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Jason Wright

@astrowright.bsky.social
3.2K followers 402 following 1.9K posts

Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at Penn State. Son, father, partner, scientist, teacher, student, human, Earthling. Mostly posting astronomy. Mostly.

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Jason Wright @astrowright.bsky.social · 15h
Astro BlueSky: Be my boss! Penn State Astro needs a new department head and I need YOUR help to find them. Who is your ideal department head? Who can maintain a vibrant, collegial, politics-free atmosphere that supports all members (undergrads, grads, staff, all kinds of faculty)? 🧪
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Jason Wright @astrowright.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Was just on a videoconference with about 230 people about science in PA with our Republican senator John McCormick. McCormick clearly supports higher levels of support for basic science which is great. This was organized by the APS and its member societies like @policy.aas.org 🔭🧪
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András Gáspár @andrasgaspar.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Congrats to the PRIMA team for being selected to move forward! www.nasa.gov/news-release...
nasa.gov
NASA Selects Far-Infrared Telescope as First in New Mission Class - NASA
NASA announced Wednesday a mission to explore the history and evolution of the universe, PRIMA (PRobe far-Infrared Mission for Astrophysics), is advancing to
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Jason Wright @astrowright.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Well, that’s a first! An AI agent just sent me a long discussion of my paper and claims one of my key references missed an important point and it suggested an avenue to advance gyrochronology. Unsurprisingly, the suggestion is garbage. Is this happening to everyone who submits to the arXiv now?
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Jason Wright @astrowright.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Look ma, I'm a space climatologist! On my new paper which I think is a good review of solar dynamo stuff for astronomers and stellar cycle observations for space climate folks. 🔭🧪
sites.psu.edu
I published in the Journal of Space Climate and Space Weather!
Back in 2024 I was invited to give a talk at Space Climate 9 in Nagoya, Japan on work by Anna Baum and others at Penn State on Maunder Minimum stars. This is an extension of my thesis work, where I tr...
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Jason Wright @astrowright.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Back in 2024 I was invited to give a talk at Space Climate 9 in Nagoya, Japan on work by Anna Baum and others at Penn State on Maunder Minimum stars. This is an extension of my thesis work, where I tried to establish whether any other stars were in a state analagous to the Solar Maunder Minimum.🔭🧪
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Jason Wright @astrowright.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Now that textbook is done I'm happy to say that I'm about to post my first first-authored peer-reviewed work in over a year and a half on the arXiv! Stay tuned for a fun paper! Not SETI, but an extension of my thesis work, with four new co-authors in a new journal for me (not astronomy!) 🔭🧪🎉
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American Astronomical Society (AAS) @aas.org · 03/09/2026
🔭 Meet #AAS249 plenary speaker: Rebecca Charbonneau! Historian at AIP, SETI Institute Fellow, and NRAO scientist studying the history of radio astronomy & technosignatures. Don't miss her talk in Salt Lake City — early registration closes 12 Oct. aas.org/meetings/aas... @rebeccacharbon.bsky.social
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Jason Wright @astrowright.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Saw a fun post on here along the lines of the different levels of “rich“, based on what you will purchase casually without being price sensitive: 1st level: restaurant meals 2nd: airplane tickets 3rd: automobiles 4th: real estate 5th: urban real estate Elon Musk is level 10 rich.
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Jason Wright @astrowright.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
My reaction to the Navier Stokes thing is that mathematics might be in trouble but for now a mathematician with a $200/month subscription and facility with AI is worth $22 million in tokens per theorem.
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Jason Wright @astrowright.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Wordle 1,914 2/6* ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🤯 Well, that’s a first! The Program remains undefeated, going on almost a full year of consecutive wins now…
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Jason Wright @astrowright.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
This is good, and it also illuminates an interesting nuance: even the “respectable,“ polite, suit-and-tie wearing, slowly White-House-picketing, lawsuit-filing Frank Kameny was impatient and radical. He was seen as unnecessarily provocative and dangerous by both sides.
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Jason Wright @astrowright.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
I am also disappointed in this. To be clear, most of this is good and the policy is very reasonable. But it may also mean that I will be refusing to referee more papers than usual. Grumpy old man thread incoming… @publishing.aas.org @ethan-vishniac.bsky.social 🔭🧪
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Jason Wright @astrowright.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
My amazing postdoc Olivia Curtis has been working very hard on this paper I had a lot of fun collaborating on. Who knew years of teaching stellar structure and atmospheres would let me help out with the problem of objects in the early universe?! arxiv.org/abs/2609.09265 🔭🧪
arxiv.org
A Spectral Framework for Testing the Quasi-Star Hypothesis in Little Red Dots I: Weighing LRDs by Their Super-Eddington Luminosity Ratios---No Signs of Overmassive Black Holes
We present a spectral test of the quasi-star hypothesis for Little Red Dots (LRDs) whereby a black hole grows inside a stellar-like envelope. We use \texttt{Prospector} to fit host galaxies and \textt...
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Jason Wright @astrowright.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Neat writeup of a recent study about looking for the tiniest physical technosignatures!
nytimes.com
Is There Alien Debris on the Moon? Some Scientists Plan to Find Out. (Gift Article)
Researchers want to explore the idea that microscopic particles shed by alien civilizations have accumulated on the lunar surface, making it an archive of extraterrestrial technology.
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Jason Wright @astrowright.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Fun! I was raised in Seattle, went to high school and college in Boston, then 8 years as a grad student / postdoc in Oakland. Yet somehow I sound just like someone from Utah? I think the Minnesota/Maine thing is the Canadian influence on Seattle. This was the 24-question "quick" version.
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Jason Wright @astrowright.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Just ran across the old "Tuesday boy" problem which tripped me up because I had forgotten all about it! Thread…
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Jason Wright @astrowright.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Still going strong! Zero chance of failure today following The Program.
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 29/08/2026
You see a lot of glib analysts repeating the line that "Americans just don't want EVs" without taking into consideration that the US auto buying experience is dominated by a network of extremely ignorant, Republican car dealers dependent on the kind of maintenance that EVs don't need.
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Jason Wright @astrowright.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Having bought two EVs and a hybrid, I think a big part of America’s sloth in adopt adopting EVs is car dealerships’ management being heavily Republican, and having a business model that relies on repairs that EV‘s don’t need.
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Jason Wright @astrowright.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
A (12) wrote a Chuck Norris joke: Despite *inventing* it, not only has Chuck Norris never lost The Game, he has *won* it. Twice.
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Jason Wright @astrowright.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Hearing about how mRNA treatments are offering new hope against deadly cancers is wonderful, and also bittersweet for those of us who know it’s just a bit too late for loved ones, and how this administration will thwart their development. This research is so important! We need to fight for it.
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Jason Wright @astrowright.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
I enjoyed this very grumpy article about the latest AI thing, especially this part (which is accurate but not very well written for reasons that make sense if you read the article.) www.nytimes.com/2026/08/19/m...
Because writing, when it comes down to it, is a higher form of thinking. Writing takes time and editing and a deep level of commitment. Writing is a rigorous process to understand your own thoughts and then lay those thoughts out in a way that convinces or inspires or moves other people. But speaking is not that process. Speaking out loud can be tremendously useful when you need to deliver instructions or talk something out with another person or jot down a quick brainstorm while you are in the middle of washing your face in the bathroom or something.
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Jason Wright @astrowright.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
I've been struggling to articulate why I get so upset when someone sends me LLM text—especially asking me for feedback or edits. I'm realizing Orwell said it best. I've always loved "Politics and the English Language" and I think it inoculated me to what's wrong with LLMs.
sites.psu.edu
Orwell and LLMS
I’ve been dealing with a lot of people sending me LLM-generated text to interpret and comment on lately and I’ve been struggling to articulate what bothers me so much about it. One is that...
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DiscrimenSapientiam @discrimens.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Dale Earnhardt coming from 17th to win in 3 laps at Talladega in the fall of 2000. The last race he ever won.
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Mark Panning @markpanning.seismology.space · 18/08/2026
Scott Hatteberg’s HR to win the A’s 20th in a row and Shohei’s 10K/3HR NLCS Game 4 last year. I’ve had good baseball luck.
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Eric Bellm @ebellm.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
static.klipy.com
Marshawn Lynch's Iconic Golf Cart Ride
Alt: Marshawn Lynch's Iconic Injury Cart Ride
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John Gizis @johngizis.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
I was at Obama’s 2008 speech accepting the Democratic nomination in Denver.
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MixtMeta4 @mixtmeta4.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
I watched John McKay bench Steve Young from the nosebleeds at the Big Sombrero. Young flung his Bucco Bruce helmet to the ground with such force that it must have bounced 15 feet in the air. He was traded to the Niners right after that game.
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Phil Plait @philplait.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
I observed Deep Impact hitting the comet. We had a telescope on it taking images every few seconds, and we saw right away when it doubled in brightness.
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Jason Wright @astrowright.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
What are the most famous things you have seen happen in person? For me, it‘s probably sports related: I was in the stands for the Jeter flip against the A’s. I also saw Nomar Garciaparra hit 10 RBIs in a game, and Ramon Hernandez’s walk-off bunt against the BoSox. But the flip takes the cake.
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American Astronomical Society (AAS) @aas.org · 17/08/2026
AAS Names C. David Gammel as Next Chief Executive Officer The American Astronomical Society (AAS) today announced that C. David Gammel will become the Society's next Chief Executive Officer, with his tenure expected to begin in early December 2026. aas.org/press/aas-na... 🔭
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Jason Wright @astrowright.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
I've always thought it was annoying flight numbers were not unique on a given day (either on so-called "direct" flights or back-and-forths). It causes nothing but confusion for passengers. And now I'm confused how this sort of thing hasn't caused a problem before: www.nytimes.com/2026/08/15/u...
nytimes.com
2 Planes With Same Call Sign in Phoenix Could Have Been ‘Disastrous’
An air traffic controller noticed that two planes — one departing, one landing — were both flight 2482. He acted quickly to avoid confusion.
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Bruce Macintosh @bmacastro.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
Making sure @astrowright.bsky.social sees this because it feels right up your and Luke's alley: bsky.app/profile/bmac...
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Jason Wright @astrowright.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
The Ĝ survey is back! @pseticenter.bsky.social's Olivia Curtis presents the pipeline we're going to use to drop the ceiling on our upper limits for KIII species on a galaxy-by-galaxy basis from the 50-80% of intercepted starlight in our previous work down to 4-20%. arxiv.org/abs/2608.12458
arxiv.org
The Ĝ Infrared Search for Extraterrestrial Civilizations with Large Energy Supplies. V. When Galaxies Glow with Industry
We present the most robust stellar population synthesis (SPS)-based search for galaxy-spanning technological waste heat to date, applied to 129 nearby galaxies spanning a wide range of spectral energy...
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Jason Wright @astrowright.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
One of the enormous advances in astronomy since my grad school days has been in our understanding of gyrochronolgy. Look at this amazing figure and reflect on the rich physics it contains about stellar spin down!
Rotation period vs. effective temperature for several clusters.
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Jason Wright @astrowright.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Neat writeup of the recent Dyson Minds workshop at MIT, co-organized by @pseticenter.bsky.social's own Olivia Curtis!
sciencealert.com
Experts Met at MIT to Discuss The Possibility of Alien Tech Around Black Holes. Here's What Was Discussed
Last June, while most of us were sweating it out and scrolling socials, more than two dozen of the best scientific minds in the world headed to MIT.
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Jason Wright @astrowright.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
Ummm… I've looked at a lot of RV curves over the years and Figure 9 of this paper does not show any evidence of a giant planet/BD companion. At best, I'd say they've done a lot of work and done a good job to *rule out* giant companions at various periods and the remaining parameter space is small.
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Jason Wright @astrowright.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
On the contrary, this object is not just a moon, it is a moonmoon! Specifically, it is the moonmoon brown degenerate "star" CD-35 2722 Bb. The system is dynamically equivalent to the system in Figure 2 here: arxiv.org/abs/2303.18217
arxiv.org
A Unified Nomenclature and Taxonomy for Planets, Stars, and Moons
I solve the problem of nomenclature of planets, stars, and moons, and in doing so repair two of the IAU's blunders. Drawing and improving upon foundational work by Chen & Kipping, I describe a single,...
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Jason Wright @astrowright.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
I testified before a PA House committee about the PSETI Center and got asked about inspiring a new generation of kids to be scientists: www.facebook.com/watch/?v=134...
facebook.com
1.3K views · 12 reactions | Today, the House Communications and Technology Committee held an informational meeting on how modern communications systems, data integration and sensor technologies improve our ability to identify and analyze anomalous signals and objects. During the hearing, I had the opportunity to ask Dr. Jason Wright, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State University, how we can inspire more young people to pursue careers in science, technology and space exploration. It reminded me of growing up and attending school with Col. Mike Fincke, whose journey led him to become a NASA astronaut. Encouraging the next generation to dream big and pursue careers in Science Technology Engineering Mathematics (STEM) is critical to maintaining Pennsylvania's and America's leadership in innovation, research and discovery. | PA State Rep. Valerie Gaydos
Today, the House Communications and Technology Committee held an informational meeting on how modern communications systems, data integration and sensor technologies improve our ability to identify...
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Jason Wright @astrowright.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Missed this when it came out. A good article about the Kardashev Scale and its intersection with current ambitions to put a lot of computing power in space. www.cnn.com/2026/07/10/s...
cnn.com
Elon Musk’s plans refer to an idea conceived in the 1960s. What is the Kardashev scale? | CNN
A Soviet astronomer in the 1960s proposed a scale to classify hypothetical alien civilizations. Here’s why the framework is still coming up today.
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Jason Wright @astrowright.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
There is a veterans memorial at Penn State that bears the words Ή ταν ή επί τας, “with your shield or upon it” supposedly what Spartan mothers would tell their sons, that. They should not to return home unless they have won the war or are dead.
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Jason Wright @astrowright.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Just found out that I lost one of my mentors last week. A lot of him as a scientist and parent is in me today. I’m grateful for what he taught me, and that he believed in and supported me when I was looking for the next step in my career. I’m glad I got to see him a few days before he passed.
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Jason Wright @astrowright.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
EV owners: Charged my Kia EV6 at a ChargeSmart cabinet and got, by a factor of two, the fastest charge I’ve ever had. The native NACS plug was a plus. It was a hassle to get the charge to start (Tesla is still way ahead of everyone else here) but the speed was amazing once it started.
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Jason Wright @astrowright.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
I was just wondering exactly this! Lucky me I have a world expert in atmospheric hazes in my feed…
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Jason Wright @astrowright.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
NYT games working very hard the past several days to break a lot of Wordle streaks! Still going strong following my Program over here!
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Jason Wright @astrowright.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Yup! In some ways I was pretty miserable my first two years until I really found my groove and confidence.
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Eilat Glikman @eilatg.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
Oh yes, every summer with my daughter. It’s intense! There is a whole This American Life” episode (Notes on Camp) from decades ago on the camp intensity phenomenon. We listened to it in the car in the way home the first year with her.
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Jason Wright @astrowright.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
The 11-year-old just came home from a week of sleepaway camp profoundly sad. He had the time of his life, feels like he finally found his people, and he’s desperate to go back. It’s really intense. I’ve never seen him like this. Have other parents experienced this with camp?
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Jason Wright @astrowright.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
My view is this is a new and urgent manifestation of old problems in pedagogy: how to handle technology that can replace/speed up essential skills, and how to make sure students are actually developing those skills and not cheating.
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