iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Michael Busch

Nereide @drnereide.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Oct. 1, 1847, Nantucket (MA). That evening, 29-year-old #MariaMitchell went to the roof of their home above the Pacific Bank. With a small 2-inch telescope she spotted a fuzzy object 5° above Polaris, the North Star. It wasn't on the charts. It was moving. A telescopic #comet. 🔭🧪⚛️ #HistSci

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Michael Busch @michael-w-busch.bsky.social · 5h

There is a political affiliation quiz going around today. If it matches you to democratic socialism or social democracy, it suggests that you might like Michel Foucault. I am going to assume that the author of that quiz does not know what Foucault did.

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Reposted by Michael Busch

Jodrell Bank @jodrellbank.bsky.social · 7h

🚀 It's #WorldSpaceWeek! From tracking the earliest ventures beyond Earth to exploring the future of sustainable satellites through our exhibitions & collaborations with The University of Manchester researchers, Jodrell Bank remains connected to the past, present and future of space exploration

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Michael Busch @michael-w-busch.bsky.social · 9h

This launch pad would be built on solid bedrock, on an island that is currently going upwards faster than sea level is. For comparison to a certain spot in Louisiana. europeanspaceflight.com/norwegian-go...

europeanspaceflight.com

Norwegian Government Proposes Paying for Second Andøya Launch Pad

Norway plans to invest almost €60 million to fund the construction of a second orbital launch pad at the Andøya Spaceport.

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Michael Busch @michael-w-busch.bsky.social · 10h

My local newspaper relates a proposed "AI" policy for St. Paul Public Schools. It suggests that high school students use slop in place of search engines and pretends the text generators are "like a really smart study buddy". This is not at all okay, #SaintPaul.

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Reposted by Michael Busch

Taniel @taniel.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Voter registration deadlines are SUNDAY in Alaska, Rhode Island, South Carolina. And MONDAY in: Arizona, Arkansas Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Ohio, Tennessee, and *Texas*. If you live in these states, verify your registration now, literally.

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ProPublica @propublica.org · 03/10/2026

UPDATED: The Trump administration’s push for mass deportations has now resulted in more than 83,000 challenges in federal court from immigrants claiming their detention is illegal. We are continuing to track the increase in these cases:

projects.propublica.org

Tracking the Historic Rise of Habeas Cases Filed by Detained Immigrants

ProPublica is tracking the historic rise in challenges filed by immigrants claiming their detention is illegal.

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Reposted by Michael Busch

Astronomy Picture of the Day 🪐 @apod.shinyakato.dev · 03/10/2026

🔭 Selfie at Vera Rubin Ridge Credit: Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, MSSS - Panorama: Andrew Bodrov ap261003

Fisheye wide-angle image of the Curiosity rover on Mars.

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Reposted by Michael Busch

Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 03/10/2026

Killed. NSF’s SBE was killed, in violation of law. The President does not have the power to choose to kill programs at a whim by defunding them. The imperial presidency was a mistake and we are in a separation of powers constitutional crisis.

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Michael Busch @michael-w-busch.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Programmer: "The model takes the input text, breaks it into tokens, produces a probability vector, and draws randomly from it to output another token. It feeds that back as new input to generate more text." Self-identified "AI" fan: "How dare you call it a text generator!" That's an easy block.

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Reposted by Michael Busch

Hourly Cosmos @hourlycosmos.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Phobos over Mars - Timbuktu Crater and Aurorae Chaos - ESA Mars Express - From Andrea Luck (andrealuck.bsky.social) - flic.kr/p/2ofhAyW

Download full size image here: www.flickr.com/photos/192271236@N03/52670210462/sizes/o/

Video here: flic.kr/p/2ouEMag

Credit: ESA/DLR/FUBerlin/AndreaLuck

Map of the area: Map: maps.planet.fu-berlin.de/#map=8/-2402744.48/-394969.99

Colourised image created using data processed from archives.esac.esa.int/psa

Mission: ESA Mars Express
Orbit 17436
Instrument: HRSC
Time: 2017-10-09
Product ID: HH436_0000_S23

Credit: ESA/DLR/FUBerlin/AndreaLuck

Image used here: universemagazine.com/en/fated-phobos-photo/

Feel free to share, giving the appropriate credit and providing a link to the original image or tweet creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

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Reposted by Michael Busch

Casey Dreier @caseydreier.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

For the second fiscal year in a row, NASA awarded ~20% fewer grants than the recent historical average. That's about 500 fewer grants going out to scientists around the country.

Line chart showing the running sum of new grant awards in FY 2026 compared to the average between 2021-2025, which is about 20% higher.

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Michael Busch @michael-w-busch.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Yet again, USA: Require that Congress ensure that the executive branch operate as it has ordered; instead of anything like this. And require that it #ImpeachTrump and remove him & the people he appointed who are stealing funding wholesale.

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Reposted by Michael Busch

Dave Levitan @davelevitan.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

You're gonna need a bigger chart

Chart showing the daily sea surface temperature for the Nino region of the Pacific, with a red line for 2026 shooting off above every other year in record-setting territory, with the latest spot right at the top of the chart

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Planetary Crater Consortium @planetarycraters.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Crater Fact Friday ☄️ DID YOU KNOW ☄️ that Meteor Crater in Arizona is one of the best-preserved impact craters on Earth? During the 1960s and 1970s, NASA astronauts trained in the crater to prepare for the Apollo missions to the Moon, and ongoing field training for astronauts continues to this day.

Meteor Crater, Arizona in plan view. The crater is ~1 km across and slightly polygonal. Layers of exposed limestone and sandstone are visible just beneath the crater rim, as are large stone blocks excavated by the impact. From NASA Earth Observatory

Eugene Shoemaker training astronauts at Meteor Crater, Arizona, in the 1960s.

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Reposted by Michael Busch

Agata Rożek @agastro.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Paper day! It's not easy to fit all the science presented at a meeting as big as ACM in the word limit of a short report, but hey, we gave it a go! You can find the Nature Astronomy Meeting Report on Asteroids Comets Meteors 2026 here: rdcu.be/MvrGvwmXQsXa 🔭☄️🪨

An image provided by the publisher with the latest Nature Astronomy cover and the following text: "nature portfolio, Meeting Report, The 15th Asteroids Comets Meteors Conference. Springer Nature"

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Michael Busch @michael-w-busch.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Instead of this stunt; Jacob Frey could call for Congress to do its job, #ImpeachTrump, and remove him & those with him. But that the Twin Cities needs better mayors is not news. globalnews.ca/news/1208422...

globalnews.ca

U.S. mayors ask Canadians to reconsider U.S. travel boycott - Winnipeg | Globalnews.ca

Some American mayors are trying to encourage Canadians to reconsider boycotting travel across the border.

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Reposted by Michael Busch

SETI Institute @setiinstitute.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

#PPOD: A large new scar has appeared on the Moon. McGetchin crater formed sometime between April 11 and May 22, 2024, when an asteroid or comet roughly the size of a multi-story building slammed into the lunar surface. 🧪 🔭 🌕️

Fresh impact crater centered on a dark, heavily cratered lunar surface, with a bright radial ejecta blanket and streaks extending outward from the rim, indicating a relatively recent collision and surrounded by many smaller, older craters.

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Elizabeth Tasker @elizabethtasker.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

If you missed the Martian moons kick-off of the IAU 100 Hours of Astronomy 🔭, you can watch a recording of the live feed here (including me, how could you miss it?!)! 🛰️ Stacks of content on the JAXA Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission, which will launch on October 20 🚀🚀🚀

youtube.com

Mission: Mars. Unravelling the mysteries of the Solar System with MMX

YouTube video by IAU Office for Astronomy Outreach

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Reposted by Michael Busch

SETI Institute @setiinstitute.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

We know planets are common. But we still haven't found another planet quite like Earth. On Oct. 7, @aussiastronomer.bsky.social explores the past, present, and future of our hunt for Earth 2.0 at the next Silicon Valley Astronomy Lecture. 🧪 🔭 👩‍🔬 #bayarea www.seti.org/events/the-s...

seti.org

The Search for Earth 2.0: Why We Think It Exists, and How We’re Going to Find it

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Michael Busch @michael-w-busch.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

The JUICE mission. Now with a dramatic soundtrack.

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Reposted by Michael Busch

Minnesota Reformer @minnesotareformer.com · 01/10/2026

The family of Renee Good filed a pair of lawsuits against the federal government and top Trump administration officials Thursday morning, seeking compensation and a trial to determine the liability of several federal officials in Good’s killing.

minnesotareformer.com

Family of Renee Good sues federal government, Trump officials over killing • Minnesota Reformer

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Michael Busch @michael-w-busch.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

#TeamRadar (2015 TB145 does not actually look that much like a skull. This was an effect of the peculiarities of delay-Doppler images.)

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Michael Busch @michael-w-busch.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

"As the Government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion, ..." Congress needs to #ImpeachHegseth for his being a Christian supremacist along with all of his other offenses.

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Reposted by Michael Busch

ESA en español @es.esa.int · 20/09/2026

🦕☄️ Los dinosaurios se extinguieron por el impacto de un asteroide. Ellos no tenían una agencia... ¡nosotros sí! Por eso la misión Hera de la ESA tiene un dinosaurio como mascota. Ayúdanos a ponerle nombre y podrás ganar una plaza para la llegada de Hera en noviembre 🚀 www.esa.int/Space_Safety...

esa.int

Name our dino – ESA’s Hera asteroid mission mascot!

The European Space Agency’s Hera asteroid mission for planetary defence has a cartoon dinosaur for its mascot – because dinos were made extinct after an asteroid impact, but while they didn't have a…

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Reposted by Michael Busch

Sahan Journal @sahanjournal.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

The suit against the federal government and a second lawsuit filed Thursday allege federal agents violated Good’s constitutional rights and DHS policies, and conspired to deny equal protection to Somali and Hispanic people.

sahanjournal.com

Lawsuit over Renee Good’s killing names ICE agent, Miller, Noem

Renee Good’s family filed two lawsuits Thursday alleging federal agents violated Good’s constitutional rights and DHS policies, and conspired to deny equal protection to Somali and Hispanic people.

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Michael Busch @michael-w-busch.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Thanks go to the unwelcoming committee. And, yet again, USA: #UnpackTheCourts

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Reposted by Michael Busch

Emily Hunt @emily.space · 01/10/2026

Great to see in this bumper review of the LMC & SMC ditch the pointlessly colonial language that we have for the Milky Way's two nearest neighbours. arxiv.org/abs/2609.38277 Magellan had *nothing* to do with discovering them, and they were known to indigenous communities for millennia. 🔭☄️

1.1 Historical context: the cranes of the southern night sky

The two nearest star forming galaxies to the Milky Way are readily observable to the naked eye in the southern hemisphere. Consequently, these two galaxies have been known to humans, since there have been humans in those regions of the planet. Just like today, the origin and purpose/meaning behind their presence have been the subject of discussion and conjecture, as reflected in the mythology of most civilizations in the Southern Hemisphere. For example, the Mapuche people of Chile referred to these objects as “water ponds” (Rüganko or Menoko). The Clouds also feature in the oral histories of most Aboriginal groups in Australia. For example, in the Lower Murray they are known as Prolggi, which has been translated as “Cranes”.

The earliest written records of the Clouds are possibly traced to the work of Persian astronomer Abd-al-Rahman al-Sufi (around 964 AD) in his treatise Kit¯ab suwar al-kaw¯akib (“The Book of Fixed Stars”). In western astronomy, these galaxies have been known collectively as the Magellanic Clouds, and individually as the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), for the larger of the two, and the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), for the smaller. The term “Magellanic” for the Large and Small Cloud was not coined by Magellan himself or his chronicler, and Magellan did not directly refer to the LMC and SMC themselves in his writings (Dennefeld 2020).

In this review, we will refer to these two galaxies collectively as “the Clouds” and separately as the LMC and SMC. As a field, Astronomy must adopt naming conventions thoughtfully and be ready to modify historical precedent (de los Reyes M 2023). As with the story of our understanding of the dynamics of the Clouds themselves, conventional wisdom cannot dictate modern astrophysical discourse. If we wish to advance our physical understanding of the universe, we must build an inclusive community that can support and sustain a diversity of scholars who will…

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Reposted by Michael Busch

Hourly Cosmos @hourlycosmos.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Saturn: July 2, 2014 - From Val Klavans (valklavans.bsky.social) - flic.kr/p/nWLXBi

This is a true color view of Saturn. Saturn's north polar hexagon stands out prominently while the rings encircle the planet.

This composite is made of images that were taken by Cassini's camera system, the Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) on July 02, 2014 and received on Earth July 03, 2014. The camera was pointing toward SATURN at approximately 1,815,382 miles (2,921,574 kilometers) away, and the images were taken using the red, green, and blue filters.

Credit: NASA / JPL / SSI / Val Klavans
about.me/valerieklavans

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Michael Busch @michael-w-busch.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Yet again, USA: #AbolishTheDeathPenalty everywhere in this country. And #UnpackTheCourts of the illegitimate extremists who are abusing their positions to ensure that people are tortured and killed.

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Michael Busch @michael-w-busch.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

For the space lawyers: Is this something that the NASA Administrator actually has the authority to do? And, yet again: Jared Isaacman should not be NASA Administrator. (Also, no, there is not now any "push for human exploration of Mars". There is only vaporware.)

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Mara 👻 aBOOlish I.C.E. @mauratwit.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

How’s that recall petition going, St Paul?

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European Space History @eurospacehistory.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

#OnThisDay 🔟 years ago, 30 September 2016, ESA's Rosetta mission ended with a landing on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, 12 years after its journey started 🧪🔭 @esa.int @science.esa.int @cnes.fr @dlr-de.bsky.social @operations.esa.int #Space #History #SpaceHistory

The picture shows an artist's impression of the Rosetta lander on the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

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Reposted by Michael Busch

Taniel @taniel.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Other states besides Texas with voter registration deadlines over the next 7 days: Arkansas, Arizona, Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Indiana , Kentucky, Mississippi, Ohio, Rhode Island, Tennessee, South Carolina.

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Hourly Cosmos @hourlycosmos.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Jupiter - Impact of comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 - NASA ESA Hubble Space Telescope - From Andrea Luck (andrealuck.bsky.social) - flic.kr/p/2p29ViC

Credit:
Raw data: NASA/ESA/STScI/Alex Storrs
Image processing: Andrea Luck

Image created processing data from: mast.stsci.edu/

Hubble Space Telescope observations of the collision of comet Shoemaker-Levy with the planet Jupiter.
Target Name: JUPITER-WF
Instrument: WFPC2/WFC
Proposal ID: 5642 Alex Storrs archive.stsci.edu/proposal_search.php?mission=hst&id=...
Time: 1994-07-17 17:06:16, 17:09:16, 17:12:16
Observation ID: u2fi0h04t, u2fi0h04t, u2fi0h06t
Filters used: F547M, F410M, F336W

Credits:
Raw Data: NASA/ESA/STScI/Alex Storrs
Image Processing: Andrea Luck

Feel free to share, giving the appropriate credit and providing a link to the original image or tweet: creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

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Michael Busch @michael-w-busch.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Yet again, USA: Do not allow this or anything like it. And require that Congress block it, #UnpackTheCourts, and #ImpeachTrump.

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Hourly Cosmos @hourlycosmos.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

AM 1229-512 - From Judy Schmidt (geckzilla.bsky.social) - flic.kr/p/2f7WRGY

A super faint edge-on disk galaxy, and somewhat of an enigma. How it formed like this and how its frontal morphology might appear are subject to speculation, but chances are if we saw it from a sufficiently inclined vantage point, it would be practically invisible beyond its nucleus, assuming what we see is spread out fairly evenly along the disk and not concentrated along some very skinny arms.

Anyway, I'm happy to simply enjoy yet another wonderful variation that nature has given us.

HST Proposal:
Establishing HST's Low Redshift Archive of Interacting Systems

All channels: ACS/WFC F606W

North is 16.50° counter-clockwise from up.

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Reposted by Michael Busch

Astronomy Picture of the Day 🪐 @apod.shinyakato.dev · 29/09/2026

🔭 Sh2-188: The Shrimp Nebula Image Credit & Copyright: Pawel Piechnik ap260929

A starfield has a bright pink swirling nebula
in it. The top part of the nebula shows much detail,
while the bottom part is mostly open.
Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

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Reposted by Michael Busch

Eos @eos.org · 29/09/2026

NASA has ignored recommended funding levels for planetary research & analysis for 15 years, according to a new investigative report by Mark Sykes (@coop.planetary-research.org). And for FY2025, it hasn’t even spent 50% of what it budgeted for R&A. 🧪🪐🔭 eos.org/research-and...

eos.org

NASA has Underspent on Research and Analysis for 15 Years - Eos

Spending for NASA’s research and analysis programs has remained relatively flat for 15 years, ignoring recommendations from community-led decadal surveys and directives by Congress.

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Michael Busch @michael-w-busch.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Per @chanda.blacksky.app: I would like it if scientists did not refer to their machine learning projects as "AI". Because it takes me a while to read through a paper and confirm that it is not about using text generator slop in place of actual science.

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