iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Dr. Sarah Biddle Leslie (they/she) @extragalactic.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Tarantula's Heart (May 2026) [acrylic on canvas]. I started working on this piece in August 2025. It was inspired by the JWST NIRCam image mosaic of the Tarantula Nebula's star-forming region. I have changed the colour palette to show more pinks and purples. 🐡🔭🎨

Canvas hanging on a wall with the label Tarantula's Heart. Vivid colours on a black background show the nebula.

1498

Dr. Sarah Biddle Leslie (they/she) @extragalactic.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

His research asks how dust grows (and gets destroyed) in the interstellar medium. To design the cover, I combined inspiration from the spiral-galaxy logo of Stefan's running group, maps of Andromeda's dust made with Herschel, and my imagination.

Photo of the spine and back of the book.

110

Dr. Sarah Biddle Leslie (they/she) @extragalactic.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

Last year I had the pleasure of designing the cover for Stefan van der Giessen's thesis titled "The resolved lifecycle of metals and dust in nearby galaxies." For his PhD, Stefan combined multiwavelength observations of nearby galaxies with hydrodynamic simulations and chemical evolution models. 🔭🐡

Photo of a hand holding a book. The book has a dark background with half a red/orange spiral galaxy in the foreground. The title reads "The resolved lifecycle of metals and dust in nearby galaxies". The author is Stefan Anthony van der Giessen.

1170

Dr. Sarah Biddle Leslie (they/she) @extragalactic.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

Are you a Southeast Asian student (3rd-year undergrad and above) interested in astronomy research and STEM careers? Join an international virtual astronomy program featuring lectures, discussions, hands-on projects, and mentorship! July–Sept 2026 Register: bit.ly/IVC2026ast Deadline: 17 June 🔭

Text that reads, "International Virtual Course (IVC) 2026. International Virtual Course (IVC) 2026 – Southeast Asian STEM Through Astronomy Research (SEASTAR)."
"This collaborative course and project, offered by ITB, CfA Harvard & Smithsonian, NARIT, Mahidol University, Universiti Malaya, and International Islamic University Malaysia, includes lectures on fundamental concepts, paper discussions, hands-on projects, and student presentations."
Profiles of lecturers and mentors.

044

Dr. Sarah Biddle Leslie (they/she) @extragalactic.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

Happy LGBTQinSTEM Day!! I just ordered a pin for myself and a pin for my trans femme partner who is also called Robin... I hope she never gets sick of my robin themed cards and gifts... Like this card I painted digitally with the robin's egg nebula. 🐡

Digital art with a circular nebula in the center colored pink and blue. On top is a bird with an orange breast - about the same size as the nebula.

170

Dr. Sarah Biddle Leslie (they/she) @extragalactic.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

I look forwards to seeing what the Vera C. Rubin observatory will help reveal about the universe. Here is a timelapse (condensed into 30s) of my artwork from the software I use, Procreate (on ipad). #sciart

050

Dr. Sarah Biddle Leslie (they/she) @extragalactic.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

New frontiers 🔭🎨 This art was inspired by one of the first images released by the Vera C. Rubin Observatory. The Rubin Observatory will capture images of the entire sky every few days using the 3200 megapixel LSST camera, allowing astronomers to identify and study targets that move or change. (1/5)

digital art with an orange, yellow gaseous background, a central pink elongated nebula, and a top right pink and blue circular nebula. Lanes of dark brown dust clouds are across the image.

1202

Dr. Sarah Biddle Leslie (they/she) @extragalactic.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

Christian’s research focused on the Perseus galaxy cluster. They confirmed two giant structures: a radio "mini-halo" around the central galaxy, and a much larger "giant radio halo" over a million ly! These halos likely come from turbulence caused by past cosmic mergers, which re-energize particles.

Digital artwork depicting the Perseus galaxy cluster as a swirling, abstract formation. A bright white core is surrounded by turbulent, filament-like structures in shades of green, blue, and soft white, suggesting the presence of radio halos. The outer edges blend into a glowing green aura, evoking the sense of motion and energy from cosmic turbulence. The image symbolizes the invisible structures seen in low-frequency radio observations of galaxy clusters.

110

Dr. Sarah Biddle Leslie (they/she) @extragalactic.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

Studying space at such low frequencies is incredibly challenging because the Earth's ionosphere distorts the incoming radio waves. Christian helped develop a new calibration technique that enables higher sensitivity and resolution imaging at these wavelengths.

Back cover of a PhD thesis featuring a background of real LOFAR decameter-wavelength radio data in dark green tones, overlaid with four bright blue-white objects representing active galactic nuclei (AGN). These AGN appear as luminous, irregularly shaped sources with glowing cores and faint jets, distributed across the frame. The background is textured with starburst-like calibration artifacts centered on numerous faint point sources.

110

Dr. Sarah Biddle Leslie (they/she) @extragalactic.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

Today, my colleague Christian at Leiden University successfully defended his PhD thesis, "Galaxy Clusters in the Decameter Sky"! In it, he mapped the sky at a relatively unexplored range of radio frequencies—10–30 MHz—using the LOFAR telescope. I had the honour of designing Christian’s thesis cover!

Cover of a PhD thesis titled "Galaxy Clusters in the Decameter Sky" by Christian Groeneveld. The background features real decameter-wavelength radio data in glowing green tones, filled with faint point-like sources. At the center is an abstract, swirling digital illustration representing the Perseus galaxy cluster, with luminous filaments and a bright central core, evoking the turbulent energy of radio halos.

150

Dr. Sarah Biddle Leslie (they/she) @extragalactic.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

The pillars of creation were first made famous when imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope in 1995 (and again in 2014) in visible light - which I have previously painted. The near-infrared view from JWST helps us peer through more of the dust - revealing many more stars that are forming within.

painting of the pillars of creation in visible light. The 3 pillars are dark brown and block the light.

090

Dr. Sarah Biddle Leslie (they/she) @extragalactic.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

020

Dr. Sarah Biddle Leslie (they/she) @extragalactic.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

My mini painting of the Pillars of Creation was inspired by the JWST NIRCam image. This region of active star formation lies ~6,500 lyr away. Glowing red lines near the edges of some pillars reveal where stars are ejecting material as they form. 🔭🧪 🎨

painting of the "pillars of creation". The three pillars are brown, but also have red and yellow colours

7489

Dr. Sarah Biddle Leslie (they/she) @extragalactic.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

1122

Dr. Sarah Biddle Leslie (they/she) @extragalactic.bsky.social · 09/10/2024

I'm excited to take part in Dragonfly Mental Health's Global Migration on October 10th, celebrating World Mental Health Day and raising awareness about #MentalHealth in #academia. I'll be delivering a Basics of Burnout Seminar at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian in Cambridge, USA

040

Dr. Sarah Biddle Leslie (they/she) @extragalactic.bsky.social · 29/09/2024

Mixed media Witch Head Nebula. The Witch Head Nebula, also known as IC 2118, is a reflection nebula located about 900 light-years away in the constellation Eridanus. 🐡🔭 #Sciart #spaceart #witch 1/4

Photo of a square canvas surrounded by fairy lights. On the canvas is the artwork of the witch head nebula.

24916

Dr. Sarah Biddle Leslie (they/she) @extragalactic.bsky.social · 23/08/2024

I really enjoy watching videos of acrylic pours and it was very fun to incorporate the technique for these paintings 1. Impressions of a gas giant 2. Impressions of an exo-moon 3. Impressions of Mercury 4. Impressions of Mars. #SciArt 🔭🐡 #spaceart #planet #acrylicpouring

Photo of a painting of a planet with gold, red, white, hues on a square canvas. Stars in the background.

Photo of a painting of a circular object, the exo-moon, with purple, blue, red, orange circles blending together. Gold flecks are scattered across the surface.

Photo of a painting of a planet with silver, grey, and white colors.

A photo of a painting on a square canvas of a planet that is orange and red, reminiscent of Mars. Gold flecks are also on the surface.

1335

Dr. Sarah Biddle Leslie (they/she) @extragalactic.bsky.social · 14/08/2024

Multiwavelength view of NGC 2207 and IC 2163 #spaceart 🔭 #sciart The larger and more massive galaxy in this image is NGC 2207, while the smaller one is IC 2163. (1/7)

Photo of a painting showing two spiral galaxies merging

1131

Dr. Sarah Biddle Leslie (they/she) @extragalactic.bsky.social · 11/07/2024

This is my digital art of NGC 1360, the robin's egg nebula, inspired by the Astronomy Picture of the Day Aug 5, 2023: apod.nasa.gov/apod/a... 🔭 #procreate #digitalart #spaceart 1/3

Digital art: black background and a turquoise egg shaped nebula with pink in the centre and some dark cloudy dust lanes across it. A few stars spattered across the image.

2150

Dr. Sarah Biddle Leslie (they/she) @extragalactic.bsky.social · 21/06/2024

Yesterday my dear friend and colleague Marta Frias Castillo defended her thesis on measuring cold molecular gas across cosmic time. I had the pleasure of designing her thesis cover. Congratulations Dr Frias Castillo 🎉

Thesis front cover. Star forming regions in subtle orange colours with the title "measuring cold molecular gas across cosmic time" and the author "Marta Frias Castillo"

Back cover: orange coloured star forming regions with a hidden Mickey Mouse cloud.

040

Dr. Sarah Biddle Leslie (they/she) @extragalactic.bsky.social · 16/04/2024

Was it just me or was most of that image blank? Trying again! 🔭🧪🎨

2142

Dr. Sarah Biddle Leslie (they/she) @extragalactic.bsky.social · 16/04/2024

Digital Art: The Penguin Galaxy, aka Arp 142. 🎨🔭 🐧 I first encountered the Penguin Galaxy through the Galaxy Zoo Project, one of the most successful citizen science initiatives (imo). 1/7

Digital art of two merging galaxies. The top galaxy looks like a penguin with its beak pointing left and the bottom left galaxy looks smooth and round like an egg.

210

Dr. Sarah Biddle Leslie (they/she) @extragalactic.bsky.social · 09/04/2024

Painting of a fictional star system. I used an image of our sun's solar flares for reference. I also played with impasto - making a 3d effect by layering the paint thickly on the canvas. What should I name this one? 🎨 #spaceart

Photo of a painting with a star on the left and two planets on the right.

040

Dr. Sarah Biddle Leslie (they/she) @extragalactic.bsky.social · 05/04/2024

"Heart Nebula" This 20x20cm acrylic painting captures the beauty of the Heart Nebula (center) and the Fishhead Nebula (bottom right). The Heart Nebula gets its name from its resemblance to a heart when observed in visible light. 🔭 1/4

193

Dr. Sarah Biddle Leslie (they/she) @extragalactic.bsky.social · 03/04/2024

New art: Southern Ring Nebula. Despite its name, the Southern Ring Nebula appears like a bubble or an hourglass due to its complex structure. A handful of stars are responsible for the formation of this breathtaking nebula. 🔭

183

Dr. Sarah Biddle Leslie (they/she) @extragalactic.bsky.social · 21/02/2024

For Valentine's Day last week, I painted the Antennae Galaxies, also known as NGC 4038 and NGC 4039 - a pair of interacting galaxies located in the constellation Corvus. #spaceart 🔭

A painting of a heart made of two galaxies merging.

160

Dr. Sarah Biddle Leslie (they/she) @extragalactic.bsky.social · 20/02/2024

The Ring Nebula, also known as M57, is a stunning planetary nebula located ~2,000 ly away in the constellation Lyra. 🔭 The distinctive colourful ring was formed by a dying star, once similar in size to our Sun, shedding its outer layers as it entered its final stages of life.

Painting of an eye-like nebula with outer layers in red and inner area in blue. Photographed on a wooden bench

1101

Dr. Sarah Biddle Leslie (they/she) @extragalactic.bsky.social · 11/02/2024

New digital art: The Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex is a nebula of gas and dust visible from both hemispheres. At a distance of 360 ly it is one of the closest star forming regions. Rho Ophiuchi is the group of stars in the blue area. 🔭 #spaceart

Digital art showing a blue nebula (top), red (right), and yellow (bottom) with stars at their centre and dust lanes connecting them. Many sma stars are in the background. And a globular cluster is bottom right.

2317

Dr. Sarah Biddle Leslie (they/she) @extragalactic.bsky.social · 19/01/2024

Excited to talk alongside Pía, a professional psychologist, with astronomers in Chile about mental health in academia on Monday!

000

Dr. Sarah Biddle Leslie (they/she) @extragalactic.bsky.social · 27/12/2023

Together, the Cone Nebula and the Christmas Tree Cluster make up NGC 2264 - my inspiration behind this digital artwork I did over the past 3 days. #spaceart 🔭 🎄✨

Digital space art - a bright young star at the top, surrounded by gas, a star cluster in the middle, and the cone nebula at the bottom.

1156

Dr. Sarah Biddle Leslie (they/she) @extragalactic.bsky.social · 23/12/2023

The Vela Constellation. Vela means sails (of a ship) in Latin. I designed this for my mother's family who are all sailors.

Digital artwork. A constellation of white stars, with the main stars connected by cyan line. Dark blue clouds behind the stars on top of a white background.

030

Dr. Sarah Biddle Leslie (they/she) @extragalactic.bsky.social · 14/12/2023

I painted the Andromeda (Messier 31) galaxy (and satellite galaxies Messier 32 (left of the galactic nucleus) and Messier 110 (bottom)) using acrylic on canvas, inspired by what it looks like in visible light.

191

Dr. Sarah Biddle Leslie (they/she) @extragalactic.bsky.social · 07/12/2023

Digital art made in Procreate, inspired by the NASA Spitzer Space Telescope image of the North America Nebula. In visible light, the nebula resembles the continent, but here, in infrared light, we see young stars and dusty cocoons enveloping them. 🔭

Digital painting of a nebula. Gas and dust clouds in red and many stars across the background in blues, cyans, whites, yellow and red.

0184

Dr. Sarah Biddle Leslie (they/she) @extragalactic.bsky.social · 29/11/2023

The horsehead nebula is a dark/reflection nebula in the Orion molecular cloud complex. This digital art was inspired by one of Euclid's first full colour images - capturing this detailed panoramic view of the horsehead in just 1 hour. 🔭

2373

Dr. Sarah Biddle Leslie (they/she) @extragalactic.bsky.social · 28/11/2023

The Emu in the Sky is a well-known Aboriginal Astronomical constellation that’s outlined by dark areas (dust) of the night sky, not the stars. The story is familiar to many different Aboriginal communities.

Acrylic painting of the emu in the sky, showing dark dust patches on the Milky Way

1202

Dr. Sarah Biddle Leslie (they/she) @extragalactic.bsky.social · 27/11/2023

Continuing my planet collection with Mars. Digital painting inspired by @esa OSIRIS camera true color image (during Rosetta's swing-by of Mars). Fun fact: although the diameter of Mars is about half that of Earth, the land area of Earth is similar to that of Mars.

Image of digital artwork. Mars on a black background.

060

Dr. Sarah Biddle Leslie (they/she) @extragalactic.bsky.social · 24/11/2023

This was a galaxy painting I did for my friend @JayJovianMusic 's birthday last year. Did you know it features in the music video for Jay Jovian’s first single “Flavours”!?

Photo of a canvas with a black background and a spiral galaxy painted in white, pink, yellow blue

070

Dr. Sarah Biddle Leslie (they/she) @extragalactic.bsky.social · 23/11/2023

Digit art inspired by MESSENGER probe images. #sciart #space #planet. Mercury's surface is covered in craters and rays from impact events and their ejecta because it is not geologically active and has almost no atmosphere, so the features are well preserved.

140

Dr. Sarah Biddle Leslie (they/she) @extragalactic.bsky.social · 22/11/2023

Lagoon Nebula - digital painting of a star forming region inspired by Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera 3 images taken in Feb 2018. #sciart #spacetoberchallenge

Image of digital artwork showing a colourful nebula

28717

Dr. Sarah Biddle Leslie (they/she) @extragalactic.bsky.social · 21/11/2023

Digital painting of the Sun! NASA's Solar Dynamic Observatory is observing the sun all the time, and you can see what it looks like: sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/ #sciart

Image of digital artwork of the sun. Black background, orange and red solar surface showing flares.

0231

Dr. Sarah Biddle Leslie (they/she) @extragalactic.bsky.social · 20/11/2023

#SpacetoberChallenge Prompt: pulsar. Digital painting of the pulsar wind nebula powered by the crab pulsar (orange star in the center). Image shows synchrotron emission traced by optical data from HST (red) and X-ray data from Chandra (blue).

170

Dr. Sarah Biddle Leslie (they/she) @extragalactic.bsky.social · 19/11/2023

My redbubble shop (AstroFashion) is a really easy way to get my digital designs printed on all kinds of cool things - mugs, stickers, tshirts, cushions (and I get a cut of the profit). Check it out: www.redbubble.com/pe...

000

Dr. Sarah Biddle Leslie (they/she) @extragalactic.bsky.social · 18/11/2023

I painted the Orion nebula on canvas last year. This bright stellar nursery can be seen with naked eyes or binoculars. I'm very fond of the constellation Orion because it is one I knew growing up in Australia that I can still see from Europe. #SpacetoberChallenge day 27: Orion

060

Dr. Sarah Biddle Leslie (they/she) @extragalactic.bsky.social · 17/11/2023

Venus #SpacetoberChallenge Day 23. Prompt: Planet(s). Image inspired by the Magellan Mission's radar cameras that chart the surface features, wrinkled due to volcanic activity. #digitalart #spaceart

050

Dr. Sarah Biddle Leslie (they/she) @extragalactic.bsky.social · 16/11/2023

Photo of a painting I did last year - the Butterfly Nebula (20cm canvas). The butterfly nebula (NGC 6302) lies roughly 3. 8 thousand light years away in the constellation Scorpius. #spacetober2023 #SpacetoberChallenge Prompt: Nebula 1/3

240

Dr. Sarah Biddle Leslie (they/she) @extragalactic.bsky.social · 15/11/2023

Day 17 prompt: New Horizons #SpacetoberChallenge #spacetober2023 New Horizons was the first spacecraft to explore Pluto and this art is based on its images.

020

Dr. Sarah Biddle Leslie (they/she) @extragalactic.bsky.social · 14/11/2023

M82 is a nearby starburst galaxy I wanted to paint for #SpacetoberChallenge Day 16's prompt: launch. In addition to optical, Ive included the infrared data (purple) and x-ray (orangey) showing areas of hot dust and very very hot gas being launched out of the disk by the wind. 1/2

271