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Erica Sawczynec

@ericasawczynec.bsky.social
1.5K followers 328 following 215 posts

University of Texas at Austin PhD candidate 🤘🏻| star & instrument (IGRINS) enthusiast ⭐️ 🔭| writer for Astrobites 🪐 | Maui, HI | she/hers igrinscontact.github.io

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Reposted by Erica Sawczynec
Sarah Kendrew @sarahkendrew.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Wondering how Roman actually travels out to L2? Here is a cool animation which also includes JWST's orbit, from the NASA scientific visualization studio svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/5673#media_g...
svs.gsfc.nasa.gov
NASA Scientific Visualization Studio | Roman Telescope Launch and Orbit at L2
A collection of visualizations showing the path the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will take to the second Sun-Earth Lagrange point (L2).
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Erica Sawczynec @ericasawczynec.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
also, totally related, i think wearing a clean room suit all the time is slowly (perhaps even quickly) turning me into a raisin
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Erica Sawczynec @ericasawczynec.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
etching silicon gratings for my thesis after waiting 5 years and i’m like, so chill about it, perhaps the chillest there has ever been, i certainly don’t spend hours looking at them under the microscope looking for little things to take pictures of, nope, im super chill
a 4 inch ish 30 mm thick puck of silicon with a grating surface patterned on it being etched in a big vat of KOH. the surface is bubbling indicating the silicon being etched away to form the grating surface
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Reposted by Erica Sawczynec
Phil PlAIt @philplait.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
The spacecraft that was hoped to boost Swift to a higher orbit has failed, and now the gamma-ray hunting space observatory is doomed to burn up in Earth's atmosphere later this year. Swift's an AMAZING mission, and I'm really sad to see it go. badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/the-swift-... 🔭🧪
badastronomy.beehiiv.com
The Swift spacecraft reboost mission has failed
Swift has a few months at most before it burns up in Earth’s atmosphere
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rom comrade @savasavasava.myatproto.social · 18/07/2026
seeing academics and colleagues I respect and/or know openly and happily talk about their chatgpt and claude use feels so awful and disheartening. I’m not going to do the calling out thing because what’s the fucking point
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Ben Allen @evodynamics.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Congrats we just made it impossible to come here for a PhD www.bostonglobe.com/2026/07/16/m...
bostonglobe.com
Trump administration limits student visas to four years, changing longstanding policy - The Boston Globe
The new rule, which also restricts the international students’ ability to transfer schools or change majors without approval in their first year, will go into effect in mid-September.
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Erica Sawczynec @ericasawczynec.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
oh no!! hope it feels better after some icing!
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Erica Sawczynec @ericasawczynec.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
wow!! thanks so much!! 🫶🏻
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Erica Sawczynec @ericasawczynec.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
i’m just a girl asking people to come talk to her at her first ever @spie.org poster tonight @ 5:30 PM 🥺 #instrumentation
a poster titled “A silicon monolithic cross-dispersed grism for near-infrared spectroscopy” hangs on a poster board. the poster has several colorful figures and text describing the work.
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SPIE @spie.org · 05/07/2026
Welcome to #SPIEastro 2026! 👋🔭 📍Copenhagen, Denmark
Blue digital sign on a glass window. Sign reads SPIE Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation.
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SPIE @spie.org · 06/07/2026
This is where the fun begins. ✨ From tech talks to the welcome reception, here are a few highlights from Sunday at #SPIEastro. See our Instagram or LinkedIn pages for more photos! 📸
A group of people standing in front of a blue sign. A person stands in front of a lectern wearing a white shirt. A group of five people with arms around each other smile for the camera. A person wearing red glasses stands at a lectern presenting to a room of people.
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Andrew Mann @amann.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
I'm super excited to share a HUGE paper out from Young Worlds Lab team member Andy Boyle. I present for you, ~900,000 rotation periods from TESS! 🤯🔭🧪⭐ #exoplanets #stellarrotation arxiv.org/abs/2603.05586
arxiv.org
The TESS All-Sky Rotation Survey: Periods for 944,056 Stars Within 500 pc
Stellar rotation is a fundamental tracer of stellar magnetic evolution, age, and activity, with broad implications for Galactic archaeology and exoplanet characterization. The Transiting Exoplanet Sur...
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Astrobites @astrobites.bsky.social · 18/04/2026
From Tori Bonidie and Skylar Grayson: The president’s budget requests for NASA and the NSF were released last week. We summarizes the major cuts and their impacts while providing resources to help fight back against this attack on science. ⚛️ 🔭 ☄️ 🧪 astrobites.org/2026/04/16/budget-request-fy2027/
astrobites.org
Back to work to save science funding! All you need to know about the FY2027 Budget Request
The president’s budget requests for NASA and the NSF were released last week. We summarizes the major cuts and their impacts while providing resources to help fight back against this attack on science...
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Space Telescope Science Institute @stsci.edu · 24/04/2026
Well, isn’t this a sight for sore eyes! 😍 Our beloved Hubble appears in this amazing image from one of Vantor's WorldView Legion satellites. It was 36 years ago today that Hubble was launched in the bay of the Space Shuttle Discovery from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Credit: Vantor.
A detailed image of the Hubble Space Telescope floating in space, showing its solar panels and cylindrical body in space.
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NPR @npr.org · 20/03/2026
Muddy floodwaters from severe rains have inundated streets, swallowed vehicles and prompted evacuation orders for more than 4,000 people in towns north of Honolulu. Officials are warning about the possible failure of a a 120-year-old dam. n.pr/4so7td8
n.pr
Over 4,000 told to evacuate flooding in Hawaii as officials warn 120-year-old dam could fail
Muddy floodwaters from severe rains have inundated streets, swallowed vehicles and prompted evacuation orders for more than 4,000 people in towns north of Honolulu. Officials are warning about the possible failure of a a 120-year-old dam.
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NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory @rubinobservatory.org · 26/02/2026
NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory has officially started releasing world-public alerts! 🎉 Here's what you need to know about these first alerts and what's coming up for Rubin ➡️ 🔭🧪☄️
Rubin Observatory with open dome under a night sky. Text reads "NSF-DOE Rubin Observatory has released its first world-public alerts. Here's what you need to know. El Observatorio Rubin de NSF-DOE publicó sus primeras alertas públicas a nivel mundial. Esto es lo que necesitas"Rubin Observatory under a night sky. Text reads "What are alerts? ¿Qué son las alertas? Alerts are a "heads up" that something in the sky changed in brightness or position. Las alertas son "avisos" que indican que algo en el cielo cambió de brillo o de posición."Rubin Observatory during an orange sunset.  Text reads "Does an alert mean a new discovery? ¿Una alerta significa un nuevo descubrimiento? Not necessarily. An alert flags a change in the sky, which could be either a new discovery or a known object. No necesariamente. Una alerta señala un cambio en el cielo, que podría tratarse de un nuevo descubrimiento o de un objeto ya conocido."Rubin Observatory under a night sky during a long exposure shot, causing the stars to streak. Text reads "Why are these first alerts such a big deal? ¿Por qué son tan importantes estas primeras alertas? Rubin is now a real-time discovery machine, enabling scientists worldwide to follow up within minutes! Rubin es ahora una máquina de descubrimientos en tiempo real, que permite a científicos de todo el mundo hacer seguimientos en cuestión de minutos."
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Sarah Tuttle @niais.cryptoanarchy.network · 09/02/2026
Hey y'all. I'm hiring. Are you interested in building instruments for astrophysics? wd5.myworkdaysite.com/recruiting/u...
wd5.myworkdaysite.com
Research Scientist/Engineer 2 (E S UAW Research)
Job Description The University of Washington (UW) Astronomy Department has an outstanding opportunity for a researcher who will have responsibilities in the design, development, construction, and test...
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Chron.com @chron.com · 29/01/2026
It's a nationwide digital spotlight on ICE arrests and detention centers.
bit.ly
Rice students expose ICE raids with new interactive map
It's a nationwide digital spotlight on ICE arrests and detention centers.
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Erica Sawczynec @ericasawczynec.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
divine timing on this one
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Erica Sawczynec @ericasawczynec.bsky.social · 15/01/2026
if stellar continuum has 0 haters, I am dead
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WIRED @wired.com · 12/01/2026
GoFundMe is allowing a fundraising campaign tied to the potential legal defense of Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent who fatally shot Renee Good, to remain online despite what appears to be a breach of the platform’s own terms of service, prompting questions about selective enforcement.
wired.com
GoFundMe Ignores Own Rules by Hosting a Legal-Defense Fund for the ICE Agent Who Killed Renee Good
The fundraiser for the ICE agent in the Renee Good killing has stayed online in seeming breach of GoFundMe’s own terms of service, prompting questions about selective enforcement.
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Dr. Emily Gilbert @emdwarf.bsky.social · 10/01/2026
It's happening!!! Pandora is going to space in just over 16 hours (if all goes well). Pandora is going to help us study exoplanet atmospheres, even when their host stars are misbehaving. I am headed up to Vandenberg to watch the launch shortly, and will make a thread about the mission/launch here!
Pandora spacecraft in front of an exoplanet
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Erica Sawczynec @ericasawczynec.bsky.social · 23/12/2025
this is the worst news for me to see on the timeline 😭
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Erica Sawczynec @ericasawczynec.bsky.social · 22/12/2025
nobody can tell me shit now that i have a blue rose in animal crossing. it took me four months of dedicated work to get this baby
my character stands in front of her house doing the joyful react while standing next to a blue rose in animal crossing new horizons. it is winter and there is snow all around, the holly bushes surrounding the house are also in bloom.
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Reposted by Erica Sawczynec
Merriam-Webster @merriam-webster.com · 15/12/2025
bit.ly/453uzfx
bit.ly
2025 Word of the Year: Slop
Plus 'gerrymander', 'touch grass', 'performative', and other words that defined the year
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Erica Sawczynec @ericasawczynec.bsky.social · 04/12/2025
sounds nuts but old navy jeans have stood the test of time for me over all other brands, and usually the sales rack has like $10 jeans
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Sonja Drimmer @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
Re-upping this today, citing the concluding paragraph we wrote as I just responded to a frustrating survey about integrating GenAI into humanities education at my institution.
If these sound like unexciting proposals: good. One of the seductions of technosolutionism is the promise of exciting new tools to advance the project of learning and enhancing students’ experience of education. That seduction is more often than not snake oil. There is no killer app, no one cool trick, no hack. We may need to deprogram ourselves from thinking that there is.
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awkword @awkword.bsky.social · 24/11/2025
Abolishing ICE is only the beginning. Have you looked at your local cops? .. According to mappingpoliceviolence.us, police kill at least three people per day; from a meta analysis published in NYT, we now know the number could be six or even more.
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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 21/11/2025
It’s widely known (and, I think, pretty uncontroversial) that learning requires effort — specifically, if you don’t have to work at getting the knowledge, it won’t stick. Even if an LLM could be trusted to give you correct information 100% of the time, it would be an inferior method of learning it.
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Dr. Lucky Tran @luckytran.com · 19/11/2025
I really hate it when scientists keep saying that “we need to rebuild trust in science,” because it implies that scientists are to blame for the mistrust rather than the millions of dollars of dark money that have funded political attacks on science in order to advance a far right agenda.
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Erica Sawczynec @ericasawczynec.bsky.social · 18/11/2025
twilight lite™️
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Preeti Chhibber @runwithskizzers.bsky.social · 14/11/2025
THEN YOU PURCHASE THEM AND DO NOT USE THE PROPERTY OF OTHERS
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SK Winnicki, PhD 🏳️‍⚧️ @skwinnicki.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
Lots of folks captioning aurora photos like "for a few minutes we didn't think about politics" guess I'm built different, every time I'm out trying to see night sky stuff I frequently think about how much light pollution is entirely preventable with just a tiny bit of regulation
Basic light pollution diagram showing four different streetlight set ups ranging from more light pollution on the left to less light pollution on the right. The most pollution option, labelled "very bad" is a street lamp with a round uncovered bulb on top, making a sphere of light in the air. The next option, labelled "bad" has a tiny cap on top, that limits the upward pollution a bit. The "better" option is mostly uncovered on top, limiting pollution above the streetlight. The final option, labelled "best" has a full shroud overtop, limiting the light to only below the streetlight, where it is needed for pedestrians and vehicles.
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Mia Sato @miasato.bsky.social · 12/11/2025
I don’t really care if AURORA BOREALIS NORTHERN LIGHTS happened to you. It should have happened to me instead.
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Erica Sawczynec @ericasawczynec.bsky.social · 10/11/2025
update: it was a terrible last night of 4.5-5 arcsecond seeing 🫩 i love feeling cold front weather but i hate observing as one rolls in
the live seeing prediction from a telescope on the neighboring mountain showing 15 mins of seeing over 4 arcseconds
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Erica Sawczynec @ericasawczynec.bsky.social · 09/11/2025
out observing targets for my thesis (and some running survey programs) with IGRINS. Had some great weather the past few nights and hoping for more! 🔭✨
the McDonald Observatory 2.1 meter telescope dome with a beautiful sky gradient from sunset in the backgroundthe McDonald 2.7 meter telescope pointing at zenith with an open telescope dome revealing the sky it is pointing atthe IGRINS slit camera viewer observer interface showing guiding on a target with two very nearby companions!the inside of the Mcdonld 2.7 meter dome at sunset, the telescope is in its stow position with IGRINS at the cassegrain focus. the telescope dome is open showing the beautiful sunset sky outside
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David Grinspoon @drfunkyspoon.bsky.social · 08/11/2025
WOW! An incredible discovery. The first ever image of a baby exoplanet embedded in the dust rings from which planets are forming around a star. Confirms the developing view of planet formation that we’ve never before seen in action. 🧪🔭 www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/news/2025...
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Dr. Adeene Denton @spacewhalerider.com · 06/11/2025
They're tearing Goddard apart for scraps and I'm supposed to write as many proposals as I can to scramble for a fraction of the money NASA has left? Depressing, degrading, and dehumanizing in a time when the future of planetary science can be measured in the number of people it leaves behind.
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Sarah Tuttle @niais.cryptoanarchy.network · 06/11/2025
What is happening at Goddard is absolutely devastating. We are losing history. We are losing an incredible amount of human talent, skill, and knowledge. Rebuilding it will be impossible same for same. Industry can not absorb the people or the equipment. This is undoing space science in the US.
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Lucas Brown @lucasb413.bsky.social · 30/10/2025
Chat… Are Black Holes Dark Energy?? In my new longer-than-usual piece for @astrobites.bsky.social, I do a deep dive into the background of the controversial 2023 paper which claimed black holes expand in step with the universe and can therefore explain dark energy. 🧪 astrobites.org/2025/10/30/a...
astrobites.org
So… Are Black Holes Dark Energy?
Title: Observational evidence for cosmological coupling of black holes and its implications for anastrophysical source of dark energy Authors: Duncan Farrah,
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Erica Sawczynec @ericasawczynec.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
daaaaaamn the bottom left figure of the spectrograph is super great!
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 05/11/2025
Mamdani: "New York will remain a city of immigrants, a city built by immigrants, powered by immigrants, and as of tonight, led by an immigrant."
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Tal Lavin @swordsjew.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
mamdani is human. he'll fuck up and fail, especially with a hostile press and the giant mess that is nyc's politics. but today is a great day for the brave women who told what cuomo did, and for those of us who care that it should matter. that power shouldn't go to those who hurt the poweless.
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Charlotte Clymer @charlotteclymer.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
Don't forget that Zohran Mamdani spent his entire campaign standing proudly beside the trans community. He went to trans rights rallies just to show support. He proudly waved trans rights flags without hesitation. He refused to back down in support of trans rights. That makes me happy.
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Erica Sawczynec @ericasawczynec.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
NYC I LOVE YOU
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Erica Sawczynec @ericasawczynec.bsky.social · 29/10/2025
a little change in hue (*´∇`*)
smiling bathroom selfie! the change in hue is a pinky red ombré in my hair
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Mikki Kendall @karnythia.blacksky.app · 26/10/2025
If you have it please donate cash to the food banks. $10 in their hands will feed more people than the $10 worth of canned goods you can buy for retail prices. Also check on your elders. Many of them will not admit they rely on these programs so grocery gift cards or a surprise bag of staples
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William Thompson @wrtastro.bsky.social · 18/10/2025
SPIDERS is out of the clean room and almost ready to ship — it’s really happening! #instrumentation #exoplanets
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