#astronomy
Real consequences to higher education and the sciences.
“NSF slashes prestigious PhD fellowship awards by half: US National Science Foundation announces lowest number of Graduate Research Fellowship Programme recipients in 15 years.”
APOD: 2025 April 9 – HH 49: Interstellar Jet from Webb
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250409.html
Michael Porter Any Stellarium scripting experience out there?
I’d like to try my hand, but I feel like there's a gaping hole in my skillset when I look at the documentation.
I'm not a coder, but I’m good at figuring things out–I just want to know how deep the water is before I dive in.
Can I take a pre-existing script, tweak/add/remove stuff, and expect it to work? Or is some kind of compiling necessary?
Questions about the depth of my ignorance are encouraged - Good teaching requires knowledge of the student 
Some examples of the kind of things I want to do:
- Have some basic startup files that set different locations/projections/landscapes and visibility of planets/stars/satellites, so I can quickly load a bunch of settings to demonstrate concepts
- Have an absolutely clean startup interface (e.g., no GUI, just the ground and the sky) for when I use the program, and a “learner’s” interface with the basic controls visible at all times
- Start at one location with high light pollution, look around, then move to another location with good seeing and look around. Captions as we go.
- Still thinking about this: Some kind of script that shows the best times to view planets over a school year. This one is for when I'm encouraging Grade 9 teachers to talk about astronomy throughout the year, as opposed to the remaining time before the exam period. (e.g. This year, I really tried to encourage them to spend 15 minutes or so back in January to see planets that aren't easily visible now)
I'm sure some of that is not covered under scripting, but I have my fingers crossed.
I'm especially interested in hearing from people who don't know the difference between a div and a class and an object, as I clearly don’t, but managed to cobble some of their own scripts together in spite of that
I'd be very thankful for boosts for reach.
Spider pulsars in the globular cluster Omega Centauri 
To learn about this globular cluster & more on the #astronomy of the #constellation #Centaurus check out: https://starrytimepodcast.podbean.com/e/centaurus-cosmic-background/
Could Sound Waves Be the Key to Cleaning Up Oil Spills?
https://spectrum.ieee.org/sound-waves #physics #science #chemistry #biology #astronomy #neet #space #quantumphysics #engineering #physicsfun
Your geek fact for today.
We’re used to seeing smoke trail behind moving objects in the sky.
A comet’s tail swings like a horse’s tail as it passes by the sun.
#UMPlus - Starbursts in NGC 346
https://www.universomagico.net/2025/04/brillos-estelares-en-ngc-346.html
This image, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, shows the dazzling star cluster NGC 346, a group of young stars located in the Small Magellanic Cloud, a galaxy that accompanies the Milky Way on its journey through the Universe. NGC 346 is located at a distance of about 200,000 light-years from the.....
#astronomy #space #astrophysics #astrophotography
#UMPlus - Starbursts in NGC 346
https://www.universomagico.net/2025/04/brillos-estelares-en-ngc-346.html
This image, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, shows the dazzling star cluster NGC 346, a group of young stars located in the Small Magellanic Cloud, a galaxy that accompanies the Milky Way on its journey through the Universe. NGC 346 is located at a distance of about 200,000 light-years from the.....
#astronomy #space #astrophysics #astrophotography
Remember when Mars was forming a near-perfect triangle with Castor and Pollux? Now they're in a straight line. And I'm enjoying watching them form their own simple asterisms where none existed before.
#space #astronomy #astrodon
Maanfoto van de dag: Turning Understanding On Its Head. Fotoinfo: https://www2.lpod.org/wiki/April_9,_2025 #astronomie #astronomy #sterrenkunde #space #maan #moon #lpod
Hubble peers deep into Uranus, finds extra time
New comet in the sky
#Astronomy #Comet #Science
https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/comet-swan25f-1.7503849
There's a new comet in the sky, and it's already visible through binoculars
One of the great things about astronomy is that it’s always full of surprises, especially when it comes to comets — you just can’t predict new ones. But there’s a lot of buzz around a recently discovered comet that has quickly brightened.
#astronomy #science #space #comet #News
https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/comet-swan25f-1.7503849?cmp=rss
ICYMI: The #physics of #Earth's tides connects our everyday beach experiences to the cosmic dance of celestial bodies. This TED-Ed #animation explains how the #Moon and #Sun's gravitational pull creates those rhythmic rises and falls of #ocean #water we observe. 
What's fascinating is how these same tidal forces work across our solar system—squeezing and stretching #Jupiter and #Saturn's moons, creating hidden oceans beneath Europa's icy shell, and even powering Io's volcanoes.
Learn more: https://thekidshouldseethis.com/post/how-do-tides-work-teded-video
