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Prof Anna Watts

@profannawatts.bsky.social
10K followers 517 following 910 posts

Professor of Astrophysics @ Univ. of Amsterdam. Neutron stars, pulsars, dense matter, X-ray astronomy. Mom, Migrant. "Particles in stars blah blah". Does science with NICER on the International Space Station and schemes for EVEN BIGGER SPACE TELESCOPES.

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Prof Anna Watts @profannawatts.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
The dark side of college reunions - the sleazy ex. TW - Sexual harassment
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Prof Anna Watts @profannawatts.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Do not mess with the door.
Poster on the door of a library reading room  that says Allow the door to open *fully* before moving towards it
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Prof Anna Watts @profannawatts.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Genuinely picked the worst weekend imaginable for a trip. I have so much to do that I couldn't do it even if I pulled a full caffeine powered no sleep weekend-o-work. HOW AM I STILL GETTING INTO THESE DEADLINE CRISES AT MY AGE?
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Prof Anna Watts @profannawatts.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
The Els Koffemann postdoctoral fellowship, offered by my colleagues at our Institute of Physics, is accepting applications. academicjobsonline.org/ajo/fellowsh...
academicjobsonline.org
University of Amsterdam, Institute of Physics, Diversity and Inclusion Council
Job #AJO32465, Els Koffeman Postdoctoral Fellowship in Physics at the University of Amsterdam, Institute of Physics, Diversity and Inclusion Council, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Noord-Holland...
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Prof Anna Watts @profannawatts.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Managed to get Rocky from Project Hail Mary into my lecture on the triple alpha reaction. #MissionAccomplished
static.klipy.com
Rocky Project Hail Mary Rocky Phm
Alt: Rocky Project Hail Mary, Rocky dancing
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CosmicRami 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @rami.spaceaustralia.com · 18/09/2026
I'm finally so excited to share this! My second PhD paper, and what I've spent the last year working on ... We've discovered not one, BUT TWO, profile change events on the closest and brightest millisecond pulsar (MSP) to Earth! www.spaceaustralia.com/feature/disc... Let's jump ito a 🧵👇 🔭📡
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Prof Anna Watts @profannawatts.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
"Activists" Jeez Louise, but this is way, way beyond activism.
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Prof Anna Watts @profannawatts.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Read @chanda.blacksky.app 's summary of our new paper! I would never in a zillion years have imagined writing a paper with dark energy in the title (although mind you I said that about dark matter too 👀). But great collaborators can haul you in all kinds of fun and unexpected directions!
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Prof Anna Watts @profannawatts.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
I almost made a flippant remark about it being Russians or farmers when the news of sabotage across the Dutch rail network broke. But I didn't think the farmers were crazy enough to put the lives of rail travellers at risk. Now the Farmers Defence Force is hinting that they were involved.
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Prof Anna Watts @profannawatts.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Cool paper from @rami.spaceaustralia.com and collaborators on one of our favourite millisecond pulsars doing some funky stuff in the radio! (it appears to be boring in a good way in the X-ray, thankfully...) arxiv.org/abs/2609.15263
arxiv.org
Discovery of Two Consecutive Profile Change Events in the Millisecond Pulsar PSR J0437-4715
The closest and brightest millisecond pulsar (MSP), PSR J0437-4715, is a high-priority pulsar for precision timing experiments, including the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array (PPTA) project, where it is use...
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Prof Anna Watts @profannawatts.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
I had forgotten how utterly weird and wonderful the Rocky Horror Picture Show is. Earworm anyone? It's just a jump to the left...
static.klipy.com
Rocky Horror: Let's Do The Time Warp Again!
Alt: Rocky Horror: Let's Do The Time Warp Again! A line of people in suits are timewarping in a ballroom.
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Matt Steinglass @mattsteinglass.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
On 9/11 reports circulated that in Ede Moroccan-Dutch kids celebrated the attacks. They were false. Strong interview with a teacher and community leader who fought polarization for 25 years and is now exhausted.
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Ionica Smeets @ionica.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 11/09/2026
'Het nieuwe bewijs van OpenAI heeft naar schatting 22,5 miljoen dollar aan rekenkracht gekost. Daarvan had je Andrew Wiles zo’n 225 jaar kunnen inhuren. Of, realistischer, dertig wiskundigen van het kaliber Andrew Wiles voor zeven jaar.' [DPG] www.volkskrant.nl/cs-b44c3da4
myprivacy.dpgmedia.nl
DPG Media Privacy Gate
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Anton Pannekoek Institute for Astronomy @api.uva.nl · 10/09/2026
Teaser voor de lezing van @profannawatts.bsky.social volgende week vrijdag. Toegang gratis! Tickets via pretix.eu/API/Lecture9... 🔭
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Anton Pannekoek Institute for Astronomy @api.uva.nl · 09/09/2026
On Friday September 18, @profannawatts.bsky.social will be giving a free public lecture! The title is Six Decades of Neutron Stars. More info & abstract at api.uva.nl/nl/content/e... Where: Science Park 904, Amsterdam Time: 19:00 Tickets: pretix.eu/API/Lecture9...
pretix.eu
Lecture: Six Decades of Neutron Stars
Fri, Sept. 18, 2026
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Prof Anna Watts @profannawatts.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Join us! We are advertising not one but TWO new observation-oriented tenure track faculty positions, in the areas of massive stars/compact binaries and exoplanets. Links in thread! [Genuine footage from our staff meetings, seen below]
static.klipy.com
Avengers Assemble with Thor
Alt: Avengers Assemble - camera pans around the Avengers on a New York (?) street. Thor chairs the staff meeting.
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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 04/09/2026
In the latest round of pass the harasser, this Professor slept with students and now is moving into a leadership role at Arizona State University 🧪 #metoo madison.com/news/local/e...
madison.com
Records: UW-Madison professor engaged in sex with students, exploited 'power imbalance'
The records were released in response to a request from the Wisconsin State Journal.
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Dr Shanika Galaudage @astronerdika.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Celebrating this chonky neutron star by adding it to my "How dense are neutron stars?" notebook. Find out what volume of this neutron star weighs as much as all of humanity on Earth right now! shanikagalaudage.github.io/scicomm-outr... Spoiler: it's tiny!
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Prof Anna Watts @profannawatts.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Day 1 of teaching - invest in new train card. Day 2 of teaching - trains are already borked 🙄😭 Day 3 - now planning to leave home at 6am to make sure I'm there in time to teach at 9. Oh yes and next week train strikes.
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Prof Anna Watts @profannawatts.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
New NICER pulsar radius from the X-PSI team! For the gloriously chunky 1.9 solar mass pulsar PSR J1614-2230. Led by Lucien Mauviard, a finishing PhD student in Seb Guillot's group in Toulouse. #highenergyastro 🔭🧪 arxiv.org/abs/2609.00172
arxiv.org
A NICER view of PSR J1614$-$2230: a massive and compact millisecond pulsar
Using pulse profile modeling, we obtain the mass-radius measurement of a millisecond pulsar (MSP) with data from the Neutron Star Interior Composition ExploreR, XMM-Newton and the Chandra X-ray Observ...
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Prof Anna Watts @profannawatts.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Would like to thank the cat's laser like focus on the kickboard under the dishwasher for finally alerting his humans to mousey shenanigans in the adjoining cupboard.
static.klipy.com
Black Cat's Intense Stare
Alt: Black Cat's Intense Stare
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Prof Anna Watts @profannawatts.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Go Nancy GR! 🚀
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Prof Anna Watts @profannawatts.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Very excited for this! I still have the Lego City caravan set in which my kids, when younger, sent Lego Nancy GR off with Lego Batman. 🔭💖🦇
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Prof Anna Watts @profannawatts.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Kids head back to school next week, the oldest without any books for VWO5 physics because school book supplier Van Dijk has "run out". 🙄
static.klipy.com
Tom Hiddleston's Loki: You Had One Job
Alt: Tom Hiddleston's Loki: You Had One Job
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Prof Anna Watts @profannawatts.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
And a little bit of applied physics history - the #ballycastle Marconi memorial! It's a rock pile in a carpark (why? 🤷‍♀️) but we do not let this detract from the technical achievement....
Black granite plaque inscribed "Marconi memorial.  Unveiled by John McAfee, Chairman of Ballycastle Urban District Council on 6th July 1973. To recall the historic occasion in 1898 when Marchese Marconi and his assistant George Kemp established wireless communication with Raithlin to report to Lloyds station at Torr Head on ships passing along the north coast of the island."The entire monument. The plaque is at the base of a large rock stack. Weirdly located on a car park.
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Prof Anna Watts @profannawatts.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Couldn't really skip this one, could I?! Astronomically excellent baked goods 🤩 #ballycastle
Shop front sign of the Ursa Minor bakery
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Prof Anna Watts @profannawatts.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
All group app chats with female friends this morning can be summarized as "Noooo, not Dolly?". The lady was, and always will be, a Queen.
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Prof Anna Watts @profannawatts.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Email van de PRO adviescommissie net gelezen. Het is zeker niet overtuigend. 👀 #kiesgroen 💚
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Prof Anna Watts @profannawatts.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
😱 www.science.org/content/arti...
science.org
Arson attack jolts Italy’s bid to host the Einstein Telescope
Two scientists' cars were burned at the proposed Sardinian site, in what researchers say was an attempt to intimidate supporters of the gravitational-wave observatory
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Prof Anna Watts @profannawatts.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
The year is 2026, and we are still having to point out that it is not OK to discuss women you find hot in a conference talk.
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Alexandra Witze @alexwitze.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
The Swift re-boost mission has failed. www.nasa.gov/news-release...
nasa.gov
NASA Updates Next Steps for Commercial Swift Boost Mission - NASA
Due to an ongoing commercial spacecraft attitude control issue, NASA and Katalyst Space announced Wednesday the LINK spacecraft will not capture or boost an
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Prof Anna Watts @profannawatts.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Up early and heading to Helsinki for Strong and Electroweak Matter!
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Prof Anna Watts @profannawatts.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
Trying to prepare course materials and the cat has just arrived. He is now staring pointedly my mug, waiting for me to leave the laptop and fill it for him SO THAT HE CAN DRINK FROM A PROPER RECEPTACLE. #priorities
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Achterhoeker gewoon Normaal 😉 @antonius007.eurosky.social · 06/08/2026
Vrouw blokkeert trekker bij boerenprotest in Apeldoorn www.gelderlander.nl/video/produc... Held! Het kan dus wel. Stop die maffia Boeren en piassen van de Agro industrie.
gelderlander.nl
Vrouw blokkeert trekker bij boerenprotest in Apeldoorn
Vrouw blokkeert trekker bij boerenprotest in Apeldoorn.
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Nadine Batchelor-Hunt @nadinebh.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
No, that is not the alternative The alternative was treating like a normal news story, and not a trial by media - one that was so clearly turbocharged by Arday’s ethnic and social background and the growing resentment in the establishment in the UK of having more black people in high places
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Prof Anna Watts @profannawatts.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Planning is great, unless it depends on other people actually sticking to agreements. Then it is utterly flipping pointless.
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Jonathan O'Callaghan @astrojonny.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
I'm back! With an article! A mission to boost NASA's Swift telescope looked to be doomed, but is now back on track. Now the race is on to save Swift, currently in "superman mode" to lessen atmospheric drag. Story by me in New Scientist www.newscientist.com/article/2584...
newscientist.com
Mission to save NASA telescope back on track after loss of control | New Scientist
Katalyst’s LINK spacecraft might still be able to save NASA’s ailing Swift telescope from doom, despite a significant mishap
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Prof Anna Watts @profannawatts.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Do note that the Sun will still be very bright even at the maximum ~90% coverage during this evening's partial eclipse in the Netherlands. Do not, under any circumstances, look directly at the Sun without proper eclipse glasses! You'll do irreparable damage to your eyes.
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Prof Anna Watts @profannawatts.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
The lecture by Elise Koo is indeed sold out, but we'll be outside the OBA library with eclipse glasses and telescopes!
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Prof Anna Watts @profannawatts.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
De lezing van Elise Koo is uitverkocht, maar we staan ook buiten de OBA met eclipsbrillen en telescopen!
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Prof Anna Watts @profannawatts.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
Gelderse natuur moet verder knielen voor de landbouw, onder leiding van de BBB www.volkskrant.nl/binnenland/g...
volkskrant.nl
Gelderse natuur moet verder knielen voor de landbouw, onder leiding van de BBB
Kleine natuurgebieden in Gelderland werden na verkoop nogal eens omgezet naar agrarische gronden, ontdekte de Volkskrant. De provincie wil nu een stap verder gaan door de bescherming van deze snippers...
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Sandra de Haan @sandradehaan.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
Kleine natuurgebiedjes in Gelderland werden na verkoop nogal eens omgezet naar agrarische gronden. De provincie wil nu de bescherming van dit soort snippertjes natuur opheffen. 😟 ‘Zo verdwijnen de laatst overgebleven leefgebiedjes voor veel dieren.’ www.volkskrant.nl/binnenland/h...
volkskrant.nl
Hoe de Betuwse bosjes sluipenderwijs uit het landschap verdwijnen
Kleine natuurgebiedjes in Gelderland werden na verkoop nogal eens omgezet naar agrarische gronden, ontdekte de Volkskrant. De provincie wil nu een stap verder gaan door de bescherming van dit soort sn...
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Prof Anna Watts @profannawatts.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Vacation reading spree is underway. Already through the Kindom Trilogy by @dr-bethany-jacobs.bsky.social . Very, very good! Some fantastic characters and an interplanetary society that sucked me right in.
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DutchSpace @dutchspace.eurosky.social · 29/07/2026
Not such a good update, LINK currently in a multi-axis spin due to reaction wheels and cold gas thruster issues, teams working to recover science.nasa.gov/blogs/swift/...
science.nasa.gov
Commissioning Update for Spacecraft to Boost NASA’s Swift - NASA Science
Over the weekend, Katalyst’s LINK servicing spacecraft experienced issues with attitude control.
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Royal Astronomical Society @royalastrosoc.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
We are saddened to hear of the death of Professor Ralph A.M.J. Wijers, who was a member of the Editorial Board of Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Read more about Professor Wijers' career here: ras.ac.uk/news-and-pre...
Professor Ralph A.M.J. Wijers.
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Prof Anna Watts @profannawatts.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
For this to be one of the first actions of a northern Prime Minister is quite something. Jodrell Bank is a British national treasure, but for people from the region (including this former Bradford schoolgirl) it was and still is pure northern inspirational science gold. C'mon Andy. Sort it out.
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Inge Stolkenburg @ingestolkenburg.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Boeren willen geen duidelijkheid. Boeren willen hun zin, zoals ze al vijftig jaar gewend zijn. nos.nl/l/2623913
nos.nl
Ongeruste boeren bijeen over stikstofplannen: 'We zijn bereid tot actie'
Boerenactiegroep Agractie ziet de onrust onder boeren over de stikstofplannen toenemen. Ze willen duidelijkheid,
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Prof Anna Watts @profannawatts.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
The Universe has lost a mighty force. Farewell to a dear friend, wonderful scientist, and excellent co-conspirator. www.astronomie.nl/nieuws/en/in...
astronomie.nl
In memoriam Ralph Wijers, astrophysicist (1964–2026)
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Prof Anna Watts @profannawatts.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Genuinely a bit done with everything.
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Prof Anna Watts @profannawatts.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Fab. Something to look forward to in the new semester, attempting to get to the University to teach while the FNV once again shuts down the rail network.😭 nos.nl/artikel/2623...
nos.nl
FNV kondigt voor september weer stakingen en acties aan om sociale zekerheid
De vakbond protesteert tegen de bezuinigingen op de WW en de WIA. Een spoorstaking gaat volgens voorzitter Spekman 24 uur duren.
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