Dr. Caitlin Ahrens

From NASA We’ve known since the Apollo missions that dust can present challenges for explorers on other worlds. Now, scientists are using instruments on the Perseverance rover to understand the risks of dust on Mars and find clues about how to protect future crews on the Red Planet.

I legit needed a laugh this evening 😂

David A. Hardy ‘Planet of Beta Lyrae’ from The New Challenge of the Stars by Patrick Moore & David A. Hardy, 1977

"The repeated misinterpretation of recently constructed golf course elements as impact craters highlights a striking lack of methodological rigor" 😬

Eric voiced characters for Star Trek Prodigy and Star Trek Lower Decks and basically everything else you’ve ever heard including Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and so so many more. A lovely human. Sending love to his friends and family. ❤️

A rover in Times Square

Farewell, Swift, and we thank you.

The old Theia is dead, a new Moon struggles to be born. Now is the time of monsters. . . er, new models for the formation of our Moon. Adeene Denton (@spacewhalerider.com) and colleagues showed a way to smooth the process of Moon formation. 🔭🧪 eos.org/articles/was...

First European woman on the International Space Station 👩‍🚀✨ 25 years ago, in October 2001, Claudie Haigneré spent eight days aboard the Space Station, conducting scientific research and helping write a new chapter in European spaceflight history. @esa.int

Crater Fact Friday ☄️DID YOU KNOW☄️ that Mars' moon Phobos has a massive crater? Stickney is 9 km across and is named after Chloe Angeline Stickney Hall, an American mathematician and suffragist whose calculations were critical to the discovery of the martian moons in 1877. We'll learn more with MMX!

The national academies came out with recommendations for non-polar sites for astronauts, and they recommended one of my favorite projects, a lunar gravitational wave observatory. They said in Orientale Basin, but it could go anywhere. 🧪🛰️ #PlanetaryScience www.nationalacademies.org/projects/DEP...

Interested in planetary science research? Applications are now open for the 2027 LPI Summer Intern Program! Don't miss this opportunity to be part of the next generation of planetary scientists! Learn more and apply today: https://ow.ly/tI6E5100af8 #planetaryscience #internships #research

From NASA Success! NASA’s DUST-III sounding rocket launched from Alaska’s Poker Flat Research Range at 9:30pm AKDT Oct. 21 (1:30am EDT Oct. 22). 🚀 In microgravity, its payload made cosmic dust, the tiny grains that build planets.

🌕⛵ Why is Europe's lunar lander called Argonaut? Like Apollo and Artemis, the name is inspired by Greek mythology 🏛️. The name recalls the Argonauts, legendary explorers who set sail into the unknown... 🌙

Hmmm 🤔 I certainly have questions

Dang. But unsurprising.

If you ever wondered what hurricanes likely looked like during the late cretaceous hothouse, this is probably pretty close. Super Typhoon Champi, 185mph sustained winds, 220+mph gusts. Let's keep pumping more carbon out.

IT'S ALIVE! 🛰️⚒️ The initial critical operations phase (done just after launch) is complete for the Martian Moons eXploration mission, including steps like unfolding the solar panels, ensuring attitude control on 3-axis is good, and releasing the catch on medium-gain antenna so it can look around 👀.

Studies confirm performance of Artemis 2 heat shield Detailed engineering studies have confirmed that the Orion heat shield on the Artemis 2 mission performed as expected, without the erosion seen on Artemis 1....

Fair winds and following seas, MMX www.mmx.jaxa.jp/en/ science.nasa.gov/mission/mmx

The many moods of MMX, from JAXA's imagery archive.

I did a deep dive on my newest paper on AAS's YouTube channel! This one's for the true nerds that want to know all about what material strength is, how giant impact codes work and why we're still not quite sure how the Moon formed. If that's you, this interview is for you!

🌑 On the Moon, night lasts almost 15 Earth days, and temperatures can plummet to below -200°C. Without power, scientific instruments can freeze in the extreme cold 🥶. OASIS is a European lunar service station designed to help them survive the lunar night and keep operating long after sunset.

Via: Aerospace America: JAXA’s #MMX mission will include the first wheeled rover to drive in ultra-low gravity aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org/jaxas-mmx-mi...

NASA grants usually run for 3 years. So one-third of projects to be covered by these ROSES programs in 2027-2029 are now in doubt. Researchers are trying to move things elsewhere. But one grant feeds into the next and some things are time-critical. A lot of science will be delayed or not happen.

I wrote about *exactly* this scenario in my book Under Alien Skies, and this is exactly how I imagined it. I hope the reader does too.

Dude thought he had a flawless gotcha and he ran into a rhetorical woodchipper

The World’s Largest Earthquake Drill will happen on October 15 at 10:15 am! More than 10.5 million Californian’s have already registered to participate and practice the recommended earthquake safety action – DROP, COVER, AND HOLD ON.

When you try to image Phobos in Mars orbit and Saturn photobombs your shot

The launch of NASA's LADEE lunar mission in 2013. I had dinner with a former colleague who was responsible for this image actually being published. He agrees with my assessment that the frog survived.

Planets are 3D! Shocking I know but when we measure an exoplanet we collapse the info into an average while assuming the planet is a perfect circle. UNTIL NOW! @lili-alderson.bsky.social presents: A Spatial Map of the Atmospheric Limb of a Hot Jupiter arxiv.org/abs/2610.18806 1/n🔭🧪

Mighty Saturn. And its tiny icy moon Mimas, right in the centre of this image.

NASA astronaut Christina Koch, mostly recently a member of Artemis II, is transitioning to "management astronaut" status and will serve as acting deputy Chief Engineer starting Nov 1. (Amit Kshatriya is the agency's Chief Engineer + Assoc Administrator.) www.nasa.gov/news-release...

I'm looking for a new #postdoc to join Leicester's #planetsci atmospheres team, working with us on the treasure-trove of #JWST giant planet data to study atmospheric composition, weather, and variability. Deadline Nov 5th with a start date in early 2027. jobs.le.ac.uk/vacancies/13...

Catch Me If You Can For Tax Purposes…wait 🤔

This would be perfect to show in my presentation on polygonal craters 🤣

Bryan Cranston pays tribute to RJ Mitte

When an overhyped science headline hits the infosphere, are scientists to blame? To spoil my own post: no, not *really,* not usually. Loss of control is the price of reach. But researchers do have more control over how the press picks up their work than they might be aware of.

Forget LLMs, what we need are more MMLs

A bit of cool onboard footage from the fourth SpaceForest PERUN flight.

Perseverance has set a new off-world record! 🏅 On Oct. 11, the rover's odometer hit 28.1 miles (45.22 km), eclipsing the distance record set by NASA's Opportunity rover. Longer drives are putting more geological diversity within reach faster science.nasa.gov/blogs/persev... youtu.be/XaxuV6tsIb4?...

I’m also adopting this

Today in space: The Hera spacecraft is about to perform a hard burn so it can meet up with asteroid Dimorphos. 4 years ago, NASA deliberately crashed a probe into Dimorphos. Starting next month, Hera will map the wreckage. 🧪🔭 www.esa.int/Space_Safety...

Eastern Bluebird 16-21cm Southern Canada down to the Gulf States, Mexico, and Central America, primarily east of the Rocky Mountains Migration: Northern populations migrate to southern US or Mexico in Oct, Nov returning north March, April ROW of juveniles huddling closely together to stay warm!

I assume @hankgreen.bsky.social conceived and wrote this video completely independently from my post but the timing is nonetheless suspicious 🤨 (It’s good, you should watch it)

Phobos (including Saturn and Deimos) in the latest release of @esa.int Mars Express Can you spot Saturn? Full size & more info: flic.kr/p/2sFoFaS 🔭🧪 Credit: ESA/DLR/FUBerlin/AndreaLuck CC BY ESA Mars Express Release September 15, 2026 Note: Saturn has been enlarged by 300%