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Thomas Rintoul

@thomasrintoul.bsky.social
402 followers 285 following 124 posts

🌌 Galaxy Evolution PhD student - Cardiff Uni ✨ MPhys Astro - Uni of St Andrews 2023 🎥 Science Communicator on YouTube, Twitch, Instagram 🔗 linktr.ee/ThomasRintoul

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Thomas Rintoul @thomasrintoul.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
Might just be the methods section started for one of them. But I currently have 3 astrophysics papers on the go at once... With a 4th and 5th in planning/ideation stages Do I do too much? Maybe. Am I trying to make the most of my PhD while I still definitely work in astronomy? Absolutely! 🔭🧪
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Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans @astroroyalscot.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
A long-shot: do any of you lovely people live in the North #Shropshire constituency? We had a super visit from your MP, Helen Morgan, to our drop-in event in Westminster about the impending cuts to UK astro & particle physics. We'd love her to hear that her constituents are as concerned as we are.🙏
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Thomas Rintoul @thomasrintoul.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
I think I've decided that the worst section of my observations based paper to write is the discussion - and I'm not an observer by trade. This is worse than writing about the observations themselves!
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Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans @astroroyalscot.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
🔊 Calling UK early career researches in astro, particle & nuclear physics. Please sign this open response to the proposed cuts at STFC ⚛️🧪🔭 "Protecting the UK's reputation as a science superpower requires not only investment, but continuity, confidence, and people" ✍️ ecr-openletter-stfc.github.io
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Chris Lintott @chrislintott.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
Me, on astronomy funding crisis, on the @ox.ac.uk website: www.ox.ac.uk/news/2026-02... 🔭🧪
ox.ac.uk
Expert Comment: Cuts to fundamental research will hurt the UK’s
Chris Lintott, Professor of Astrophysics at Oxford’s Department of Physics, responds to the news that University funding for astronomy and physics research will be cut by almost a third.
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Thomas Rintoul @thomasrintoul.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
I'm currently learning C++ and I keep coming across defined and codified things in C++ that I've been doing for years in Python by accident The latest one of these is using `del` in python to free up memory
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Thomas Rintoul @thomasrintoul.bsky.social · 13/01/2026
That they bang on about affordability is utter insanity. In Scotland, under 22s get free bus travel. There's discussion in about extending to under 30s. To not provide free bus travel to young people, and fair concessionary travel to disabled people, is an entirely political decision.
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Simon Clark @simonoxfphys.com · 09/12/2025
OK we're back baby. I'm not exactly well, but well *enough* to attempt a quiz stream tonight. I'll be joined by some creator friends playing quiz games from games.city... who are offering a donation match up to £2000 during the stream! Tonight, 7:30PM GMT www.twitch.tv/drsimonclark
media.tenor.com
a video of a wrestling match on make a gif .com
ALT: a video of a wrestling match on make a gif .com
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Thomas Rintoul @thomasrintoul.bsky.social · 30/10/2025
Delighted to announce that the first paper of my PhD - "The role of magnetic fields in ram pressure stripping of satellite galaxies in the circumgalactic medium around massive galaxies" - has been published by MNRAS! Check out the paper here: academic.oup.com/mnras/articl... 🧪🔭
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Thomas Rintoul @thomasrintoul.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
What are the biggest pains with trying to make an introduction to astronomy video series is I know the things but I can't just be like "Trust me bro", I need references 😔 🔭🧪
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Thomas Rintoul @thomasrintoul.bsky.social · 01/09/2025
Today I pause my PhD to start an industry placement working with High Performance Computing in Bristol. Video coming on my channel soon talking about it!
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Thomas Rintoul @thomasrintoul.bsky.social · 20/08/2025
I'm less than 2 weeks out from going on a placement and pausing my PhD research - I've got a lot to do but there's nothing more terrifyingly motivating than a deadline! 🔭🌌
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Thomas Rintoul @thomasrintoul.bsky.social · 15/08/2025
For once, I haven't done a very simple silly error this morning. I'm reaping the benefits of past Thomas' effort. I set up my plot layouts in python in a very flexible way that's made making changes based on referee paper comments so much easier!
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Thomas Rintoul @thomasrintoul.bsky.social · 13/08/2025
In today's episode of even allegedly smart people make very stupid errors... I spent an hour trying to work out why my plots were well below the expected values... I had forgotten to change the units. 🔭🌌
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Thomas Rintoul @thomasrintoul.bsky.social · 12/08/2025
Some days I think I've really grown as a scientist and what I do now is really cutting edge and interesting... then there are days where I'm triple checking every parameter in the simulations I need to re-run... again... 🔭
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Thomas Rintoul @thomasrintoul.bsky.social · 18/07/2025
Does the apprehension around waiting for the reviewer report on a paper ever go away? Asking for a friend... 🔭
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Thomas Rintoul @thomasrintoul.bsky.social · 08/07/2025
This week I presented my research on the "Role of magnetic fields in simulations of ram pressure stripping of satellite galaxies" at @nam25-durham.bsky.social I also chaired a session at the conference which was a great experience to take on that responsibility as a PhD student! #NAM2025 🔭🌌🧪
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Thomas Rintoul @thomasrintoul.bsky.social · 02/07/2025
🌌🔭 Excited to announce my first paper is out now! We use simulations to explore the effect of magnetic fields on satellite galaxies in the circumgalactic medium (CGM) - the reservoir of gas around galaxies. Read the paper here: arxiv.org/abs/2506.18983 See thread for remaining images.
A screenshot of my new paper on the preprint arxiv titled "the role of magnetic fields in ram pressure stripping of satellite galaxies in the circumgalactic medium around massive galaxies. Text above reads "My first paper is out now". Below reads "this paper looks at how magentic fields affect how gas is removed from galaxies orbiting other galaxies. Swipe to read more."An image of simulated galaxies surrounded by lower density gas. Some of the galaxies have bright tails of dense gas behind them. Text above: "Galaxies are surrounded by an atmosphere of hot gas called the Circumgalactic Medium or CGM" Text Below: "Orbiting within the CGM, we find many smaller satellite galaxies".A plot showing the temperature of a satellite galaxy with a tail of gas, relative to the hot CGM surroundings. Text: Satellites feel a headwind from the gas in the CGM - which we call Ram Pressure. If this ram pressure can overcome gravity, it removes gas in a process called Ram Pressure Stripping"An 8 panel plot showing a galaxy with magnetic fields (above) and without (below) for various properties. Text: In this paper, we run simulations with and without magnetic fields to see their effects. Without magnetic fields, more gas is stripped from the galaxies. There's also more mixing of hot and cool gas - this causes more gas to cool onto the stripped gas."
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Dr. Skylar Grayson @skylargrayson.bsky.social · 29/05/2025
"Why should my tax dollars go to fund your astrophysics research?" A thread. 🔭🧪 Brushing aside how absurdly little of the federal budget goes to science (according to the Planetary Society NASA accounts for only 0.3% of federal spending), the benefits of funding astronomy fall into two camps. (1/n)
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Emily Hunt @emily.space · 17/04/2025
Reading more about this, I'm disappointed in the authors of this study & how they've turned a very marginal result into worldwide press releases. In this climate, we as scientists have a responsibility to lead by example and represent our work accurately to the press. This is not that. ☄️🔭🧪
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Thomas Rintoul @thomasrintoul.bsky.social · 10/04/2025
Yesterday went great! Today's off to a less great start... Went to go work on a project on my laptop in the office, to discover I had not uploaded the latest version to github from my desktop at home... Guess I'll do that tonight and do this work tomorrow!
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Thomas Rintoul @thomasrintoul.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
Something I'm really enjoying in my PhD in Astrophysics is that my actual work is presenting me all these opportunities to learn new skills for coding/software/data science/etc. Today, my work has weaved its way to the point that I think it makes sense to learn CUDA so I can run my code on GPUs 🔭🧪
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Thomas Rintoul @thomasrintoul.bsky.social · 01/04/2025
April Fools papers on ArXiV are always a good bit of fun, but this one from @sophienewman.bsky.social and Ana Sainz de Murieta on the Astrophysical implications of the Eras Tour is one of the best I've seen. arxiv.org/abs/2503.24188 🔭
arxiv.org
A Swift analysis of the Eras tour set list and implications for astrophysics research (Taylor's version)
Popular culture plays a significant role in shaping public interest in science, and Taylor Swift's discography frequently incorporates astrophysics terminology. This study examines the occurrence of a...
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Thomas Rintoul @thomasrintoul.bsky.social · 28/03/2025
Working on a video about light pollution and dark skies, anyone know of any public datasets of light pollution maps? Ideally worldwide but would settle for UK, Continental Europe and North America (ideally not just the US) 🔭🧪
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Thomas Rintoul @thomasrintoul.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
Goodbye Gaia. Thanks for everything. Gaia might never have been as flashy as Hubble or JWST, but it was one of the most amazing and most accessible missions. I worked with Gaia data in my undergrad and I hope we see more missions like it. 🔭🧪
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Stand Up for Science! @standupforscience.net · 07/03/2025
TODAY IS THE DAY! 🧪☀️⬇️ Join us at the Lincoln Memorial or your local site to Stand Up for Science!
Flyer for stand up for science--more information available at www.standupforscience2025.org
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Thomas Rintoul @thomasrintoul.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
I criticised the "echo-chamber" aspect of the BlueSky feeds initially. But right now when the world is just a bit too much to be constantly reminded of it all, it is nice to be able to filter down to just astronomy for a bit
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Thomas Rintoul @thomasrintoul.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
Hear that UK Labour? Huge potential here
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Thomas Rintoul @thomasrintoul.bsky.social · 30/01/2025
My first science video of 2025 is now available to my patrons over on Patreon. General release tomorrow! www.patreon.com/posts/my-top...
Thomas looking into the camera with his hand palm up. The words "Top Five Unsolved Astronomy Questions" are beside him. The background is an image from the Illustris TNG simulations showing the formation of a galaxy cluster.
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Thomas Rintoul @thomasrintoul.bsky.social · 30/01/2025
Big win today in PhD land - I got my code to run in parallel (using more cores so it goes faster)! I spent all day yesterday fighting with this trying to get it to work. Came back to it today with a slightly different approach and it worked so much better! 🔭🧪
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Thomas Rintoul @thomasrintoul.bsky.social · 28/01/2025
Ahhhhh!!! So much research to do... so little time...🔭
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Thomas Rintoul @thomasrintoul.bsky.social · 27/01/2025
Having that strange out of body experience this morning of coming back from an astronomy conference with loads of ideas, no idea what I'm supposed to be doing, and far too many impending deadlines... 🔭🧪
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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez @ocasio-cortez.house.gov · 22/01/2025
SHARE WIDELY. KNOW YOUR RIGHTS. With mass deportations starting today across the country, it is vitally important - for both citizens and non-citizens - to know your rights. You have the right to remain silent. Assert it. You have the right to a lawyer. Ask for one. (1/3)
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Thomas Rintoul @thomasrintoul.bsky.social · 09/01/2025
My first video of 2025 setting out my goals for the year just went live for my patrons on Patreon. Sign up at the link below for early access, or wait for general release tomorrow! www.patreon.com/posts/2025-w...
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Thomas Rintoul @thomasrintoul.bsky.social · 03/01/2025
Last year I was too ambitious with my #StoryGraph reading challenge. This year I'm being more realistic: 12 books in 12 months. However, I'm reading a lot of long fantasy books so I've also added a page target of 3600 pages. Really enjoying getting back into reading!
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Peter Coles 🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️ 🇮🇪 @telescoper.bsky.social · 19/12/2024
Many problems in mathematics and physics can be simplified by assuming that any solid body is approximately a sphere, but this approach is likely to lead to a rounding error.
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Thomas Rintoul @thomasrintoul.bsky.social · 13/12/2024
Been doing a bit of an audit of the many many analysis functions I've written over the first year or so of my #Astrophysics #PhD. 2 main takeaways: 1) I wrote A LOT of functions - thousands of lines on top of all the scripts using them. 2) I have got SO MUCH BETTER at coding in the last year! 🧪🔭
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Thomas Rintoul @thomasrintoul.bsky.social · 11/12/2024
Okay I'm pretty new to TikTok, but I'd just like to say that it's dumb that when uploading on desktop I have to type in hashtags and then click from a list of suggestions - rather than what EVERY OTHER PLATFORM DOES and just accept that going #tiktok would trigger the hashtag!!!
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Thomas Rintoul @thomasrintoul.bsky.social · 11/12/2024
I'm constantly amazed at how different fields (particularly subfields of #astronomy) can interact. I firmly work in large scale galaxy evolution, but today I'm reading a solar physics paper of all things to try and understand a process important on large scales 🔭🧪
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Thomas Rintoul @thomasrintoul.bsky.social · 05/12/2024
Ever wondered why Venus is so hellish while Earth is a sanctuary of life - I look at answer as part of my #AdventOfAstronomy series - 24 #astronomy shorts on YT, IG and TikTok over 24 days! youtube.com/shorts/mkcda... 🧪🔭
youtube.com
Venus: Why is "Earth's Twin" so hellish!? - #AdventOfAstronomy Day 4
YouTube video by Thomas Rintoul
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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 04/12/2024
I honestly believe all LLM results should come with a disclaimer reminding people that the thing doesn’t (and absolutely cannot) know any facts or do any reasoning; it is simply designed to *sound* like it knows facts and frequently sweeps some up accidentally in the process.
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Thomas Rintoul @thomasrintoul.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
Had a great time tonight playing some tunes in aid of the Jingle Jam. If you didn't catch the stream but want to hear the tunes, then here's the video: www.twitch.tv/videos/23175...
twitch.tv
Twitch
Twitch is the world
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Thomas Rintoul @thomasrintoul.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
This month, @katdoesmaths.bsky.social and I (+some friends) are raising money for the Jingle Jam! For the next two weeks, we'll have a mix of streams on Twitch. Donations are greatly appreciated and over £35 will get you a brilliant collection of games! tiltify.com/+the-sci-com...
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Thomas Rintoul @thomasrintoul.bsky.social · 02/12/2024
It's true! I'm posting 24 short videos in 24 days for #AdventOfAstronomy on YouTube! Also available on Instagram and TikTok
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Thomas Rintoul @thomasrintoul.bsky.social · 01/12/2024
Has anyone figured out how to organically get the fun side of BlueSky yet? Almost everything I've ended up following is about Astronomy - which I love, but it feels like work sometimes?
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Thomas Rintoul @thomasrintoul.bsky.social · 29/11/2024
I posted my latest video last night asking a rather odd question given I do astronomy as a day job... Given how much money and effort is spent on #astronomy - along with a few other factors, should we even bother with it anymore? 🔭🧪 youtu.be/uujwvF0vkv0 (Thumbnail background from www.ig.space)
youtu.be
Why even bother doing Astronomy?
YouTube video by Thomas Rintoul
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Thomas Rintoul @thomasrintoul.bsky.social · 28/11/2024
Quite possibly one of the most inspiring people in #astronomy, #science and life more generally - certainly a big inspiration to me 🔭🧪
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Thomas Rintoul @thomasrintoul.bsky.social · 24/11/2024
Loving this trend! Let's give it a go! 1 like = 1 piece of Thomas lore
Thomas is wearing a "The Longest Johns" tour t-shirt. He is holding a beer whilst sitting at a table in a alleyway in Tenby, Wales. There is bunting and bushes in the background.
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Thomas Rintoul @thomasrintoul.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
I'm giving a talk to our galaxies group next week on the research I've spent the first year of my #Astrophysics #PhD doing. Not much has changed since I gave a high level talk to the department in Sept, but having more time and a specialised audience let's me go into more detail! Very excited!!! 🔭
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