iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

If you see this, quote skeet a pic of yourself in sunglasses.

Ethan Siegel dressed as macho king Randy Savage

2120 0

Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

I mean, that whole movie could just be...

010 0

Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Reminds me of when I used to run in college, and bought a pair of PIKS Air PSGASSS shoes.

Nike's greek fail, substituting the wrong greek letters for their line of Nike Air Pegasus shoes.

000 0

Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Lol: the thought of me as a string theorist. Or as I said to someone else recently...

010 0

Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

"I rigged it!" -Mabel Pines, Gravity Falls

Multiple choice featuring the rigged answers: Yes, Definitely, Absolutely!!!

010 0

Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

The most recent IPCC report considers five main climate scenarios, RCP-1.9, RCP-2.6, RCP-4.5, RCP-6.0, and RCP-8.5 I've seen a lot of claims that "RCP-8.5 is unrealistic based on current emissions," but so are all RCP's less than 3. The point is to illustrate what *could* happen. We have agency!

Climate graph showing RCP (SSP) analyses for 1.9, 2.6, 4.5, 7.0, and 8.5 W/m^2 of climate forcing.

0140 0

Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

Just days ago, I wrote about why it's hard for astronomers to celebrate Artemis II while foundational science, like NASA and the NSF, are being eviscerated. But then yesterday, this Nature piece came out: www.nature.com/articles/d41... It's not just NASA and NSF, folks. bsky.app/profile/star...

This chart shows a bar graph of cancelled federal advisory committees across four agencies that fund scientific research: DHHS, NSF, NASA, and DoE. No prior year saw more than 10 estimated committees cancelled until 2025, which saw over 100 such cancellations.

1277 0

Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

Journalists at Nature asked the question, "how much science, and how many scientists, have been lost from the US's greatest national institutions." We've lost about a quarter of much of our greatest assets in 2025. The scientific exodus and brain drain intensifies. Our greatness is leaving.

Graph showing the Trump administration's plundering and eliminating of US science in 2025.

Graph more compressed and better annotated showing the Trump administration's plundering and eliminating of US science in 2025.

23315 0

Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

You probably haven't said this in 30 years but...

000 0

Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 31/10/2025

Happy Halloween 2025 everyone, from your old pal Zorak!

Bad bug, bad bug, what you gonna do, when you feel the business end of my shoe?

The broken illusion; with Zorak's head hood removed, Ethan Siegel is revealed.

Looking inquisitive and sharp as always: whether green, olive, or chartreuse.

0120 0

Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 07/10/2025

Today is the day! The Grand Cosmic Story, my newest book (with Jon Lomberg, Mark Garlick, and Will Lidwell), from National Geographic, is released! Get the history of the whole Universe, one page and 100 Myr at a time, today! amzn.to/46GsS9d www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/789623... #space #book

An inside look at four individual page spreads from the book The Grand Cosmic Story, featuring artwork, page titles, intricate text, and statistics about the Universe.

Cover image and a look at the introduction inside to the book The Grand Cosmic Story, telling our cosmic history 1 page and 100 million years at a time.

1256 0

Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 25/09/2025

Now is absolutely the perfect time to preorder my newest book, The Grand Cosmic Story from National Geographic, coming out in just 2 weeks! Do it now at this link - promo.porchlightbooks.com/pages/promot... - and get a FREE bonus frameable print of the unique artwork in the book!

Cover of the book The Grand Cosmic Story with pre-order now text beneath it, and a beautiful galactic background behind it.

1172 0

Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

Hey space/astronomy fans, what are you doing this Thursday? Come join me and this all-star lineup for a virtual one-day extravaganza hosted by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. astrosociety.org/get-involved... Get up early and catch me and more; it'll be worth it! #space #astro

092 0

Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 06/07/2025

TFW when you're only the second scariest "White Party" around...

0152 0

Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 11/06/2025

Also, if you're wondering what the results are from #AAS246, it turns out the Sun does set in Anchorage near the solstice. It happens very late, but it's worth it!

An orange hued Sun turns the landscape of a sea plane on a lake-like body of water into a sunset landscape, with thin, wispy clouds low on the horizon top-lit by the sunlight.

072 0

Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 11/06/2025

To those of you who are missing the view of our first sunny day at #aas246, I present to you the following:

071 0

Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 21/05/2025

For those of you who don't understand what needs to happen to Elon Musk and the other fascist tech-bro oligarchs, I have some recommended reading for you. In fact, I can sum up the whole book in one panel:

A panel from the Dr. Seuss book "Yertle the Turtle," where the arrogant and exploitative Yertle is knocked off of his throne of stacked turtles by a simple burp at the bottom, and winds up falling into the mud as a result.

0133 0

Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

I believe the answer is yes: if you could fly "above" what we call galactic north (which is arbitrary!), you'd see that the galaxy was rotating exactly as Jon Lomberg illustrated back in, I believe, the 1980s:

Jon Lomberg's illustration of the Milky Way, with spiral arms rotating clockwise as seen from galactic North and the Kepler mission's field-of-view shown looking towards the left of the image.

110 0

Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 13/04/2025

Repost with your favorite James Bond (wrong answers only)

071 0

Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

When I read this part, at the end, I thought instantly that Elon Musk ticked every single box on the "who goes Nazi?" Bingo card.

220 0

Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 15/03/2025

No cheating. Post the last photo of your pet.

391 0

Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

You may recognize yourself and/or others in this:

Text from the article that reads: "Kind, good, happy, gentlemanly, secure people never go Nazi. They may be the gentle philosopher whose name is in the Blue Book, or Bill from City College to whom democracy gave a chance to design airplanes—you’ll never make Nazis out of them. But the frustrated and humiliated intellectual, the rich and scared speculator, the spoiled son, the labor tyrant, the fellow who has achieved success by smelling out the wind of success—they would all go Nazi in a crisis."

0122 0

Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

Every time I read that the DOGE team is going to some government agency, I keep hoping they'll be led to the "server room" where they can get full access, which turns out to just be an unfinished basement. Then the government agents leave the room. Then they go the way of FMA's General Raven.

General Raven was a treasonous general in Fullmetal Alchemist, who attempted to take over the northern fortress at Briggs. Their general, Olivia Mira Armstrong, slashed him and buried him in concrete, making him part of the "foundation" for Briggs.

1202 0

Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 11/02/2025

Okay, but like, you "get a distance," but there are huge uncertainties on that distance due to those degeneracies, right? Like "348 Mpc" still has a tremendous (~30%) uncertainty on it for this event, right?

220 0

Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 07/02/2025

Have you been reading articles from Important Harvard Professors (sic) about how the US is ultimately fine because the Constitution, judges, and checks and balances will protect us? There's a great piece by Jay Willis on ballsandstrikes where he nails why that take overlooks what's happening.q FTA

4121 0

Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 19/01/2025

Found a photo of me from the American Astronomical Society's gallery this week at #aas245. Even from the back, there's no doubt that's me.

2181 0

Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 17/11/2024

Portland, OR! Come see me, live and in person, talking about the James Webb Space Telescope Monday night! 11/18, 8 PM at the OMSI Planetarium, I'm speaking to the Rose City Astronomers (general meeting starts 7:30). The event is free and open to the public! That means you!!

1140 0

Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 31/10/2024

Happy Halloween 2024, everyone! Happy to share this year's photo of me as Saitama: the One Punch Man himself. For those of you who remember that I had shoulder surgery in April, yes I've recovered! Feeling good at 46!

060 0

Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 07/10/2024

And finally, take a look at JWST's view of an exploded star from more than 350 years ago: Cassiopeia A. These cosmic fireworks may be old, but to JWST's eyes, they haven't faded away at all. The book comes out tomorrow, so make sure you get your copies today!

010 0

Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 07/10/2024

Then, feast your eyes on this series of concentric rings: that's a dying star that's part of a binary system, emitting gas that has a pattern carved into it by the star that orbits around the dying one. JWST shows us features that have always been present, but never seen before.

151 0

Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 07/10/2024

Next, this view of the Orion Nebula is spectacularly unfamiliar in infrared light; the gas and dust features that JWST is sensitive to are remarkably different than optical, visible light views. A large number of JuMBOs, Jupiter-mass binary objects, were found inside: a shock!

110 0

Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 07/10/2024

I'll have a peek inside posted tomorrow, but for now, here are four spectacular spreads that didn't make the cut. First off, here's a young star erupting, emitting bi-directional jets with knotted gaseous detail captured by JWST. Star birth is violent!

121 0

Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 07/10/2024

This is it: the LAST DAY to preorder Infinite Cosmos before tomorrow's release! It's amazing, beautiful, and everything you'd expect from @NatGeoBooks. Preorder from: Disney: books.disney.com/book/infinit... Amazon: amzn.to/3XQkONo or Barnes & Noble: www.barnesandnoble.com/w/infinite-c...

3256 0

Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 05/10/2024

And although I'll have one more preview for you with more images inside before the book comes out, I truly want to highlight some gorgeous, informative, but less-well appreciated views of JWST, such as this one of the cosmic Chameleon. Star-formation just 500 light-years away!

130 0

Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 05/10/2024

Also inside the book are eight different "Focus" sections, where I got to go in-depth into the science of one major aspect of JWST. In this spread, you can see the focus is on how JWST scientists colorize, or assign colors, at wavelengths where light is invisible to human eyes!

100 0

Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 05/10/2024

Although many of the objects have been looked at in detail with other observatories, such as the El Gordo galaxy cluster, the details JWST finds inside are unlike anything anyone else has ever seen! (And NatGeo/Disney let me keep my Moana joke for the cosmic fishhook, at right!)

100 0

Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 05/10/2024

One of the most remarkable things JWST is optimized for is looking for ultra-distant and ultra-distorted and magnified objects from gravitational lensing. Not only do we have the spectacular JWST sights to behold, but science explainers and diagrams to go along with them!

100 0

Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 05/10/2024

It's time for another look inside Infinite Cosmos, coming out from me and National Geographic this Tuesday! Remember to pre-order, either from Disney: books.disney.com/book/infinit... or Amazon: amzn.to/4dtb8y5 Come take a look inside "sights and science," the biggest Chapter! (Ch. 3)

1133 0

Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 02/10/2024

And then, if we fully develop and stitch together all the calibration images of this "first light" star, we can truly see how remarkable the power of JWST is. Look not just at the main star and its diffraction spikes, but at all these background galaxies. That's our Universe!!

100 0

Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 02/10/2024

After months deploying, JWST was ready to begin calibration and setting up for science operations. The first step was identifying and focusing the 18 various mirror segments. The 1, 2, 3, and 4 panels show the transformation from 18 separate images to one unified JWST picture!

100 0