iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Anna Kapinska @drannadana.bsky.social · 24/09/2025

From stars to deepest depths of oceans... fascinating!! 😮

Reposted by Anna Kapinska

LIGO Scientific Collaboration @ligo.org · 13/09/2025

The latest issue of @ligomagazine.bsky.social is out now and free to read 🎉 Celebrate 10 years of gravitational-wave astronomy with us 🎉 ligo.org/wp-content/u... 🔭🧪⚛️ #GW10Years

Front cover of issue 27 of the LIGO Magazine

10 years of graviational wave astronomy

GW150914 to GW231123: a signal that changed to world (p 6)

GW231123: the most massive black hole merger yet! (p 24)

GWTC-4.0 cataglgue paper (p 20)

GW observatories of the future (p 34)

Climate change conversations: Fossil-free supercomputing (p 40)

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Sandy Roberts @kaleidoscopesci.bsky.social · 29/08/2025

Got kids? Inspire them with this story about the Parker Space Probe, then get them building with the @scifri.bsky.social educational activity "Use Engineering To Design A Solar Space Probe" at www.sciencefriday.com/educational-...

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Anna Kapinska @drannadana.bsky.social · 29/08/2025

This brings me to my childhood, and all the awe and excitement watching and learning about the celestial phenomena. I'm still remembering the feeling of pure fascination. Good to get reminded why we do what we do even though a lot of my work is administration, teaching or management nowadays 😌

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Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia @pasajournal.bsky.social · 20/08/2025

Recently published in PASA: "EMUSE: Evolutionary Map of the Universe Search Engine", Gupta, N. et al. This is Figure 1. The paper is open access, free to read at doi.org/10.1017/pasa... 🔭🧪

Caption for Figure 1: Overview of EMUSE (Evolutionary Map of the Universe Search Engine). Starting with the open-source OpenCLIP model, which is pre-trained on approximately 2.3 billion image-text pairs from the LAION dataset, we further fine-tuned it using an image-text dataset of extended radio sources in the EMU-PS1 survey. The fine-tuned model is then used to generate image embeddings of EMU sources based on PNG images from the EMU and AllWISE surveys at the positions of extended radio sources identified in the RG-CAT catalogue. The fine-tuned model, along with the generated image embeddings and catalogue metadata is integrated into the EMUSE application framework to retrieve similar sources. EMUSE facilitates the search of the embedding database and outputs a table of EMU survey radio sources that are similar to a given image or text prompt. The search engine is accessible at https://askap-emuse.streamlit.app/

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Anna Kapinska @drannadana.bsky.social · 22/08/2025

Things are progressively getting out of hand... on too many fronts, though this one is astronomy and perhaps ultimatelyimpeding sci fi predictions (just wait for it) focused. Sigh..

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Nereide @drnereide.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

🧵 Here is SS 433, the first identified microquasar. It is about one of the most exotic star systems known, a binary star microquasar consisting of a stellar-mass black hole and its companion, a giant star. The star is about 30 solar masses, ... ➡️ www.desy.de/news/news_se... 🔭 🧪 #cosmology

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Benne W. Holwerda @benneholwerda.bsky.social · 09/08/2025

See also how they all “almost studied physics”.

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Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia @pasajournal.bsky.social · 11/07/2025

Recently published in PASA: "Discovery of Odd Radio Circles and Other Peculiars in the First Year of the EMU Survey using Object Detection", Gupta, N. et al. This is Figure 4. The paper is open access, free to read at doi.org/10.1017/pasa...

ORC candidates with unconfirmed host galaxies. The corresponding optical images are sourced from the DECaPS2 survey due to the absence of DESI LS DR10 coverage. In the top panel, white arrows indicate one central galaxy and two additional galaxies at the locations of radio emission peaks, making it challenging to conclusively identify the origin of the circular emission with the current data. In the bottom panel, the high density of sources in the optical image complicates the confirmation of a host galaxy. Full caption in the paper.

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Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia @pasajournal.bsky.social · 21/05/2025

PASA is now accepting Letters, for the publication of high impact and timely astronomical research that requires a quick turnaround. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

cambridge.org

PASA Letters

Welcome to Cambridge Core

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Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia @pasajournal.bsky.social · 27/06/2025

Recently published in PASA: "NuSTAR Observations of the Galaxy Cluster Abell 3667", Mirakhor., M. et al. This is Figure 1. To read the paper visit doi.org/10.1017/pasa...

Left: Background-subtracted and exposure-corrected NuSTAR mosaic image of the galaxy cluster Abell 3667 in the 4–24 keV energy band, combining data from both telescopes. The image was smoothed using a Gaussian kernel with a σ = 17.2 arcsec (7 pixels) to match NuSTAR’s PSF of ∼ 18 arcsec FWHM. The solid green circle (4.5 arcmin radius) indicates the region from which the source spectra were extracted, while the dashed green circles mark the regions used to extract the background spectra. The overlapping areas are excluded from the background regions. Right: Mosaicked Chandra image of Abell 3667, showing the locations of the point sources. The cyan box outlines the extent of our NuSTAR observations.

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Damian Marley @asteroidproject.bsky.social · 21/06/2025

Dark Emu in full flight, winter solstice night. The dark Coal Sack nebula under the Southern Cross forms the emu's head. The glowing area at the emu's feet (near the tree) marks the centre of the Milky Way galaxy. A beautiful treasure in our sky. June 21st 2025 #astrophotography

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Astronomy 🔭 @astronomy.bsky.social · 20/06/2025

Astronomers used ESO’s Very Large Telescope and MUSE instrument to create a thousand-color view of the Sculptor Galaxy (NGC 253), revealing its stars, gas, and dust in incredible detail. This 50-hour observation helps decode the galaxy’s complex internal structure. Credit: ESO/E. Congiu et al.

MUSE view of the Sculptor Galaxy, detail.

This image shows a detailed, thousand-color image of the Sculptor Galaxy captured with the MUSE instrument at ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT). Regions of pink light are spread throughout this whole galactic snapshot, which come from ionised hydrogen in star-forming regions. These areas have been overlaid on a map of already formed stars in Sculptor to create the mix of pinks and blues seen here.

This image shows the Sculptor Galaxy in a new light. This false-color composition shows specific wavelengths of light released by hydrogen, nitrogen, sulphur, and oxygen. These elements exist in gas form all over the galaxy, but the mechanisms causing this gas to glow can vary throughout the galaxy. The pink light represents gas excited by the radiation of newborn stars, while the cone of whiter light at the center is caused by an outflow of gas from the black hole at the galaxy’s core.

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Anna Kapinska @drannadana.bsky.social · 07/06/2025

Both documents, NSF and NASA budgets in response to WH administration request, are very long, each well over 200pp. The AAS post isn't short but it does summarise the documents well.

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Anna Kapinska @drannadana.bsky.social · 21/05/2025

Hmm, I am already self proclaimed bee 🐝 guardian; shall I become "semicolon protector" too? 😁

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National Radio Astronomy Observatory - NSF NRAO @thenrao.bsky.social · 19/05/2025

Speaking of the #ngVLA, we've announced several new partnerships and collaborations lately! See thread below ⬇️

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Anna Kapinska @drannadana.bsky.social · 19/05/2025

The post thread is much longer, but this particular statement needs to go out there in the wilds, because it's true, and largely unknown by non academics

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Minh Huynh @astrominh.bsky.social · 17/05/2025

The Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia (PASA) journal is now live on Bluesky! Follow us here @pasajournal.bsky.social

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Michael Busch @michael-w-busch.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

"MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships are open to postdoctoral researchers from all over the world, of any nationality ... Researchers must develop an application with their prospective supervisor and apply together with their future host organisation."

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Event Horizon Telescope @ehtelescope.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

Centaurus A is the closest radio galaxy to Earth. Radio galaxies feature two-sided jets that are ejected from the galaxy’s central black hole and measure up to millions of light years long. These jets are theorized to spread energy and affect the growth of their host galaxies.💫

A photo of the galaxy Centaurus A, seen in orange and blue tufts against a black starry sky. There is a inset image to the right that shows two orange lines, which is a zoomed in version of the glowing heart of the galaxy, where the jets reside.

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Dr. David Miller 🏳️‍🌈 @davidimiller.bsky.social · 02/05/2025

I am so heartened to this seriously AWESOME #SaveNSF website go up today!!!! Has a take action toolkit with: 1. Press outreach templates 2. Social media toolkit 3. Elected official outreach 4. Talking points Check it out and share widely!!!! Likely more to come. www.savensf.com

Welcome to Save The U.S. National Science Foundation
A Girl Looking at a Physics Model
TAKE ACTION
Save NSF is a coalition of concerned scientists and allies who are working to save funding for scientific grants through the U.S. National Science Foundation.

Our mission is to support and advocate for the continuation of vital research and innovation in various scientific fields. NSF funding is critical to this work.

Join us in our endeavor to ensure a sustainable future for scientific exploration and discovery.

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Charles Logan @charleswlogan.bsky.social · 02/05/2025

FYI: The Spencer Foundation, Kapor Foundation, The William T. Grant Foundation, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation have collaborated to offer $25K rapid response grants. "This rapid response bridge funding opportunity is for scholars and teams whose grants have recently been cancelled by NSF."

spencer.org

Rapid Response Bridge Funding Program

In the face of recent abrupt shifts in federal funding for education research, including large-scale terminations of National Science Foundation (NSF) research grant awards, we have developed a rap...

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National Radio Astronomy Observatory - NSF NRAO @thenrao.bsky.social · 02/05/2025

#Astronomy community, this month's issue of the NRAO Newsletter is now available! Read here: science.nrao.edu/enews/18.5/ Learn more about the recent ngVLA Prototype Handover Ceremony, exoALMA project, becoming a Science Review Panel volunteer, and more.

Photo of the ngVLA prototype antenna at sunset. Several VLA antennas are visible in the background and there are logos for ngVLA, NSF, AUI, NRAO, and mtex on the image.

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Anna Kapinska @drannadana.bsky.social · 02/05/2025

Congratulations to the #NRAO 2025 Jansky Fellowship awardees!! Three new outstanding early career postdoctoral fellows will be joining NRAO later in the year, and we can't wait to start working with them! Congratulations all! @thenrao.bsky.social public.nrao.edu/news/nsf-nra...

public.nrao.edu

NSF NRAO Announces Jansky Fellows - National Radio Astronomy Observatory

The NRAO Jansky Fellowship Program is designed to support outstanding early-career scientists and engineers in conducting independent research related...

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Anna Kapinska @drannadana.bsky.social · 02/05/2025

This vid is fascinating, even for an astronomer who is well aware of the sizes involved. It really puts into perspective how insignificant planets as compared to the Sun..

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Anna Kapinska @drannadana.bsky.social · 27/04/2025

Just a kitty lost in the depth of thought..

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Anna Kapinska @drannadana.bsky.social · 23/04/2025

New paper on arxiv by our own NRAO folks this time :)

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Astronomy 🔭 @astronomy.bsky.social · 22/04/2025

Icy mountains on the surface of Pluto — captured by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft in 2015. New Horizons continues to observe objects in the Kuiper Belt. It is expected to eventually enter interstellar space in the 2040s.

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Vincent Ledvina @vincentledvina.bsky.social · 21/04/2025

One of the largest coronal holes observed by SDO is now facing Earth! #heliophysics

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National Radio Astronomy Observatory - NSF NRAO @thenrao.bsky.social · 17/04/2025

📡 VLA Spring Open House - April 26, 2025 📡 Ever wanted to experience the magnitude of the Very Large Array in-person? Now's your chance! #NewMexico #VisitVLA Admission is free, but advance tickets are required: nraoepo.ticketapp.org/portal/produ... #RadioAstronomy #Astronomy #NewMexico

Photo of the Very Large Array. Several telescope dishes are visible against a pale blue sky and desert landscape. In the foreground, two people are looking at the telescopes and taking photos with a phone.

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Dive Into Discovery @diveintodiscovery.bsky.social · 10/04/2025

On April 10, 2019, scientists released the first image of a black hole. Captured by the Event Horizon Telescope, the glowing ring of light proved Einstein right—and gave humanity a face for the previously unseeable. #StayCurious #Skystorians #DiveIntoDiscovery

The First-Ever Image of a Black Hole — A Window into the Event Horizon

This iconic image captures one of the most groundbreaking moments in the history of astrophysics: the first direct visual evidence of a black hole. Released to the world on April 10, 2019, this image reveals the supermassive black hole at the heart of the galaxy Messier 87 (M87), located about 55 million light-years from Earth. The glowing orange ring shown in the image is not the black hole itself—which remains invisible—but the shadow cast by its event horizon, the boundary beyond which nothing, not even light, can escape. The glowing halo consists of superheated gas and dust spiraling at near-light speed into the black hole’s gravitational grip. The inset displays the close-up image of the black hole, while the wider background image shows the surrounding region of M87, highlighting the energetic jet of particles emitted by the black hole, which extends thousands of light-years into intergalactic space.

This achievement was made possible by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), a global network of eight radio telescopes operating in unison to create a virtual Earth-sized telescope with the resolution power required to “see” something this small from across the cosmos. The success of this image was not just a triumph of engineering but also a validation of Einstein’s general theory of relativity, whose predictions aligned with the ring-like structure captured here. The project brought together over 200 scientists from around the globe, demonstrating the collaborative nature of modern science. This image marks a historic moment when humanity did not just theorize about the invisible but rendered it visible—peering into the heart of the universe’s most mysterious force and forever altering our understanding of time, space, and gravity.

Capturing the Unseeable — Black Hole Image Across Four Days in April 2017

This composite image, released as part of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration’s findings, showcases four frames of the same black hole in galaxy M87, taken on April 5, 6, 10, and 11 of 2017. Each frame displays the now-famous glowing ring of orange light—light bent by intense gravitational forces around the event horizon of the supermassive black hole—surrounding a central dark void. The consistent crescent shape across the four days reinforces the stability of the black hole’s shadow, confirming key predictions from Einstein’s general theory of relativity. This image series is a testament to both the scientific rigor and observational precision behind one of the most significant achievements in modern astronomy.

The images represent data collected by a network of eight telescopes around the globe, operating in perfect synchronization to form a planet-sized virtual telescope. This technique, called Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI), allows astronomers to achieve extraordinary resolution by linking radio antennas from Hawaii to Antarctica to Spain. What makes these images truly remarkable is the scale involved—the black hole’s shadow spans about 40 billion kilometers, yet from Earth, it appears as small as an orange on the moon. The frames highlight not only the scale of this scientific challenge but also the ability of human collaboration and technology to overcome it.

The circular marks in each frame indicate the resolution of the virtual telescope, emphasizing the precision required to discern such distant and extreme phenomena. These images, consistent over multiple days, helped verify the robustness of the black hole’s shape and brightness pattern. Each frame in this sequence is more than an astronomical snapshot—it’s a window into an invisible frontier, reinforcing humanity’s capacity to decode the universe’s most profound secrets.

Anatomy of a Black Hole – A Scientific Visualization of the Unseeable

This detailed illustration captures the anatomy of a black hole, transforming complex astrophysics into a powerful visual guide. At the center lies the singularity—a region of infinite density where space and time collapse and the known laws of physics break down. This core is encircled by the event horizon, the boundary beyond which nothing, not even light, can escape the black hole’s gravity. The event horizon defines the black hole’s “surface,” even though it is not a physical structure, but rather a gravitational threshold. It is the very limit of visibility, marking the edge of the unknown.

Radiating outward is the accretion disc, a glowing spiral of superheated gas and cosmic dust rotating at extreme speeds. Friction and gravitational forces heat the matter to millions of degrees, causing it to emit intense radiation. Just outside the event horizon lies the photon sphere, where gravity bends light into orbits. This region is critical to black hole imaging—light from the photon sphere formed the glowing ring seen in the first black hole photo released on April 10, 2019. That historic image from the Event Horizon Telescope matched what this diagram represents.

Above and below the disc are relativistic jets, massive beams of particles ejected at near-light speed. These jets pierce across space for thousands of light-years, influencing galactic evolution. While black holes consume, they also emit astonishing energy. This visual combines theory and imagination, helping us picture an object once considered unseeable. It illustrates humanity’s leap from speculation to confirmation—a tool for understanding how light behaves in extreme gravity, and how science turns darkness into knowledge.

Black Holes Explained – A Simplified Scientific Diagram

This infographic provides a clear, accessible breakdown of the components that define a black hole, distilling high-level astrophysics into an understandable format for general audiences. At the heart of the image lies the singularity, a point of infinite density where all the mass of the black hole is concentrated. According to general relativity, this region warps space and time so intensely that our current understanding of physics ceases to function. Surrounding this is the event horizon, the boundary beyond which no information or matter can return—a threshold that effectively seals the singularity from the observable universe.

Wrapped around the event horizon is the photon sphere, where photons—particles of light—are bent into temporary orbits by the black hole’s immense gravitational pull. This region plays a crucial role in our ability to visualize black holes. The light from this orbiting zone formed the now-iconic glowing ring in the first real image of a black hole, released by the Event Horizon Telescope in 2019.

The diagram also illustrates the accretion disc, a swirling band of superheated gas and dust spiraling into the black hole. Friction within this disc generates enormous energy, especially in the form of X-rays, making the black hole’s presence detectable to distant observers. Perhaps most visually striking are the relativistic jets—streams of high-energy particles ejected from the poles of the black hole at near light-speed. Though the mechanism remains partly mysterious, these jets influence their host galaxies, injecting energy across millions of light-years.

Accompanied by brief, readable explanations, this diagram condenses some of the universe’s most daunting phenomena into a snapshot of clarity. It reminds us that science can bring light to even the darkest places—both literally and intellectually.

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Anna Kapinska @drannadana.bsky.social · 03/04/2025

Watching this, and realising burning hydrogen and helium doesn't care, puts the current earthly problems in perspective.. they are so small in comparison. And somehow, it feels good

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Sebastian S. Cocioba @atinygreencell.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

Conducting research solely on ideas that have immediate commercial application is the antithesis of innovation and disruption. Walk with your eyes forward, not toward the ground a foot away from your stride.

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Quanta Magazine @quantamagazine.org · 01/04/2025

In a paper published in @nature.com last week, researchers demonstrated a new application for quantum computers: generating a sequence of certifiably random numbers. www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🧵

nature.com

Certified randomness using a trapped-ion quantum processor - Nature

Certifiably random bits can be generated using the 56-qubit Quantinuum H2-1 trapped-ion quantum computer accessed over the Internet.

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National Radio Astronomy Observatory - NSF NRAO @thenrao.bsky.social · 31/03/2025

#Astronomy community, this month's issue of the NRAO Newsletter is now available! Read here: science.nrao.edu/enews/18.3 Learn more about the Jansky Lectureship Call for Nominations, the NRAO Doctoral Dissertation Award, upcoming conferences/workshops, and more.

Aerial view of the Green Bank Telescope, a very large, white radio telescope amidst a forested area.

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Astronomy 🔭 @astronomy.bsky.social · 29/03/2025

A blue band on a lunar eclipse occurs as sunlight, filtered through Earth's high ozone layer, loses red light, creating a faint blue-purple hue. This contrasts with the 'blood Moon' effect, where deeper atmospheric scattering reddens light. Credit: Zixiong Jin

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Paul Byrne @theplanetaryguy.com · 28/03/2025

This is a stunning example of an Einstein ring. The bright, diffuse galaxy in the centre is closer to us—and it's so massive, it's bending spacetime itself, turning light from a far more distant galaxy behind it into a ring. It's bending the very fabric of the Universe.

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Michele Bannister @astrokiwi.bsky.social · 27/03/2025

The long and winding path of research "impact": five years ago, studying interstellar objects was funded by @royalsocietynz.bsky.social. Because of this, we now have a tool for measuring satellite industry effects on the night sky. You can't write a path for that

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Anna Kapinska @drannadana.bsky.social · 27/03/2025

Sounds interesting. That is a long standing Q, on jets. Paper linked in the news piece below, have not yet read it but it's on my list!

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ESA Space Science @science.esa.int · 24/03/2025

😵 Be ready to be amazed! The NASA/ESA/CSA James #Webb Space Telescope brings you the "Cosmic Tornado" 🌪️ Webb observations have also revealed the identity of the fuzzy object at the tip of this object also known as Herbig-Haro 49/50. Read more 👉 www.esa.int/Science_Expl... 🔭 🧪 ☄️

Angled from the upper left corner to the lower right corner of the image is a conical shaped orange-red cloud known at Herbig-Haro 49/50. This feature takes up about three-fourths of the length of this angle. The upper left end of this feature has a translucent, rounded end. At this same location there is a background spiral shaped galaxy with a concentrated blue center that fades outwards to blend in with red spiral arms. The conical feature widens slightly from the rounded end at the upper right down to the lower right. The black background of space is clearer, speckled with some white stars and smaller, more numerous, fainter white galaxies.

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John F Wu @jwuphysics.bsky.social · 21/03/2025

Somehow missed this amidst all the Euclid and DESI excitement: ALMA detected a galaxy at z=14.2 in OIII 88um with just 2.8hr of integration time 🤯 www.eso.org/public/archi...

Figure 2 of the paper showing OIII 88um moment map and the rest far-IR spectrum (eithva simply gaussian model fit) shifted to z=14.18. The emission line is detected at 6.6 sigma.

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Dr. Laci Brock 🪐 @stellerarts.com · 20/03/2025

Today, ESA released a giant batch of survey data from the Euclid Telescope! Euclid has already spotted 26 million galaxies, & that was just in one week of observations 🤯 Here’s the Deep Field South view & an example of the galaxies being catalogued. Beautiful! Good at making you feel smol.

Sea of stars and galaxies against a black sky

A collage of 9x5 squares each with a different galaxy. Some are spiral, some are edge on, and some appear to be galaxy mergers.

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Anna Kapinska @drannadana.bsky.social · 14/03/2025

And you can fet delicious pies there too!! 😋

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Anna Kapinska @drannadana.bsky.social · 14/03/2025

Perhaps it's time to revisit predictions of when multi-dimensional mice are taking over the humans. At least that's how we see them in our 3D world, right? Though prolly they'll start with lullabies, well... or curses for humans ;) www.iflscience.com/scientists-p...

iflscience.com

Scientists Put A Human "Language Gene" Into Mice And Curious Things Unfolded

Mice are still incapable of writing the complete works of Shakespeare, despite some being given a human "language gene".

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