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Blue the Science Dude

@science-dude.bsky.social
551 followers 191 following 413 posts

Storyteller of science, Irish banjo player, and defender of reason and equality. Currently planning First Light Con: www.firstlightcon.org

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Blue the Science Dude @science-dude.bsky.social · 10h
Our Moon formed ~4.5 billion years ago when a Mars-size object slammed into the young Earth, blasting a hundred-billion-trillion kilograms of debris into space. About 1/3 of that formed a ring that coalesed into our Moon. JWST is hunting for similar smash-ups. 🔭🧪 iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3...
The types of collisions within young stellar systems known as extreme debris disks are relevant to scientists’ understanding of our own solar system, which is thought to have undergone similar impact events that created our Moon and shaped Earth’s initial state.
Artwork: NASA, ESA, CSA, Joseph Olmsted (STScI)
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Blue the Science Dude @science-dude.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
It's spooky season! (Went to Howl-o-scream last night). Reminded me WHY we, as humans, seek out the paradoxical thrill of being scared. Revisiting a podcast I did on "Playing with Fear!"🧪😱👻 From ghosties and ghoulies... psychologicalscience.podbean.com/e/playing-wi...
psychologicalscience.podbean.com
Playing With Fear: Haunted Houses and Recreation | Under the Cortex
Haunted houses, horror movies, and ghost stories can provoke chilling delights, provided the fear they evoke remains in a “Goldilocks zone” that is neither too terrifying nor too tame. New research co...
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Blue the Science Dude @science-dude.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Science fiction suggests that life on other planets, if it exists, is likely far more advanced than life on Earth. Or not. A recent study suggests life on an Earth-like planet near us is probably stuck at the microbial stage. #seti #astrobiology I agree. 🧪🔭 👽🛸 www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
The TRAPPIST-1 star system compared with the inner portion of our star system. -- NASA
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Blue the Science Dude @science-dude.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
About 20 years ago while working for TMT, I touted the Fantasitc capabilities of this ginormous telescope, the only next gen of its kind planned for the northern hemisphere. It has yet to break ground; once promising La Palma site has hit roadblock. [I need a belt.] 🔭🧪 www.iac.es/en/outreach/...
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Blue the Science Dude @science-dude.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Talk to your doctor... and your AI Doctor Bot. Vocal hallmarks of depression and conditions like Parkinson or Alzheimer could be sussed out by machine learning to assist (not replace) clinician screening. 🧪⚕️https://www.jmir.org/2026/1/e111088
Speech and Voice, G. Oscar Russell, 1931 Wellcome L0030498.jpg
Diagram illustrating the soprano voice.

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Blue the Science Dude @science-dude.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Working from home isn't all wine and roses. (You choose your breakfast, I'll choose mine.) 🍷 Though you get about an extra 15 minutes of sleep each night, you also spend an extra 45 minutes sitting. That adds up! Stay active, my science-keen colleauges! 🧪🚴‍♀️ www.utu.fi/en/news/pres...
utu.fi
Remote work increases sleep and reduces physical activity—sedentary behaviour can increase by 45 minutes
According to a new study from the University of Turku, people sleep slightly longer when they work from home.
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Blue the Science Dude @science-dude.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
It’s not all gloom and doom, since we won’t be around to see it. Actually, life on Earth may only have a billion years or so; solar heating will evaporate the oceans stopping plate tectonics. Earth will become a Venus-like world with a dead, scorching surface. 🧪🔭 I’m just a ray of sunshine!🌞
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Blue the Science Dude @science-dude.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
The ICONIC Very Large Array will be in D configuration (most compact) during VLA Open House on October 10! Be there!🔭🧪📡 🔗 nraoepo.ticketapp.org/portal/produ... 📸 NSF/AUI/NSF NRAO/J.Hellerman
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Blue the Science Dude @science-dude.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Some of the news stories from the past week you may have overlooked. Thanks @newswise.bsky.social! medium.com/@ceblue65/fa...
medium.com
Fast Facts! Science News of the Week
Young Healthy(?) Drinkers: Science Finds Risk Factors; Fetal Alcohol Disorder: Stresses Caregivers, Especially Women; Flu Shots Also Convey…
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Blue the Science Dude @science-dude.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Double-slit milestone! [10nm-stone?] Top: Classic demonstration of particles behaving as waves.🧪 Bottom: Column of atoms a mere 10nm long acts like double slit, producing interference patterns at incredibly small scale. Bakes my noodle. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
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Blue the Science Dude @science-dude.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
The mass of 5000 Milky-Way-size galaxies condensed into one galactic supercluster “progenitor.” 🧪🔭 Their light began its journey 2.1 billion years ago: ergo, most distant proto-supercluster ever observed! noirlab.edu/public/news/...
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Blue the Science Dude @science-dude.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
@noisyastronomer.com @brettmcguire.bsky.social @science-dude.bsky.social talking radio astronomy at #dragoncon - from ngVLA to @almaobservatory.bsky.social & all things @thenrao.bsky.social and beyond. The invisible universe is amazing!! 🧪🔭
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Blue the Science Dude @science-dude.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Amaze! Amaze! Amaze!!!
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Blue the Science Dude @science-dude.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Has been amazing! Talked Project Hail Mary, Artemis, FYL travel, and singing tonight about poop in space! It’s science AND engineering! #Dragoncon #science #firstlightcon
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Blue the Science Dude @science-dude.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Another predictable outcome as NSF appoints Trofim Lysenko to head biology grants to save US from bourgeois Western lies. 🧪
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Blue the Science Dude @science-dude.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Wisper of a WIMP?! LX experiment at SLAC observed a single particle interaction difficult to explain except for dark matter, the invisible 85% of all "stuff" in the universe. 🧪🔭 Just a mere wisper in hurricane of data. But if true, champagne all around! www6.slac.stanford.edu/news/2026-09...
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Blue the Science Dude @science-dude.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
On this day, August 25, 2000, my FAVORITE astronomical instrument, the towering Green Bank Telescope, was dedicated! The ginormous GBT has made amazing discoveries: astrochemistry, pulsar studies, asteroids, and more! 🧪🔭 You can visit! Just turn off cell phones. greenbankobservatory.org
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Blue the Science Dude @science-dude.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Betelgeuse! Betelgeuse! Betelgeuse! With ALMA! 🧪🔭 The roiling surface of the famous red supergiant star in Orion 800x size of the Sun, 600 light-years away. Long -lasting hotspots, seen here in mm-wavelength light, may relate to recently confirmed companion star. arxiv.org/abs/2608.19339
(ALMA, NRAO, NAOJ, ESO)
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Blue the Science Dude @science-dude.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
NSF set to issue lowest number of new grants in four decades. $1 billion being withheld. So much for my grant application.🧪 www.nature.com/articles/d41...
nature.com
Exclusive: NSF set to issue lowest number of new grants in four decades
The US science-funding agency is withholding $1 billion of its budget so that the money can go to a special White House project.
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Blue the Science Dude @science-dude.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Mercurial Antarctica, and that's not good. New PNAS study reveals a double wammy: South Pole is accumulating mercury at an alarming rate and increased melting of ice cap due to global warming is releasing long-stored mercury into ocean waters. 🧪https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2613472123
Antarctic Peninsula, part of which is pictured here in satellite imagery. Credit: European Union. Copernicus Sentinel-2 imagery - Processed by @DEFIS_EU
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Blue the Science Dude @science-dude.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
BMI alone = BS. It ignores differences in body composition and fat distribution. What a better indicator of obesity-related health risks? Waist circumference. That's it. It performed nearly as well as BMI + waist measures and avoided false positives. www.newswise.com/articles/med... 🧪🩺
Credit: Adobe Stock
Researchers Find That Waist Size Is a Powerful Indicator of Health Risks
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Blue the Science Dude @science-dude.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Infrasonic bolide-detection!? 🧪🔭 Infrasound signal detected at 5 volcanoes in the early morning hours today by USGS and Pacific Northwest Seismic Network. Bolides are excellent infrasound generators because of their supersonic speed and fragmentation as they enter the atmosphere.
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Blue the Science Dude @science-dude.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Good news, fellow coffee fanatics! People with higher coffee consumption had lower total and visceral fat and greater skeletal muscle mass than those who consumed less coffee. New research suggests improved sex hormone levels may be the key. Double java bonus!🧪⚕️☕ www.newswise.com/articles/stu...
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Blue the Science Dude @science-dude.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Medicare for all: A dream to some; A NIGHTMARE TO OTHERS! (H.T. Excalibur) Implementing a universal, single-payer health care system could save the U.S. more than $1 trillion and some 114,000 lives EVERY YEAR, according to a recent Yale University analysis preprint.🧪⚕️ doi.org/10.64898/202...
Composition of the system-wide saving under a single-payer universal health care system, United States, 2024.
Five mechanisms reduce national health expenditure by US$1345.2 billion, and three increase it by US$304.0 billion, giving a net saving of US$1041.2 billion, or 19.7% of the 2024 baseline of US$5278.6 billion. Parameter values and sources are given in Table 1 and Supplementary Appendix.
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Blue the Science Dude @science-dude.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Weather report from low Earth orbit: Typhoon Dolphin, a Category 4 storm as seen from the ISS, 425 km above the Pacific. Cygnus XL cargo spacecraft is in the foreground. No pithy comments. Just a cool picture. 🧪🔭
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Blue the Science Dude @science-dude.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
368 million tons of plastic are produced annually; polyvinyl chloride (PVC) accounts for 80% of it and is EVERYWHERE! Water, soil, air... you. New process converts PVC into lube (the engine kind 😏). A small step to aid recycling. 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41... www.newswise.com/articles/sci...
Men's black PVC pants; Wikimedia Commons
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Blue the Science Dude @science-dude.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Oooh! Pretty. JWST imaged the Lion Nebula, the expanding outer layers of a dying star: white dwarf star smack-dab in the middle. Come back in ~10,000 years and it will have faded. Come back in several billion years and our Sun will look similar. I'll wait. 🔭 science.nasa.gov/asset/webb/l...
The James Webb Space Telescope has gazed across the open “plains” of space to capture a snapshot of NGC 2392, also known as the Lion Nebula. This feline-shaped planetary nebula is the “mane” event, at least temporarily. After several thousand years in the making, it’s finally roaring to life before it will eventually disperse in approximately 10,000 years. In infrared light, Webb reveals complex structures of gas and dust that are illuminated by and migrating away from the source that is powering it all: the dying central star.
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Blue the Science Dude @science-dude.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
I love an dazzling meteor shower! Best viewing for this year's Perseids is after midnight ET Aug. 13. Cool fact. The tiny cosmic particles heat up by compressing the atmosphere, not from friction! Best ever for me was Geminids ~25 years ago: bright fireball every 5-10 seconds! 🧪🔭🌠
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Blue the Science Dude @science-dude.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
An early morning amusement… checked out the Woot app and saw an ad for syringes. It thoughtfully included suggestions for possible uses, including your next summer party! #humor 🥸😂💉🙄
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Blue the Science Dude @science-dude.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
A second genesis? A new study posits the transition from chemistry to biology happened more than once. LUCA (last universal common ancestor) was "almost" alive. Time + chemical changes at deep-sea vents allowed LUCA to give rise to bacteria & archaea separately. 🧪🦠 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
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Blue the Science Dude @science-dude.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Do you know who Katalin Karikó is? She solved immune rejection problem thwarting mRNA technology: depite repeated grant rejections, pay cuts, and demotions! Her persistence continues to save lives. 🧪⚕️💉 Newly approved mRNA flu shot is ~27% more effective. www.scientificamerican.com/article/u-s-...
scientificamerican.com
U.S. approves Moderna’s mRNA vaccine for flu—the first of its kind
This flu shot, mFlusiva, was shown in a clinical trial to be up to 27 percent more effective than a standard flu jab
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Blue the Science Dude @science-dude.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
A bout of COVID-19 can wake up an army of dormant viruses hiding inside the body. This reactivation happens even in people with otherwise healthy immune systems. Vaccine? Yes, please! 🧪⚕️💉 www.nature.com/articles/d41...
nature.com
COVID can wake up a slew of dormant viruses inside you
Reactivation of typically harmless anelloviruses, in particular, seems to be linked with developing long COVID, study finds.
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Blue the Science Dude @science-dude.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Brain drain rocks US science community; Impact on our ability to innovate will be felt for decades. More US-trained PhDs are fleeing after graduation than any time in past 30 years. This does not bode well. We not just passing the torch; We’re yeeting it. 🧪🔭 doi.org/10.1063/sr.2...
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Blue the Science Dude @science-dude.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Neil Armstrong was born Aug. 5, 1930. Using manual control, he landed Apollo 11 with only seconds to spare. Buzz then broke switch that fired ascent engine. Had to jam a pen into breaker to leave the Moon. I had the honor of working with Neil on this speech. 🧪🔭 www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aQl...
youtube.com
Neil Armstrong on Being a Nerd
YouTube video by Piled Higher and Deeper (PHD Comics)
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Blue the Science Dude @science-dude.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
You want to fly a rotorcraft on Titan? Break the sound barrier with a sonic "thump" rather than sonic boom? To paraphrase Chief Brody, "You're gonna need a bigger wind tunnel." NASA just got a 25,000 ft2 one. It dices! It slices! It makes a great hair dryer! 🧪 www.nasa.gov/news-release...
The Flight Dynamics Research Facility (FDRF) is a 25,000-square-foot highly versatile wind tunnel. The FDRF plays a role in conducting research, development of autonomous flight vehicles, technology, drones, X-planes, and future Moon and Mars missions.
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Blue the Science Dude @science-dude.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Radio astronomy tag team! 🧪🔭 VLA (famed in film and music videos) and ALMA (famed for being ALMA) looked back when universe was 5% current age to find ginormous ocean of raw star-formation fuel (CO gas). Location? A reionization-era galaxy dubbed REBELS-25. public.nrao.edu/news/vla-fue...
This illustration traces the universe’s evolution from the Big Bang to the present day, highlighting REBELS-25, a very distant galaxy seen during the Epoch of Reionization 13 billion years ago. New deep observations with the NSF VLA and ALMA reveal that REBELS-25 already had an enormous reservoir of cool molecular gas—the direct fuel for star formation—when the universe was just 700 million years old.
Credit: NSF/AUI/NSF NRAO/M.Weiss
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Blue the Science Dude @science-dude.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
The Arctic is roasting. In northern Russia, temps this week have topped 90F. (That's 32C to the rest of the world.) The Arctic Circle is warming faster than the rest of the planet; A feedback loop will accelerate increase. 🧪 If only we had known... www.scientificamerican.com/article/its-...
scientificamerican.com
It’s 90 degrees in the Arctic right now
The Arctic is heating faster than the rest of the planet. New data illustrate how dire that is
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Blue the Science Dude @science-dude.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
Got my schedule for #DragonCon! I'll be on lots of exciting panels in both the Science and Space tracks! If you're there, pop in and say "Hey Science Dude!" www.dragoncon.org
dragoncon.org
Dragon Con - Largest Multi-genre and Pop Culture Convention
Dragon Con is an annual multi-media and pop culture event held on the Labor Day weekend in Atlanta, Georgia. Hosting the parade, gaming, art show, awards, and other events.
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Blue the Science Dude @science-dude.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Top science stories of the week you may have missed! 🧪 @newswise.bsky.social #headlines #diarrhea #brainhealth medium.com/@ceblue65/to...
medium.com
Top Science Stories of the Week
Hiding identities at work, meal time and brain health, embrace your uncertainty, and parasitic diarrhea
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Blue the Science Dude @science-dude.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
ESO's VLT found it! The long-suspected but previously unobserved companion star to Betelgeuse! (I always have to double check the spelling.) B is a red supergiant star in Orion. Its changing brightness suggested it had a sibling; now we have the picture to prove it! 🧪🔭 www.eso.org/public/news/...
This image, taken with ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), shows the clearest image ever of what likely is Betelgeuse B, a star orbiting Betelgeuse. The image was taken with the SPHERE instrument in December 2024, when the companion was predicted to be furthest apart from Betelgeuse as seen from Earth. The circle indicates the size of Betelgeuse, which has been removed. The bright source to the left, marked with a crosshair, is consistent with being Betelgeuse B.

Credit:
ESO/M. Montargès et al.
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Blue the Science Dude @science-dude.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Andromeda, 2.5 million light-years away, our closest large galactic neighbor (getting closer every year). New Hubble findings show a sharp decline in star formation, about 1/5 less than our Milky Way. Culprit? Nearby M32 seems sinisterly suspicious.🔭🧪 #hubble science.nasa.gov/missions/hub...
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has provided a detailed view of millions of stars in the Andromeda galaxy. Regions that have experienced recent star formation (1) appear significantly bluer than regions with less recent star formation (2).
NASA, ESA, Benjamin Williams (UWashington), Zhuo Chen (UWashington), L. Clifton Johnson (Northwestern); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)
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Blue the Science Dude @science-dude.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Most of my career was dedicated to supporting NSF's ground-based observatories: the famed VLA in New Mexico, the 110-meter GBT in West Virginia, ALMA at 5000 meters elevation in Chile, and Gemini on Maunakea. Experience the wonder at the Air and Space Museum!🧪🔭 airandspace.si.edu/whats-on/exh...
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Blue the Science Dude @science-dude.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
The first short SF story I bashed into existence centered on life below the icy crust of Enceladus. My plan to reach its subsurface ocean was ballistically creative but naive, according to new research on its cosmic cousin Europa. 🧪🔭 www.newswise.com/articles/why... @newswise.bsky.social
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Blue the Science Dude @science-dude.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
The aurora australis imaged May 30 from 441 kilometers above the southern Indian Ocean. It is created by charged particles from the Sun colliding with Earth's magnetic field. My mother thought the northern lights were caused by ice crystals in the atmosphere. The truth is SO MUCH COOLER! 🧪🔭
The aurora australis streams across the southern Indian Ocean with an airglow outlining Earth's atmosphere in this photograph from the International Space Station as it orbited 274 miles above. Credit: NASA/Chris Williams
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Blue the Science Dude @science-dude.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
50 years ago today. Viking 1 landed on Mars to search for signs of life.🦠 Its Labeled Release (LR) experiment famously yielded positive results for metabolism on Mars. Other on-board experiments and later analyses refute that finding. I am among those who think LR detected life, then killed it.🧪🔭
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Blue the Science Dude @science-dude.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
It’s on! Imagine ‘Comic Con’ in a transporter accident with a science & engineering conference @first-light-con.bsky.social! Official program moving forward. Make science frickin’ cool again. Follow to stay in the loop for 2027. 🔭🧪 www.firstlightcon.org
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Blue the Science Dude @science-dude.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
High atop Cerro Tololo in Chile, the Blanco Telescope has an AMAZING view of the cosmos, thanks to the Dark Energy Camera, which was part of the discovery of dark energy. It recently imaged the Southern Crown, a blazing star factory about 430 light-years away. 🧪🔭 @noirlabastro.bsky.social
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Blue the Science Dude @science-dude.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
A new approach in search for 'technosignatures'. Compare the metal make up of planetary debris around white dwarf stars (future fate of the Earth and Sun) with what would naturally be expected. Evidence of doomed aliens was lacking, but some intriguing targets. 🧪🔭👽 doi.org/10.3847/1538...
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Blue the Science Dude @science-dude.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Today is the birthday of Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell, who made the Nobel-Prize-winning discovery of radio pulsars in 1967! Jokingly first called LGM (little green men).🔭🧪 She didn’t receive the award. Her supervisor, who discouraged her research, did.
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Blue the Science Dude @science-dude.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
A star’s explosive death triggered the birth of stellar twins. 🔭🧪 In the aftermath of a supernova @almaobservatory.bsky.social discover two ‘hot cores,’ the cradles of infant stars. The massive star exploded about 1,600 years ago. doi.org/10.3847/1538...
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