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Matthias M. M. Meier

@matthiasmmmeier.com
3.2K followers 989 following 1.8K posts

Meteorites, Museums, Mars, Mountains and many more things. Meteoriticist, Noble Gaser, Space Nerd, Family Man. Director of Naturmuseum St. Gallen, Switzerland. Posts in English and German. Private account. 🇨🇭🇸🇪🇲🇫🇪🇺🇺🇦 orcid.org/0000-0002-7179-4173

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Reposted by Matthias M. M. Meier
heiseonline @heise.de · 2h
Wir müssen aufhören, das „außer Kontrolle“-Gefasel der KI-Firmen nachzuplappern. Die IT-Security-Risiken von KI liegen woanders, meint Sylvester Tremmel. #Künstliche Intelligenz
heise.de
Kommentar zu GPT-6.1 Astra: Die Nebelkerze der außer Kontrolle geratenen KI
Wir müssen aufhören, das „außer Kontrolle“-Gefasel der KI-Firmen nachzuplappern. Die IT-Security-Risiken von KI liegen woanders, meint Sylvester Tremmel.
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Matthias M. M. Meier @matthiasmmmeier.com · 5h
(if the androids are capable of doing that - are we talking "uploaded" human minds? Or remote-controlled, extension-of-a-human-mind "avatars"? Or something truely artificial and new?)
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Matthias M. M. Meier @matthiasmmmeier.com · 5h
Probably the same scientific questions that would guide human scientists: do a broad geologic survey, visit many places, get a deep understanding of that planet's history: how did it evolve and change through the eons? And of course: is there life there now, was there ever? (when? where? how?)
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SCNAT @scnat.ch · 5h
🏔️ Nearly 20% in five years. That's how much #glacier ice #Switzerland has lost since 2021 - with more than 5% disappearing in 2026 alone, according to @matthias-huss.bsky.social (GLAMOS & @vaw-glaciology.bsky.social) and @scnat.ch. Learn more here 👉 scnat.ch/en/id/Y6p3L #ClimateChange
Extent of ice loss at Konkordiaplatz on the Great Aletsch Glacier (VS) between 2022 and 2026. Photos: M. Huss / A. Linsbauer
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Matthias M. M. Meier @matthiasmmmeier.com · 29/09/2026
Sanghi et al. arxiv find a 8 M_J super-Jupiter around one of the stars of the nearby 61 Cygni AB system! Depending on the planets' orbit (5-11 a.u.), it might disrupt the habitable zone of that star. Which just means the Tellarites have to live on a planet orbiting the other star... 🪐😉🐷
arxiv.org
Worlds Next Door. V. A Candidate Solar System Scale Super-Jupiter in the 61 Cygni Binary System
We present new constraints on a candidate third companion in the 61 Cygni binary system-one of the closest neighbors to our solar system (3.5 pc), the first stars to have a measured parallax, and two ...
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Matthias M. M. Meier @matthiasmmmeier.com · 29/09/2026
Fun to explore while providing protection from radiation, micrometeorites and temperature swings. Plus, they might contain ices, too. Scientifically interesting ones even, as they would be undisturbed by impacts. How do up to 4.5 billion year old ice cores sound? 😉
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Matthias M. M. Meier @matthiasmmmeier.com · 28/09/2026
It's the combination of water ice and near eternal sunlight. But personally, I think we should aim for the big lava caves like the Marius Hills hole.
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Matthias M. M. Meier @matthiasmmmeier.com · 28/09/2026
Indeed. Bezos to the rescue? I don't believe it. If he loses that bet, the peaks of eternal light are China's.
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Matthias M. M. Meier @matthiasmmmeier.com · 28/09/2026
I think that is a real possibility. This entire development is *very* hardware rich, even for SpaceX. I think the US could have gone back to the Moon with Falcon Heavy instead, using with a Methalox upper stage. Instead, Musk bet big on Starship. He might still lose that bet!
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Matthias M. M. Meier @matthiasmmmeier.com · 28/09/2026
It's supposed be even more economical than Falcon (per kg), at least if it works as advertized. The marginal cost is driven by just fuel (+refurbishing), instead of fuel, refurbishing plus a full upper stage.
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Matthias M. M. Meier @matthiasmmmeier.com · 28/09/2026
In retrospect, the Shuttle was a design failure. Full reuse given up early on, large cross range required but never used, etc.
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Matthias M. M. Meier @matthiasmmmeier.com · 28/09/2026
Yes, sorry, I wasn't very clear. Even before Starlink, they had more than enough customers. More than the Russians and Ariane, for sure. So if they were not economical in that situation, no launch business would be.
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Matthias M. M. Meier @matthiasmmmeier.com · 28/09/2026
Of course we don't know if Starship is going to be economical. Thats still to be determined. The Shuttle wasn't, but it wasn't designed to be fully reusable either.
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Matthias M. M. Meier @matthiasmmmeier.com · 28/09/2026
Is there a non-(partially-)reuasable rocket that launched 400 times at lower cost? It is at least plausible that this was only possible because it was (is) economical.
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Matthias M. M. Meier @matthiasmmmeier.com · 28/09/2026
Starship isn't supposed to be a "big dumb booster". It's supposed to be a fully reusable and thus quite sophisticated big booster. Reusability is also the reason its engines are expensive...
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Matthias M. M. Meier @matthiasmmmeier.com · 28/09/2026
Agree on most of these failures, but I don't think you can count "exploding on landing" as a failure. I mean, what was it supposed to do? At some point after the engines turn off, it's going to topple over (it's floating in water, after all), and more often than not this will lead to an explosion.
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Matthias M. M. Meier @matthiasmmmeier.com · 27/09/2026
I wonder what the surface of such a body looks like after it leaves the atmosphere. Is it now wraped by a fusion-crust?
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Reposted by Matthias M. M. Meier
David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
The techbros don't want you to see this trailer. Pass it on.
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Adrienne Fichter @adfichter.eurosky.social · 23/09/2026
SPOT ON für das erste deutschsprachige Interview von @nohillside.ch und mir mit dem Deutschschweizer CEO (did you know this?) der @bsky.app: @toni.bsky.team 😎 Toni Schneider spricht über seine Vision für das Athmosphere-Ökosystem und welche Rolle die CH bei Bluesky spielt.. dnip.ch/2026/09/23/i...
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Matthias M. M. Meier @matthiasmmmeier.com · 24/09/2026
Einverstanden. Wobei ich die Abfolge "Million-Billion-Trillion-..." etc. ehrlich gesagt alltagstauglicher finde als den Hinkeschritt, mit dem wir da im Deutschen unterwegs sind.
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Matthias M. M. Meier @matthiasmmmeier.com · 23/09/2026
Indeed! It also fits with the high abundance of CI/CM/C-ung material among micrometeorites - the deceleration at greater heights and thus lower ram pressures allow for more fragile material to survive.
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Matthias M. M. Meier @matthiasmmmeier.com · 23/09/2026
You mean 200 km? The ISS is at 400 km above ground.
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Matthias M. M. Meier @matthiasmmmeier.com · 23/09/2026
Another thing to consider here is whether *any* life would even arise on these red dwarf planets. See Rimmer et al., 2018, on the "abiogenesis zone" that might need to coincide with the "habitable zone" for life to form and evolve.
science.org
The origin of RNA precursors on exoplanets
Researchers identify an “abiogenesis zone,” outside of which the building blocks of life cannot form photochemically.
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Matthias M. M. Meier @matthiasmmmeier.com · 23/09/2026
Of course, evolution isn't deterministic like that, but you get the general idea. Also, one of their "most advanced" planets, K2-3d, has too little mass to be a super-Earth and is likely a small sub-Neptune (R = 1.4 R_E, M < 2 M_E), not really habitable in the original sense.
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Matthias M. M. Meier @matthiasmmmeier.com · 23/09/2026
Interesting idea (Doughty et al., 2026): what if evolution was a direct function of total carbon fixated by photosynthesis? Then, using Earth's evolutionary history as a template, most potentially habitable planets around red dwarfs are still at the microbial stage....
doi.org
Calculating potential cumulative carbon fixed and evolutionary stage for Earthlike planets in our solar neighborhood | International Journal of Astrobiology | Cambridge Core
Calculating potential cumulative carbon fixed and evolutionary stage for Earthlike planets in our solar neighborhood - Volume 25
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Matthias M. M. Meier @matthiasmmmeier.com · 22/09/2026
...you can point to the fall statistics of meteorites with orbits and go: well, well, well... 😉😆🤔
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Matthias M. M. Meier @matthiasmmmeier.com · 22/09/2026
...of *all* classes of carbonaceous chondrite falls in the MetBull (56 / 1425 = ~4%)! We are just about now clearing small-number-statistics territory, where the difference starts to be significant. So next time you see someone claiming only about 4% of all falls are carbonaceous chondrites...
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Matthias M. M. Meier @matthiasmmmeier.com · 22/09/2026
...abundant than suggested by the MetBull fall statistics, and were not recovered as frequently in the time before all-sky-camera-networks (weathering?), the difference could be explained. Indeed, about 11% (7/61) of all falls with orbits are now CM or C-ung - more than double the fraction...
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Matthias M. M. Meier @matthiasmmmeier.com · 22/09/2026
...from the MetBull database. For example, if you compare the numbers, there are almost as many known C-ung falls as known CV and CO falls. But among the falls with orbits, not a single CV or CO so far - why? Statistically, this seems not very likely. But if CM and C-ung falls are actually more...
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Matthias M. M. Meier @matthiasmmmeier.com · 22/09/2026
I have added Hillsborough (CM1/2) to the list of meteorites with orbits at meteoriteorbits.info. ☄️🪐 In my short write-up of the update, I notice something interesting: CM and C-ungrouped meteorites now seem somewhat overrepresented among meteorites with orbits, compared with the fall statistics...
meteoriteorbits.info
Hillsborough – where are the other CCs? – Meteorite Orbits .info
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Reposted by Matthias M. M. Meier
Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
From @timnitgebru.blacksky.app and me on what we should take from the 2026 summer of AI hype: www.technologyreview.com/2026/09/22/1...
technologyreview.com
Don’t be fooled by this summer of AI hype
Breathless claims about AGI and new capabilities fall apart pretty quickly under scrutiny.
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Matthias M. M. Meier @matthiasmmmeier.com · 22/09/2026
+1 for that title... 😄
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Yvette Cendes @whereisyvette.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
If @science.org is covering it, I guess I should share something here- we have for the first time definitively detected radio emission from a planet around another star! 🔭🧪🎢 What does this mean? Details in thread! (But TL;DR- still not aliens) 🧵 www.sciencenews.org/article/exop...
sciencenews.org
First radio waves seen from an exoplanet hint at otherworldly auroras
The gas giant Beta Pictoris b, about 63 light-years away, has the mass of 10 Jupiters and a magnetic field thousands of times as strong as Earth’s.
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Matthias M. M. Meier @matthiasmmmeier.com · 20/09/2026
Since a jet engine uses only about a third of the energy in jet fuel, while almost all of the charge in the battery can be used by an electric engine, the difference is actually closer. One advantage of (all) planes is that they have a small ground footprint compared to roads or trains.
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Matthias M. M. Meier @matthiasmmmeier.com · 20/09/2026
So orange+unspotted (amaculata)? 😉
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Matthias M. M. Meier @matthiasmmmeier.com · 20/09/2026
How does the next new species differ from "X orange"?
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Prof. Stefan Rahmstorf @rahmstorf.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Sommer 2026: 16.000 Hitzetote 🥵 alleine in 🇩🇪. Dürre. Brände. 🤯 Die Bundesregierung subventioniert jetzt mit 2.500.000.000 € von unseren Steuergeldern die Ursache der Hitze: fossile Brennstoffe. Unfassbar. 🤯🤯🤯 Das meiste Geld landet dann wieder bei den Ölkonzernen, der Lobby gegen Klimaschutz.
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Matthias M. M. Meier @matthiasmmmeier.com · 16/09/2026
Perhaps one of them was so stellar it quickly evolved into a black hole. 😉
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heiseonline @heise.de · 15/09/2026
Seit Tagen wird wieder darüber debattiert, ob „KI“ zu gefährlich ist. Die Warnungen sind nicht neu und die Branche hat andere Interessen, kommentiert tante. #Künstliche Intelligenz
heise.de
Kommentar: Ach, die besorgten „KI“-Bros
Seit Tagen wird wieder darüber debattiert, ob „KI“ zu gefährlich ist. Die Warnungen sind nicht neu und die Branche hat andere Interessen, kommentiert tante.
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Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · 14/09/2026
Free newsletter: The idea that we're nearing the creation of AI systems that we can't control and that pose an existential threat to humanity is a lie and a distraction from the tangible harms and problems caused by LLMs and AI labs' near-unlimited resources. www.wheresyoured.at/ai-is-alread...
wheresyoured.at
https://www.wheresyoured.at/ai-is-already-in-dangerous-hands/
If you liked this piece, you should subscribe to my premium newsletter, and you can subscribe on the following links: $70 a year, $18 a quarter, or $7 a month. In return you get a weekly newsletter…
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Rêves d'espace @revesdespace.eurosky.social · 14/09/2026
🛰️ La mission EnVision de l'ESA pour Vénus est repoussée de 2031 à 2032. Le JPL de la NASA devait fournir VenSAR, le radar qui voit la surface à travers les nuages avec une résolution d'environ 10 mètres. Mais faute de moyens, il ne le construira pas. 1/2
Crédit ESA
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Matthias M. M. Meier @matthiasmmmeier.com · 14/09/2026
In other words: we should and could build research outposts there, but it's unlikely larger cities will be built on the Moon any time soon. Which, incidently, makes a lot of sense anyway.
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Matthias M. M. Meier @matthiasmmmeier.com · 14/09/2026
I think this finding will dramatically increase the expected number of interstellar ("free-floating") objects. In some estimates, that population is already about the same size as the bound population. This new finding then essentially doubles the number of expected free-floaters (at all masses)...
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Matthias M. M. Meier @matthiasmmmeier.com · 14/09/2026
Fascinating result. TL;DR: The planetary system will die with the sun! The "granualar" mass ejections of the dying sun (during the AGB phase) will lead to the total disruption of its planets orbits, with outer planets mostly ejected to interstellar space.
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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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Matthias M. M. Meier @matthiasmmmeier.com · 08/09/2026
Here's a link for today. #StarTrekDay #StarTrek #GeneRoddenberry #ItsGoingToBeOkay
theoatmeal.com
It's going to be okay. - The Oatmeal
This is a comic about a plane crash.
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Ruby Ryder ❌️👑 @rubyryder.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
This deserves to be shared again!
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Matthias M. M. Meier @matthiasmmmeier.com · 07/09/2026
In other words, we should be more worried about the volcanoes at the other end of their rebuild cycle...
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David Kipping @davidkipping.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
The most sensitive search for exomoons ever - moons 2.5x smaller than Europa are excluded! And around a temperate Earth-sized planet to boot. What’s really neat is that, for the first time, we can confidently say another Earth does not enjoy total Solar eclipses. arxiv.org/abs/2609.05301
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Dr Robin George Andrews @squigglyvolcano.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Quite enjoy getting this sort of alert. An asteroid has just been discovered before it’ll hit Earth! It’ll enter the atmosphere just northwest of Australia. (Don’t worry: it’s ~1m long, so it’ll just make a cool, brief fireball. We aren’t all about to die.)
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