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Dr. Adeene Denton

@spacewhalerider.com
6K followers 225 following 4.8K posts

Planetary scientist, earth + space science historian, dancer/choreographer, part-time community radio DJ. (they/she) 🏳️‍🌈 adeenedenton.com

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Dr. Adeene Denton @spacewhalerider.com · 17m
Got paid for a side gig today and sent the money to Spark Space - they’re on the ground doing the work to sustain a safe space for their community, and we can help them stay open:
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public health guy @publichealthguy1.bsky.social · 7h
i genuinely forgot how bad this was
buzzfeednews.com
Nobody Believed Neil deGrasse Tyson's First Accuser. Now There Are Three More.
No one believed Tchiya Amet when she said Tyson had raped her in the 1980s. Now, three other women tell BuzzFeed News that he harassed them, including one who’s sharing her story publicly for the firs...
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🇵🇸Martin “Doomsday” Pfeiffer🖖🏳️‍🌈 @nuclearanthro.bsky.social · 4h
Seems like fewer, but larger, nuclear reactors would be more efficient but YOLO. In any case, the USA currently has fewer than 100 (96 in March) nuclear reactors operating so this literally a proposed 5x increase in nuclear reactors. On public land. For a bubble.
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The Sisko @patbits.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
what about in the ground
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Dr. Divya (🔔 logged out) @divyampersaud.com · 29/09/2026
Youth opened Spark to bring hope to the community. And hope is not an abstract feeling. A "weekly/monthly” five enables this community center to stay open and support displaced youth to learn skills and reconstruct their lives, careers, futures. 91/300 by Saturday. chuffed.org/project/spar...
An artistic banner with an illustration of a sunflower on a deep pink background. Title: Sparks for Spark Space. Text: Spark Space is a youth-led humanitarian project serving the community with internet, electricity, and resilience. Pledge a 5 to keep it open. linktr.ee/sparkworkspace
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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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Zoë Hannah is bisexual @zoehhannah.com · 29/09/2026
feels like a good time to recirculate my story about the ubiquity of rape culture, unfortunately
mothership.blog
It's everywhere
Rape culture, Cyberpunk 2077, and would-be Senators
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Nicole Bedera @nbedera.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Kat is right about all of this. One of the reasons that college sexual violence is uniquely devastating is because it changes the victim’s entire future.
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Dr. Adeene Denton @spacewhalerider.com · 28/09/2026
Trying to cook up an explainer for myself but I'm not good enough at dynamics. Is this anything
Stonks meme with Titan but it's labeled semi-major axis
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Dr. Adeene Denton @spacewhalerider.com · 28/09/2026
Sorry sorry. I support you 100% in this
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Dr. Adeene Denton @spacewhalerider.com · 28/09/2026
April Fool's paper idea here
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Dr. Adeene Denton @spacewhalerider.com · 28/09/2026
It's another excellent one by Ćuk and the gang: iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3...
iopscience.iop.org
Origin of Hyperion and Saturn’s Rings in a Two-stage Saturnian System Instability
Origin of Hyperion and Saturn’s Rings in a Two-stage Saturnian System Instability, Ćuk, Matija, El Moutamid, Maryame, Fuller, Jim, Lainey, Valéry
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Dr. Adeene Denton @spacewhalerider.com · 28/09/2026
Cow meme of "Perhaps"
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Dr. Adeene Denton @spacewhalerider.com · 28/09/2026
Real "prove me wrong" hours in the outer solar system
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Dr. Adeene Denton @spacewhalerider.com · 28/09/2026
I love how every year at least one paper comes out with a completely new way to explain the differences in Saturn's mid-sized moons, and everyone just has to go
Guy throwing up his hands saying "I guess!"
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Melissa Gira Grant @melissagiragrant.com · 28/09/2026
I haven't had anything to add re: Cornell, because I don't think anyone wants to use this space to reckon with the fact that none of these systems are meant to help you, unless you are a university seeking to minimize your legal exposure. It's not fair to ask strangers to reckon with that here.
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Dr. Adeene Denton @spacewhalerider.com · 28/09/2026
Is it a burden being so correct about the Mars exploration program? Yes, thank you for asking
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Dr. Adeene Denton @spacewhalerider.com · 28/09/2026
Working on my Mars slides for class, which means it's time to bring back my favorite slide I've ever made:
The "we're so back/it's so over meme" that has been edited so the x-axis is time from 1960 through 2040. The plot oscillates semi-sinusoidally between positive (we're so back) and negative (it's so over). It's labeled Mars Exploration Timeline.

The start of the timeline is small oscillations close to zero. These are labeled: first Soviet attempts (note: none of the Soviet attempts worked but they sure tried). The steep positive peak next to it, we're back, is labeled Viking landers. Then a massive negative, it's so over, is labeled: everyone crashes in the 90s. Look up Mars exploration to learn more about this. Then an even larger positive spike, we're so back, is for Curiosity and the other Mars rovers.  Then a positive/negative combined spike is labeled Mars 2020 (for various reasons). Then a last negative, it's over (real) is labeled Mars Sample Return. This is accurate.
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Dr. Adeene Denton @spacewhalerider.com · 27/09/2026
It's me, the mythical STEM PhD who not only took history classes but got a whole history degree! Studying history is arguably one of the most important things STEM students can do. Science isn't done in a vacuum, and students should investigate the people, places, and events that shape it.
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Dr. Divya (🔔 logged out) @divyampersaud.com · 28/09/2026
CHOOSE HOPE 💚 I'll be real. The reason I'm running this membership drive for the giving circle is that every family is facing an emergency, and support is down by 35%. Views on this post are down by the same amount. Read this. Just a 5. Make it recurring: chuffed.org/project/hope...
A colorful graphic with text: what can 5 dollars do if you click weekly or monthly? Ensure a lifeline for 6 families and a displacement camp of 15 more. On the side are three coffee cups arranged in a cycle, labeled small, steady, sustainable. in the center is the word 'survival.'
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Dr. Adeene Denton @spacewhalerider.com · 27/09/2026
"History of science" is a really broad field, tbh, and one that does get broken up into temporal and geographical subfields, as with other types of historical research. So, history of science as an umbrella term encompasses anything aimed at the history of scientific advances/research.
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Dr. Adeene Denton @spacewhalerider.com · 27/09/2026
Wow, awesome!
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Dr. Adeene Denton @spacewhalerider.com · 27/09/2026
Wow, incredible pull for class reading. I wish I could do something like that! During the day allocated to ethics of space exploration I touch on the connections between economic exploitation on Earth and plans for colonizing Mars/asteroid mining, but mostly assign short articles.
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Dr. Adeene Denton @spacewhalerider.com · 27/09/2026
Anyway, I think my history degree is what makes me a great scientist, and as a bonus it makes me really fun at parties when someone misuses the term "anarchy" and baits me into describing the Paris Commune of 1871. There are many benefits.
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Dr. Adeene Denton @spacewhalerider.com · 27/09/2026
A lot of things about impact cratering knowledge make more sense once you understand where our knowledge came from. This is true of every scientific subfield - what is now "established knowledge" has to come from somewhere, and be established by someone. That's our history. We should know it!
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Dr. Adeene Denton @spacewhalerider.com · 27/09/2026
The study of impacts and collisional physics, including my own research, is inextricably linked to the Cold War. Vital knowledge comes from conventional and nuclear weapons tests, which affected what data could be shared with the scientific community and has shaped how impact research developed.
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Dr. Adeene Denton @spacewhalerider.com · 27/09/2026
In STEM classes, we encourage students to cultivate a curiosity about why things are the way they are - why do mountains form? why are asteroids shaped like that? It's just as important that they ask similar questions about the history of the field, and how it affects the questions we ask today.
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Dr. Adeene Denton @spacewhalerider.com · 27/09/2026
I work the history of earth/planetary science into every class I teach - it's important for students to understand how we got here. My introduction to impact craters last week started with a discussion of how scientists realized craters on the Moon are caused by asteroid and comet impacts.
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Dr. Adeene Denton @spacewhalerider.com · 27/09/2026
It's me, the mythical STEM PhD who not only took history classes but got a whole history degree! Studying history is arguably one of the most important things STEM students can do. Science isn't done in a vacuum, and students should investigate the people, places, and events that shape it.
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conputer dipshit @davidcrespo.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I’m sorry, but if you bring gypsum - or any damn mineral below 3 on the Mohs scale at all - to a job interview, you’re disqualified. It’s not hard, people.
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Rebecca Nagle @rebeccanagle.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
#LandBack! The Penobscot Nation regained 11,297 acres of their ancestral homelands near sacred Mt. Katahdin in Maine. Its the first phase of a 30,000-acre land return. tribalbusinessnews.com/sections/rea...
tribalbusinessnews.com
Penobscot Nation regains 11,297 acres in first phase of major land return
The Penobscot Nation has regained 11,297 acres near Katahdin as partners pursue a $32.5 million effort to return more than 30,000 acres.
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Dr. Adeene Denton @spacewhalerider.com · 26/09/2026
Oof!! Totally understandable. Not a time for hobbies!
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Dr. Adeene Denton @spacewhalerider.com · 26/09/2026
I was seconds away from showing off pictures of my brother's cats before they stopped me to explain. Alas, I didn't get that job, so maybe I should've shown the cats off anyway.
Kota, a beautiful long-haired black cat with a lighter under-fur. He is exceedingly majestic.Fio, a short-haired orange cat. He is not majestic but god I love him.
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Dr. Adeene Denton @spacewhalerider.com · 26/09/2026
A lot, actually! Central peaks come from collapse of the crater during formation, and the amount of collapse that happens depends on internal properties like heat flow and, in the case of Mimas, the presence/absence of an ocean.
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Dr. Adeene Denton @spacewhalerider.com · 26/09/2026
Thinking about my favorite bad job interview moment, when I was (illegally) asked whether I have a family. I was so oblivious that I didn't understand the question and said "Yes, I have parents! And a brother 🙂" which forced them to admit what they actually wanted to know (If I had kids)
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Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Don’t believe people who tell you ai can be liberatory or any other misappropriation of movement talk or justice frameworks. Find some people who are preparing to rebuild and cast your lot with them. Then read a bit more. Just keep your wits about you because they are trying to run game.
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Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Please try to reclaim your precious precious attention, at all costs. Do puzzles. Take walks without a phone. Dear god, try to read, almost anything that isn’t a manifesto will really do. You are going to need your brain.
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jessamyn @librarian.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
"Are You A Librarian: The Untold Story of Black Librarians follows the librarians who kept the doors open when the law said they shouldn't-from segregated reading rooms to freedom libraries to the branches serving our communities now" Rentable/streamable 📚 www.historysplayground.com/are-you-a-li...
historysplayground.com
Watch Are You a Librarian | History's Playground
Rent the Are You a Librarian documentary for $3.99 and stream it for 72 hours on History's Playground.
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Katelyn Burns @katelynburns.com · 25/09/2026
Strive to be so good at what you do that they will hire you even if you bring an iced coffee to the interview.
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Dr. Adeene Denton @spacewhalerider.com · 25/09/2026
Mimas sample return mission so we can eat it
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Dr. Adeene Denton @spacewhalerider.com · 25/09/2026
I'm something of a Mimas image enthusiast myself
Mimas mostly in shadow, but with Herschel fully illuminatedThe far side of Mimas that no one ever shows!! It's all craters, so that's probably why. But the craters are very nice.
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Dr. Adeene Denton @spacewhalerider.com · 25/09/2026
I'm obviously biased because I study Mimas (and Herschel specifically), but this little moon really is incredibly interesting and unique. There's a lot we can learn from its cratering record about whether it may actually be a "stealth" ocean world (one whose ocean seems missing at first glance).
Cassini's two highest-resolution views from its 13 February 2010 flyby of Mimas caught the southern half of the crater Herschel and an area to its east. This view is composed of two clear-filter images taken from the raw JPEG website. They were rotated to put north up and their levels adjusted to make the coloration fairly continuous. The interior of Herschel is covered in what appears to be post-formation modification. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SSI / mosaic by Emily LakdawallaAnother Cassini image, this one from farther away in 2005. Herschel lies on the terminator of Mimas in this image, keeping the entire crater floor in shadow with the exception of the central peak. The overall effect is mildly menacing.
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Dr. Divya (🔔 logged out) @divyampersaud.com · 24/09/2026
Spark is a community center in Gaza that serves displaced youth with resources and classes. Will anyone care? I do. Click “weekly/monthly" on something small to keep it from closing. chuffed.org/project/spar...
An artistic banner with an illustration of a white clay lamp with a yellow flame, against a deep magenta background. Title: Sparks for Spark Space. Text: Spark Space is a youth-led humanitarian project serving the community with internet, electricity, and resilience. Pledge a 5 to keep it open. linktr.ee/sparkworkspace
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Dr. Adeene Denton @spacewhalerider.com · 24/09/2026
We are LIVE! Listen here: 1190.radio
1190.radio
KVCU Radio 1190 – 1190 AM Boulder & 92.9 FM Denver
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Dr. Adeene Denton @spacewhalerider.com · 24/09/2026
Have been pretty offline lately due to working two jobs (research postdoc + adjunct teaching faculty) so it's I keep seeing "Apocalyptic Evangelism" and assuming everyone on bksy has been getting into Neon Genesis Evangelion
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Dr. Adeene Denton @spacewhalerider.com · 24/09/2026
The Search for Planet 9 is BACK this week in about an hour, with a selection of hardcore EDM to help lighten your afternoon workload. I'm very happy to be back in the radio station! Tune in here at 12 pm PT/3 pm ET: 1190.radio
Graphic that reads: The Search for Planet 9, 1 pm MT on Thursdays. Listen at 1190.radio
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Dr. Adeene Denton @spacewhalerider.com · 24/09/2026
I have to walk 4 miles round trip to teach so bringing in samples is genuinely a labor of love. Everyone deserves to touch rocks
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Dr. Adeene Denton @spacewhalerider.com · 24/09/2026
They LOVED the shattercones. I knew collecting shattercones on 3 different continents would pay off
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