#astrodon

CosmicRami @CosmicRami aus.social 11.10.26, 12:11

Spotted this great image, yes a real image, last night! It looks like a firework going off!

It’s of the supernova remnant Pa 30 and was taken by the Gemini Observatory (north).

It’s probably the only one of these I have ever seen an image of and could also be the only one we know about in the entire Galaxy.

Pa 30 (IRAS 00500+6713) has a central white dwarf star (eventually what our Sun will become).

The idea is that this supernova ejecta formed in 1181 and may have been observed / documented by Chinese and Japanese astronomers. It’s thought to have formed when two white dwarfs collided.

Those long radial filaments are likely caused by Rayleigh- Taylor instabilities. The authors of the paper below suggest that these could be what’s left over from a slower ejecta shell that has been shaped into these long, narrow structures by the winds of the white dwarf star.

The white dwarf itself is fascinating. Likely rapidly rotating and has a very powerful magnetic field (almost as strong as a millisecond pulsar).

Truly an odd, yet wonderful Galactic object!

Open access paper about this object: arxiv.org/abs/2301.04809

Image: noirlab.edu/public/…

📸 International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/T. Cunningham/J. Miller & M. Rodriguez /T.A. Rector /D. de Martin & M. Zamani

SupernovaRemnant Pa30 GeminiObs Astrodon Astronomy

A spherical structure made up of long, narrow, radial spikes emanating from its centre. This is the supernova ejecta. Many stars of the Galaxy surround it.

Prof Heino Falcke @hfalcke mastodon.social 08.10.26, 12:07

Projects start small. Left is the first 3D print of the new Africa mm-wave Telescope (AMT) to observe black holes that will eventually have a 14 m width. Right is part of a drill core from the area where the telescope will be placed on Farm Göllschau near the H.E.S.S. telescope. Next year we will have a big dish there … #Astronomy #astrodon #telescope

A radio dish model displayed on a wooden table, with a view of trees and a road in the background. It looks like a satellite ground station.

A close-up view of a round, grayish-black rock with layered textures, resting on a light-colored surface.

AstroGeo Podcast @astro_geo chaos.social 06.10.26, 19:30

Heute gabs den #NobelPrizeForPhysics2026 für den Entwickler des IceCube-Teleskops 🧊 am Südpol, Francis Halzen.

Was das bedeutet hat, das Teleskop zu errichten und tausende Detektoren zu verkabeln, darüber hat Karl vor wenigen Jahren mit einem der dort angestellten Techniker Robert Schwarz gesprochen:

astrogeo.de/ueberwintern-am-suedpol

Robert hat bis heute neun mal in der Antarktis überwintert. 🥶

podcast astrodon nobel nobelpreis

Daniel Pomarède @pomarede mastodon.social 30.09.26, 09:24

Smile’s first ultraviolet footage shows auroral substorm

This is the first footage to be released from the ultraviolet camera (UVI) on the European-Chinese Smile mission. With UVI, Smile is now the first spacecraft since 2008 to capture the full ring of northern lights around the north pole in ultraviolet light, and is doing so for a record-breaking 45 hours at a time.

Credit: ESA & CAS/Smile/UVI

esa.int/Science_Exploration/…

Smile spacecraft Earth ultraviolet space

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science news astrodon

Daniel Pomarède @pomarede mastodon.social 16.09.26, 21:20

Curiosity Postcard Celebrates Rover’s 5,000th Day on Mars

science.nasa.gov/photojournal/…

Mars Curiosity Sol5000 space science

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news astrodon

While parked at a sand ridge nicknamed “Chocolatal,” NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover used its black-and-white navigation cameras to capture panoramas at two times of day. The first was taken on Aug. 30, 2026, at 9:56 a.m. local Mars time; the second was taken on Sep. 2, 2026, at 5:39 p.m. local Mars time. Those dates correspond to the 5,000th and 5,003rd Martian days, or sols, of the mission.
After being sent back to Earth, the two images were merged together. Color was added for an artistic interpretation of the scene, with blue representing the morning panorama and yellow representing the afternoon one. The resulting “postcard” is similar to past examples created with rover images, such as one taken in November 2021.
The rover’s deck can be seen in the foreground, including its can-shaped UHF antenna, used for sending data to orbiting spacecraft, and its finned Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG), a nuclear power source, at its rear. The rover’s tracks can be seen trailing off in the distance.
Curiosity is in the lower foothills of Mount Sharp, a 3-mile-tall (5-kilometer-tall) mountain that sits within Gale Crater. This image looks down toward the crater floor, with the crater rim barely perceptible on the horizon.
Curiosity was built by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managed by Caltech in Pasadena, California. JPL leads the mission on behalf of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington as part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program portfolio.
Credits image: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Credit text: NASA Science

schuh @sonjaschuh01 academiccloud.social 14.09.26, 16:22

New research group by a dear former colleague now at the Institute of Astronomy, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in Sofia: Cometary Life Cycle (CLIC) led by Rosita Kokotanekova …

… is looking for two PhD students and two Postdocs to study the physical evolution of comet nuclei and their links to other small body populations (TNOs, Centaurs, irregular moons, and dormant comets). The project is also closely linked to Comet Interceptor and Rubin Observatory’s LSST.

More at clic.kokotanekova.com/positions

Rosita adds: “I know Bulgaria is not a traditional top destination for young researchers, but this is a well-funded opportunity for independent, curious candidates open to the adventure.” Deadlines to apply to go on this adventure are September 30 for the PhD students, and October 31 for the Postdocs.

Comet CometaryScience JobAd FediHire PhD

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Jobs PhDPositions Postdoc PostdocPositions Astronomy Astrophysics Astrodon Space PlanetaryScience Bulgaria

ESO @esoastronomy mastodon.social 14.09.26, 09:15

A starry night, but in another galaxy ✨

Fly over the Magellanic Clouds, two galaxies orbiting the Milky Way, and discover a new stellar landscape — completely different from the one we see in our sky here on Earth.

1/2

📹 ESO/M. R. Cioni et al., VMC Survey, P. Horálek, Zdeněk Bardon, N. Risinger
🎵 Mylonite – Composition 129

astrodon astronomy astrophysics space science

schuh @sonjaschuh01 academiccloud.social 11.09.26, 10:14

A particularly popular post by @astrodicticum@chaos.social provides an opportunity to compare interaction numbers between Fediverse and Bluesky specifically for the German-speaking astronomy community, on the occasion of #ag2026garching this week:

chaos.social/@astrodicticum/… and bsky.app/profile/astrodicticum.bsky.soc…

At the time of the screenshots, the Mastodon post had 31 replies, 50 boosts, 213 likes, and the Bluesky post had 11 replies, 8 reposts, and 103 likes.

Follow numbers for Florian are 7.8K on Fedi and 6.4K on Bluesky.

My feeling (from occasionally monitoring other post pairs) is that the above interaction numbers are fairly representative, with engagement on Fedi being approximately double that on Bluesky.

Well, anyway. Congratulations to Florian via all available channels! 🎉

fediverse mastodon bluesky astrodon astronomy

Mastodon post by Florian with 31 replies, 50 boosts, and 215 likes. The post shows a photo of Florian proudly holding a certificate towards the camera, and the post text explains in German that he has been awarded with the Bruno-H. Bürgel award of the German Astronomical Society.

Bluesky post by Florian with 11 replies, 8 reposts, and 103 likes. The post shows a photo of Florian proudly holding a certificate towards the camera, and the post text explains in German that he has been awarded with the Bruno-H. Bürgel award of the German Astronomical Society.

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