Reposted by @renerpho.bsky.socialAndrew Jones @andrewjonesspace.bsky.social · 06/07/2026Tianwen-2 had arrived. Here's asteroid Kamo'oalewa seen from 20 km away www.xinhuanet.com/20260706/eb8... 422181
Reposted by @renerpho.bsky.socialastrafoxen @astrafoxen.bsky.social · 15/06/2026Last year I rewrote Wikipedia's article on Makemake and it's now featured on the front page!! i spent 2 months hyperfixating on this topic and doing all the research and writing. It was SO worth it :D Special thanks to @renerpho.bsky.social & others for reviewing it ^^ (1/12 thread) 🔭 #planetsci 58715
renerpho.bsky.social @renerpho.bsky.social · 08/05/2026A happy 100th birthday, David Attenborough. www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...theguardian.com‘The greatest ambassador for life on Earth’: Tributes paid to David Attenborough on his 100th birthdayNaturalist says he has been ‘overwhelmed by greetings’ as milestone is marked with event at Royal Albert Hall 000
Reposted by @renerpho.bsky.socialDavid Rankin @asteroiddave.bsky.social · 08/05/2026New update to CSS Orbit View. Major performance boost. Here is a demo showing 10,000 named Main Belt Asteroids (blue) along with ~2500 Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (purple) all running together in the browser. 🔭🧪 Instructions and files to make this at link: neofixer.arizona.edu/css-orbit-view 1265
Reposted by @renerpho.bsky.socialDavid Rankin @asteroiddave.bsky.social · 03/04/2026Short video showing them cruising across the night sky! 27423
renerpho.bsky.social @renerpho.bsky.social · 23/03/2026www.science.org/content/arti...science.orgEarth’s first major extinction was worse than we thoughtFossil finds suggest nearly 80% of life on Earth died some 550 million years ago 020
renerpho.bsky.social @renerpho.bsky.social · 03/03/2026Welcome back, Dianna! www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3m3...youtube.comMy first science video in 3 years!YouTube video by Physics Girl 010
renerpho.bsky.social @renerpho.bsky.social · 26/01/2026Getting some snow today in Marburg, Germany 000
Reposted by @renerpho.bsky.socialNovember Kelly @postoctobrist.bsky.social · 16/12/2025I beg your pardon 54103487
Reposted by @renerpho.bsky.socialDavid Rankin @asteroiddave.bsky.social · 11/12/2025Fun time doing and informal interview / discussion with Supercluster. Can read it here:supercluster.comInside the Daily Life of a Doomsday Asteroid HunterAs the Senior Operations Specialist at the Catalina Sky Survey, a NASA-funded planetary defense program that utilizes the telescopes atop the Santa Catalina Mountains, David Rankin spends hours lookin... 1123
Reposted by @renerpho.bsky.socialDavid Rankin @asteroiddave.bsky.social · 15/11/2025Had a lot of fun hanging out with Cleo Abram for her new Huge If True episode on planetary defense. Check it out! 🔭youtu.beHumanity’s Real Plan to Stop This Asteroid (Feat. Mark Rober)YouTube video by Cleo Abram 4245
renerpho.bsky.social @renerpho.bsky.social · 20/09/2025Our lightcurve of 2025 RL2 from last night shows that it is a fast rotator with a lightcurve amplitude of 0.7 mag. The asteroid is either tumbling with a main period of 4.36 minutes, or it has a complicated shape, resulting in a lightcurve with four peaks of different height and period 8.71 minutes. 020
Reposted by @renerpho.bsky.socialAstroArxiv @astroarxiv.bsky.social · 09/09/2025A preliminary orbit for the satellite of dwarf planet (136472) Makemake. Daniel Bamberger arxiv.org/abs/2509.05880 061
renerpho.bsky.social @renerpho.bsky.social · 20/08/2025Just did an interview with Frank Timmes for the AAS YouTube channel. I think it went really well! 🙂🧪🔭 We discussed our research note about resonances with Uranus (DOI 10.3847/2515-5172/aded08), and some future prospects. ✨ The video will come out in a few weeks at www.youtube.com/@AAStronomy/... 010
renerpho.bsky.social @renerpho.bsky.social · 14/08/2025I am proud to announce that Northolt Branch Observatories have been awarded a 2025 Shoemaker NEO Grant by The Planetary Society! 🎉🔭🌠 www.planetary.org/articles/202... 140
renerpho.bsky.social @renerpho.bsky.social · 14/08/2025I was reminded recently of some ideas a friend and I had for a paper, back in the days when 1I/'Oumuamua was discovered. There were already some interesting things floating around back then. Surely this stuff would get us into the New York Times nowadays. ⚗️💩🔭 000
renerpho.bsky.social @renerpho.bsky.social · 12/08/2025@keelingcurve.bsky.social This has just been announced by the International Astronomical Union. 🔭🧪✨ www.wgsbn-iau.org/files/Bullet... 082
renerpho.bsky.social @renerpho.bsky.social · 18/07/2025I did not expect that our research note would attract this much interest. Happy to see the result being shared around! www.universetoday.com/articles/sci...universetoday.comScientists Discover Uranus Has a Dancing PartnerHidden in the darkness between Uranus and Neptune, a team of astronomers have discovered a small world locked in a million year gravitational waltz with Uranus. The asteroid enjoying this celestial da... 010
renerpho.bsky.social @renerpho.bsky.social · 10/07/2025"Update: The DeTeCt project has announced that the flash was not seen in additional data, so there was no impact on Saturn." www.newscientist.com/article/2487... 000
Reposted by @renerpho.bsky.socialBrady Haran @bradyharan.bsky.social · 10/07/2025NEW VIDEO on an interstellar object hurtling through our solar system - youtu.be/VRHZUH0RcQ4 0203
renerpho.bsky.social @renerpho.bsky.social · 06/07/2025Marc Delcroix reports a potential impact in Saturn captured in a few frames in a video observation obtained by Mario Rana. The very short impact flash occurred on Saturn on July 5th 2025, between 09:00 and 09:15 UT. He's looking for other videos to confirm. See here: pvol2.ehu.eus/pvol2/news/v... 132
Reposted by @renerpho.bsky.socialDavid Rankin @asteroiddave.bsky.social · 02/07/2025FACT THREAD on New Interstellar Object #A11pl3Z This story unfolded pretty fast yesterday for a few reasons. The object was discovered on July 1st UTC by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System, or ATLAS team. A #NASA funded survey at the University of Hawaii. atlas.fallingstar.com 🔭🧪 8322155
renerpho.bsky.social @renerpho.bsky.social · 02/07/2025Some early reports about the candidate interstellar object A11pl3Z wrongly indicate that the object was discovered at Deep Random Survey (that's @astrafoxen.bsky.social , Sam Deen, me, and others). I want to clarify that the object was found at ATLAS, Chile. I'm sorry for the unintended confusion. 140
renerpho.bsky.social @renerpho.bsky.social · 02/07/2025Animation of the candidate interstellar object A11pl3Z passing through the inner Solar System. Close approaches to planets: Mars on 3 October 2025, at 0.187±0.003 au Jupiter on 16 March 2026, at 0.396±0.016 au Image credit: CSS, @asteroiddave.bsky.social 🔭 neofixer.arizona.edu/css-orbit-vi... 062
renerpho.bsky.social @renerpho.bsky.social · 02/07/2025Precovery observations of the new interstellar object A11pl3Z from I41 show that its eccentricity is a bit lower than originally thought, only 6 instead of 10. It's still by far the highest we have ever seen. @astrafoxen.bsky.social @asteroiddave.bsky.social 130
Reposted by @renerpho.bsky.socialastrafoxen @astrafoxen.bsky.social · 02/07/2025Here's our images of interstellar object #A11pl3Z from Deep Random Survey's 0.43-meter scope @ Chile. The telescope was following A11pl3Z's motion, so stars appear smeared. Weather got worse by the end, so still hard to tell if it's a comet. 600-sec exposures, from 2025 Jul 2, 00:42-01:23 UT 🔭☄️ 1317653
Reposted by @renerpho.bsky.socialastrafoxen @astrafoxen.bsky.social · 21/06/2025Hiya! Over the past few months I've been silently working on several astronomy projects. Here's what I've been up to lately! 🔭☄️🧪 1. I discovered a Kuiper belt object! (2013 CG269) 2. I'm coauthor of a brand new paper by @renerpho.bsky.social et al. on the rotation of asteroid Bradyharan! (1/11) 2313
Reposted by @renerpho.bsky.socialDr Robin George Andrews @squigglyvolcano.bsky.social · 02/06/2025NEW: Astronomers have long predicted that the Andromeda Galaxy will one day crash into the Milky Way. Well, good news, future time travellers: scientists now think that the pull of a small, nearby galaxy might just save our galactic bacon. Me for NatGeo www.nationalgeographic.com/science/arti...nationalgeographic.comWill the Milky Way crash into the Andromeda galaxy? Maybe not.Astronomers have long thought that the Milky Way is headed for a head-on crash with its neighbor, Andromeda. But a new study complicates the story. 1164
renerpho.bsky.social @renerpho.bsky.social · 31/05/2025Looking at what I said about the possible lunar impact of 2024 YR4 in 2032, I made some claims in early February about its potential brightness and visibility, which I no longer agree with in light of what we've learned about the asteroid. 100
renerpho.bsky.social @renerpho.bsky.social · 08/05/2025Official statement alright... Does the new pope count? 110
renerpho.bsky.social @renerpho.bsky.social · 29/04/2025On this day in 1945, US troops liberated Dachau concentration camp. My great-great-grandfather Hermann Willstumpf (1894-1958), a political prisoner since 1939, was being marched there from Straubing. The guards lost control around April 28, he escaped, and returned to his family weeks later. 000
renerpho.bsky.social @renerpho.bsky.social · 28/04/2025Useless astronomy fact: When you convert the characters in the names of 14400 Baudot and 850 Altona into unicode, you get 66, 97, 117, 100, 111, 116 65, 108, 116, 111, 110, 97 These have the same sum (607) and product (964456178400). This is the only non-trivial pair of asteroids with that property. 110
renerpho.bsky.social @renerpho.bsky.social · 26/04/2025A 4½-hour time lapse of asteroid (62701) Davidrankin @asteroiddave.bsky.social, recorded last night from Rio Hurtado, Chile. 🔭🌠 www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtTN...youtube.comAsteroid (62701) DavidrankinYouTube video by Daniel Bamberger 141
renerpho.bsky.social @renerpho.bsky.social · 18/04/2025Wikipedia's longest continuously featured article en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzanti... has just been demoted, after 23 years and 327 days. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikiped... 110
renerpho.bsky.social @renerpho.bsky.social · 18/04/2025This is glorious! Read the thread till the end for the full experience. 000
renerpho.bsky.social @renerpho.bsky.social · 16/04/2025Premiere in 5 minutes! www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOb2...youtube.comPlanetary Defenders (NASA+ Original)YouTube video by NASA 020
renerpho.bsky.social @renerpho.bsky.social · 14/04/2025A 4th known sednoid?! minorplanetcenter.net/mpec/K25/K25...minorplanetcenter.netMPEC 2025-G128 : 2023 KQ14We are the official body that deals with astrometric observations and orbits of minor planets (asteroids) and comets. 030
renerpho.bsky.social @renerpho.bsky.social · 09/04/2025Rest in peace Svetlana Gerasimenko (1945-2025) 000
Reposted by @renerpho.bsky.socialDavid Burbach 🇺🇸 @dburbach.bsky.social · 07/04/2025Prediction: US will now overinvest in Planetary Defense (i.e. against asteroid impacts) relative to its actual threat compared to climate and enviro monitoring. Shooting thing at space rock = cool and manly Know Earth biogeochemical systems to make better policy = woke and lame 5709
Reposted by @renerpho.bsky.socialDr Robin George Andrews @squigglyvolcano.bsky.social · 03/04/2025NEW: Have you ever wondered what lies beneath all of Antarctica's ice? Well, thanks to 70 years' worth of surveys, you can see! Take a look at this map: it reveals a hidden world of mountains and canyons not seen for 35 million years. Me @atlasobscura.com www.atlasobscura.com/articles/ant...atlasobscura.comThis Is the Most Detailed Map of Antarctica Ever MadeScientists compiled decades of data to reveal the continent hiding beneath millions of miles of ice. 311141
renerpho.bsky.social @renerpho.bsky.social · 19/03/2025Mein Artikel "Die ältesten Kirchenbücher des Amtes Battenberg" erscheint in den nächsten Tagen in der Märzausgabe der Hinterländer Geschichtsblätter. Ich gebe darin einen Überblick über neueste Erkenntnisse zur Geschichte der Pfarreien Battenberg, Battenfeld und Laisa. 110
renerpho.bsky.social @renerpho.bsky.social · 19/03/2025YouTuber asteroids All the asteroids that have been named after YouTubers, as of 17 March 2025 (including newly named Diannacowern, Tibees, and Timdodd). Image credit: Thumbnail: K. Ly Orbit animation created with CSSView (CSS, D. Rankin @asteroiddave.bsky.social ) www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIxE...youtube.comYouTuber asteroidsYouTube video by Daniel Bamberger 021
renerpho.bsky.social @renerpho.bsky.social · 18/03/2025To my knowledge, the naming of (429733) Gilbertbaker, a large Amor-type Near Earth asteroid, marks the first -- even indirect -- representation of the LGBTQ community in space. 1102
renerpho.bsky.social @renerpho.bsky.social · 18/03/2025Jakob Kaup is best known as the discoverer of Deinotherium, a prehistoric giant elephant. In the 1830s, his friend August Klipstein purchased a quarry in Eppelsheim, near Darmstadt, and invited Kaup to excavate with him. In 1835, they unearthed the first-ever Deinotherium skull. 110
renerpho.bsky.social @renerpho.bsky.social · 15/03/2025A friend took some images of "my" asteroid (128345) Danielbamberger in February, and sent me the raw data today. I turned it into a little animation. It's been a while since I've seen that rock! 😄🌠 Visible here at 21.3 mag. Images taken at Deep Random Survey, Chile (X09). 020
Reposted by @renerpho.bsky.socialCecily Rankin @cecrr.bsky.social · 27/01/2025I am so incredibly proud of David and everything he has achieved throughout his career. It was an honor to watch him take part in this NASA panel at the Sundance Film Festival. I can not wait for the documentary to premiere on NASA+ this spring. 0111
