestly don't think we make enough of this. We decided to reverse a trend of a century or more of birdlife dying out & with time and money and community we did it. There are *goddamn kiwi* in the back yards of my neighborhood. There are species we haven't seen in a century in & around Zealandia.

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CosmicRami 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @rami.spaceaustralia.com · 17h

Yeah, um, I think the words I am looking for here are "JFC" This is what Sydney's skies would look like tonight under these conditions.

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Michele Bannister @astrokiwi.bsky.social · 16h

A persistent feeling of having ended up in the wrong timeline "But memory is everything to lose"

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samuel mehr @mehr.nz · 29/09/2026

I will soon be interviewing candidates for this ~2-year role (22-23 months, actually, for reasons of grant arithmetic) if you are interested in studying auditory perception and music in adults with mild cognitive impairment or mild-to-moderate dementias, all over new zealand, please apply!

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Paul Byrne @theplanetaryguy.com · 28/09/2026

This is a photo of our home planet taken only a few hours ago! So what? We have photos of Earth taken from space every day. Ah, but *this* photo was taken by a spacecraft ON ITS WAY TO JUPITER.

From the source: "Mostly black space, most of Earth visible at the top right of the image. Part of a spacecraft visible on the left."

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Eddie Clark @dreddieclark.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Unscheduled photo dump because I was treated on my walk to work today to two quite different "bird enjoys spring flowers" experiences. Tūī: "I shall delicately sip nectar yum yum" Kererū: "FEED ME FLOWER"

Tui reaches up to sip from a white blossom

Tui curls around a white and pink flower cluster, about to drink.

kereru bends around a kowhai branch, about to snip a flower off with its beak.

kereru attempts to stuff entire kowhai flower down its cavernous gob. It ate about another half dozen in the minute after I took this photo.

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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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Jen Hay @jbhay.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

NZILBB postdoc position! Please distribute to anyone who might be interested. jobs.canterbury.ac.nz/jobdetails/a...

jobs.canterbury.ac.nz

Postdoctoral Fellow - University of Canterbury | Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha

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samuel mehr @mehr.nz · 27/09/2026

another day, another bit of evidence that the scientists who willingly hand over proprietary information to AI firms may experience some consequences

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Michele Bannister @astrokiwi.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Decommissioning a beloved's phone is Emotional

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Sean Richards | Toitū Te Tiriti | they/she @ordinarystarman.com · 23/09/2026

can't believe I get to say this, but I'm now officially Dr Sean Richards! I got profiled by the University website on my journey -- "from gamer to stargazer", and being the first Sāmoan physicist from the University of Auckland. www.auckland.ac.nz/en/news/2026...

auckland.ac.nz

From gamer to stargazer: first Sāmoan astrophysicist graduates with PhD – University of Auckland

Dr Sean Richards' research helps astronomers more accurately model the formation of neutron stars and other extreme cosmic phenomena.

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Paul Byrne @theplanetaryguy.com · 25/09/2026

This is a quick workup of what the night sky might look like on a world close to the galactic core. The planet is a rendering by Martin Kornmesser, to which I added the JWST image. So this scene is suggestive more than scientifically accurate. But still... imagine growing up under a sky like this.

The fore- and middle ground shows a rendering of a rocky exoplanet surface. The JWST Sagittarius scene from the first post occupies the upper half of the image.

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Simon Kuestenmacher @simongerman600.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Water world

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Bart⚓️ @bartgonnissen.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

The Facial Expressions of Tethys by artist Julius von Bismarck. A suspended high-sea buoy that moves in real time. Sensors on a twin buoy out in the Atlantic Ocean send live satellite data to motors inside the museum. This makes the indoor buoy copy the exact, real-time movements of the ocean waves.

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Chris Rowan @allochthonous.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

🧪⚒️ Interesting: modelling of length of day changes suggests that primary coupling between core and mantle is mainly a gravitational torque (dense bits of core and mantle attracting each other) rather than mechanical drag at core-mantle boundary or interaction with geomagnetic field.

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Michele Bannister @astrokiwi.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Puawānanga (Clematis paniculata) flowering; chitted seed potatoes planted out in three grow bags. Fingers crossed for new potatoes for Xmas 🌱🇳🇿

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Paul Byrne @theplanetaryguy.com · 23/09/2026

I said I'd do a thread about my new Space Science Reviews paper, so here it is! This is part of a collection of papers arising from a meeting at the International Space Science Institute in Bern in 2024: a workshop to better understand rocky extrasolar planets. A 🧵:

Interior structure models of Earth, Venus, Mercury, Mars, the Moon, and Io, all shown to scale and key elements labelled.

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Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans @astroroyalscot.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

The two #Equinox are the only days when the Sun rises due East and sets due West, everywhere. At the Dec solstice the sun rises in the S-East. At the June solstice it rises in the N-East. As the days pass between the two, the sunrise position slowly changes passing due East each equinox.🤩 🔭🧪

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Michele Bannister @astrokiwi.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Interested by ISOs like 3I/ATLAS? PhD opportunity in interstellar object observations, here in New Zealand. Join our Ōtautahi-Oxford group & the NZ Gravity collaboration. Start by March 1. ☄️🔭

gravity.ac.nz

PhD Scholarships – Statistics, Astrophysics, Cosmology and Gravitational Wave Astronomy | New Zealand Gravity

About us The NZ Astrostatistics and General Relativity Group (NZ Gravity) is a cross-institutional research team spanning astrophysics, cosmology, ma...

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Robert McNees @mcnees.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Happy 118th birthday, spacetime. 🧪 🔭 ⚛️ Hermann Minkowski addressed the 80th Assembly of German Natural Scientists and Physicians #OTD in 1908, offering a radical four-dimensional reformulation of Einstein's theory of special relativity. Here is how he opened his address.

"The views of space and time which I wish to lay before you have sprung from the soil of experimental physics, and therein lies their strength. They are radical. Henceforth space by itself, and time by itself, are doomed to fade away into mere shadows, and only a kind of union of the two will preserve an independent reality."
- Hermann Minkowski, 1908

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Ryan Stauffer @ryanswx.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Extremely favorable dynamics have led to one of the largest (in area) ozone holes on record. However, thanks to gradual healing from the reduction of ozone-depleting substances, the actual amount of ozone loss is more typical of the long-term average. Would have been a really bad one 25 years ago!

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Leigh Fletcher @leighfletcher.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Everything you needed to know about #ESAJuice returning to Earth for a flyby next week! Our spacecraft is now 41% of the way through its long journey to Jupiter. #planetsci

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Michele Bannister @astrokiwi.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

so very tired of living with calamity. Grief from the obliteration of futures just doesn't get less exhausting

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Lisa Grossman @astrolisa.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

In reporting this, I learned that Russia launched a big space mirror in the 90s. Retrospective pieces c. 2015 were like "what a crazy, supervillain-y idea!" Now the idea is back, being taken seriously, and shining light (sorry) on the shortcomings of space law. 🔭🧪 www.sciencenews.org/article/refl...

sciencenews.org

Big space mirrors could bring Earth on-demand light — and upend our night sky

A space satellite that would offer light on demand has astronomers asking: Who controls the night sky?

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takahē magazine @takahemagazine.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Āke, ake, ake! Forever and ever, Te Reo Māori! We're celebrating Te Wiki o te Reo Māori by learning phrases for book club 🖤 He aha te āhuatanga pai katoa o te pūrākau? What did you enjoy most about the story? #tewikiotereomāori

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CosmicRami 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @rami.spaceaustralia.com · 16/09/2026

Western Australia’s wildflower season is happening, and the ASKAP and SKA antennas are surrounded by lots of growth! Inyarrimanha Ilgari Bundara, the CSIRO Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory, looks great thanks to the early winter rains! Read more: www.csiro.au/en/news/All/... 📸 CSIRO

Single radio dish antenna pointing upwards with many white wildflowers scattered around the base and red earth

Grass and flowers growing around the SKA antennas

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Michele Bannister @astrokiwi.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

What happens to all the topsoil taken off urban building sites? Watching foundations being put in for medium density construction, and first off all the topsoil left in trucks

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Space Telescope Science Institute @stsci.edu · 15/09/2026

#NASARoman activated the Wide Field Instrument—a 300-megapixel infrared camera that will allow it to explore wide swaths of the cosmos quickly. This test image captures the very first photons of starlight to reach the instrument—taken as an initial performance assessment: go.nasa.gov/4rg4qEc

$At the top, a grid of 21 panels shows a series of blue images with tiny neon green and yellow circles. A larger image highlights a section of the grid with circular patterns, and an inset presents a detailed star-like diffraction pattern. The colors consist of blue, green, and yellow.$

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Michele Bannister @astrokiwi.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Works well for many disciplines, including astro

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André Brett @drdrehistorian.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

- Restoring the Bay Express (Wellington–Napier) and the Southerner (Chch–Dunedin–Invercargill) - Chch and Dunedin suburban rail on existing corridors (Chch to Rolleston, Rangiora, Lyttelton; Port Chalmers–Dunedin–Mosgiel) - Affordable economy class on TranzAlpine, Coastal Pacific, Northern Explorer

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André Brett @drdrehistorian.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

The following public transport projects for NZ should be completely uncontroversial: - light rail in Auckland and Wellington - completing the electrification of the North Island Main Trunk and sparking the East Coast Main Trunk - Extending Te Huia to Tauranga and the Capital Connection to Whanganui

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Benjamin Pope @benjaminpope.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

It's been really exciting to work with @jayke.io, @gradientrider.bsky.social and the rest of this amazing team using JWST's AMI mode to find a fifth candidate planet in the classic HR 8799 system!

Figure from the paper, illustrating the orbits of all 4 previously known planets in HR 8799 and the putative fifth planet, closest to the star in orange.

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Abbie Jury 🌱 @tikorangi.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Iolanthe was the first magnolia named by Mark's dad, Felix Jury, back in the early 1970s. It was a breakthrough then and it is still a winner. This is the very first Iolanthe still growing beside our driveway.

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samuel mehr @mehr.nz · 09/09/2026

Wild to me that none of the NZ political parties can get their act together enough to say, simply, "if elected, we will increase science funding by a factor of 2-5x" #nzpol

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Chris Lintott @chrislintott.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Making a flying visit to #EPSC2026, Europe’s big planetary science meeting. Kicked off with excellent session on observations of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, mostly from @esa’s JUICE. Very cool to use a probe en route to Jupiter for science on the way.

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Bojan Novakovic @bojannovakovic.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

I had the pleasure of presenting our work on #asteroid #Kamoʻoalewa at #EPSC2026 on Monday. Is Earth’s unusual quasi-satellite a fragment of the Moon, or an asteroid delivered from the main belt? Our results strongly favour the latter. Here is the summary in one picture 👇

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Tairāwhiti Doc @tairawhitidoc.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

As long as we’re talking about spring, here are the beautiful red blooms of the Kakabeak (growing in a large planter on our deck).

A photo of the flowering bush Kakabeak with red curved flowers that resemble the beak of the New Zealand native bird Kākā

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Veronika Meduna @veronikameduna.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Two years ago, I joined the Tairāwhiti Ngutukākā Trust to celebrate one of NZ's rarest plants in the wild (as rare as kākāpō). Each of us was gifted a few seeds (from the wild plants, not the commercial variety), and this is what happened in my tiny urban garden.

Ngutukākā grown from a seed, now in full flower.

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Rosemary Mosco @rosemarymosco.com · 06/09/2026

AI is certainly making all of this much worse, but every scientist you know, or at least all the physicists, astronomers, mathematicians, and climate scientists, gets tons of emails from men, especially engineers, who think they are Einstein. It’s sad and complicated and messy.

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