Sera Markoff

I'm very excited and honoured to announce my new position 🧪🔭 in the UK, starting in January! See here for more info: www.ast.cam.ac.uk/news/profess...

It's been a hard week, losing a good friend and 🔭 colleague. If you knew Ralph and want to read my loooong tribute I've posted it publicly on my (hardly used) Facebook page. www.astronomie.nl/nieuws/en/in...

Cat has turned into a triffid ahead of #caturday

lolsob

Using our VLT and the Gemini North telescope, astronomers have measured the strength of #exoplanets ’ magnetic fields for the first time. These fields turned out to be comparable to those found in our Solar System. More: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2606/ 🔭 🧪 #exoplanets

So, Director of National Intelligence is apparently a part-time job with no previous experience required. Got it.

every time i see a white guy in their fifties radicalized by the twitter algorithm into racism and extremism i think about how it's a total failure of the youtube algorithm to instead radicalize him into home brewing, elaborate A/V setups, or DIY solar

Fox continues to run these segments that seem like free ads for the candidates they are attacking Every one of these policies are broadly popular with voters

I hope this isn't behind a paywall, but here's a great article from @astroroyalscot.bsky.social questioning the logic behind cutting one of the UK's most successful research fields. 🔭🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

thank you to everyone who sent this to me

A steamy #caterday in Amsterdam

Saying the obvious but 30C/86F in Amsterdam in May is not normal…

I feel strongly about this, plus it's personal (Brexit has affected my family profoundly). This petition seems to be doing well, but could do with more shares and signatures if you're eligible (British Citizen or UK Resident) and feel strongly about this too. petition.parliament.uk/petitions/74...

Starbucks is abruptly scrapping its AI inventory tool for repeatedly miscounting and mislabeling items, just months after rolling it out at stores nationwide. It's the latest warning that the widely-hyped "AI revolution" could be a bubble that's going to burst.

ARAA will be marching Wednesday in protest. So many countries have destroyed higher education, we must fight against Austria going the same way. Come join us! 👊🏻 #UnisRetten

Thanks for totally derailing my brain @alexandermilas.bsky.social, for pointing me to the most terrifying project by this year's UK entry to Eurovision, where he made a Furby organ, I kid you not!! www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYLB...

IOP President Paul Howarth and I have today written to Science Minister Lord Vallance calling for a full impact assessment of proposed STFC cuts to particle physics, astronomy and nuclear (PPAN) research.

Last week Thursday was my inaugural lecture here at @cambridgeastro.bsky.social (it's been a whirlwind with family in town so only posting about it now). The talk is about #blackholes 🧪🔭, pitched for non-experts, and you can follow it on Youtube (QR code on poster, or youtu.be/60hx7MXzxC4)!

When you spend days making fancy new slides for a talk, only to have to cut them because the talk's already way too long....

Newest release of #Jupiter aurora from program 17408. Observation date 2025-10-17, but released a few days ago. www.planetarylightshow.com/jupiter/prop... Credit: Planetary Light Show

It always throws me when I look at my French Vélib account and the page auto-translate to English helpfully also 'translates' my name:

👇👇

Amateur astronomers with telescopes equipped with video cameras are requested to look for impact flashes on the Moon tonight, to coordinate with #ArtemisII observations. Details here: www.geodes.umd.edu/impactflash

The President of the United States is threatening to commit war crimes and wipe out a "whole civilization" — all because he started a disastrous war of his own making and had no plan and no strategy for how to end it. This is abhorrent, and the American people do not support this.

Unexpected EHT intern alert! This bird had gotten lost in the fog and appeared at the IRAM 30-m control room door- more than 1,500 meters above its usual habitat. After a brief "internship," it was safely released back into nature the next morning. #M87MOVIE

It is very easy to become accustomed to Trump’s ravings, and laugh them off. That’s a dangerous thing to do. When Trump states: “A whole civilization will die tonight,” he is threatening to commit genocide. We can’t allow that to happen. Congress must end this war NOW.

President Trump is threatening war crimes of horrific proportions against civilians. It’s deranged. This madness must stop.

Sickeningly evil. Donald Trump must be impeached.  When will it be enough for my Republican colleagues to grow spines and remove him from office?

The President is openly threatening massive escalation in Iran saying “a whole civilization will die tonight.” Congress needs to vote to put a stop to this. It is a constitutional duty to vote on war powers and both sides should demand this.

Regardless of whether it’s all talk, when the leader of our country expresses plainly genocidal intent, everyone has to do something. For citizens of all political stripes, it means rejecting this madness. For Congress, it means taking action to rein him in. Now.

During this incredible, unifying moment of inspiring international cooperation and spectacular technological achievement, I would really appreciate it if the US president would stop threatening to murder an entire country with bombs.

Anti-war demonstrations occurred all across Israel this evening. US media decided you really didn't need to know about them.

I highly recommend putting this NASA #Artemis II mission livestream on and just leaving it playing as you go about your weekend. Live views of the spacecraft, occasional visualizations of the current config, views of the control room, space-ground radio audio. www.youtube.com/live/m3kR2KK...

NASA just dropped this image of Artemis II astronaut Christina Koch looking back at us. The first woman to ever see our planet in its entirety. I’m not crying you’re crying 🥹🔭🧪 📸: NASA

Some of the imagery coming down from the Artemis II crew is breathtaking...

Mastcam mosaic captured two days ago by Curiosity, on her way up the slopes of Aeolis Mons 🔍 viewer.gigamacro.com/view/rXLf44E... Credits images: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/fredk #Mars 🧪🔭

FYI, this gallery has all the photos NASA is sharing from Artemis II in one place, with descriptions.

Separation of church and…oh nevermind

More context on this #Artemis II image: * This is the night side, lit by moonlight. You can see city lights in Spain & Portugal, & a sliver of day at lower right * The Sun is entirely behind Earth, which makes it a kind of solar eclipse, but w/ Earth doing the eclipsing instead of the Moon: ☀️🌍🚀🌕

✅ #Artemis II update: end of Flight Day 2, Orion is moving at 5632 km/h, 183 936 km from Earth and 244 298 km from the Moon. Taken by a camera on one of the European Service Module's solar arrays, the Moon at 250 735 km distance (pic: NASA). Graphic from nasa.gov/missions/art...

This is such an incredible photo of our planet, and drives home the need for us to protect this unique (so far) world (from ourselves)

This should be an ad for almost any other OS

I love the April Fools posts on arXiv. Here's one on my favourite #blackhole! 🔭 arxiv.org/abs/2603.29963

Billy Bragg’s music was a big part of my teen years so seeing him live at the @togetheralliance.bsky.social march against the right, where he shouted out the bravery of my hometown Minneapolis, was incredibly meaningful ❤️💪

Hope to see some other 🧪🔭 folk tomorrow in London!! I didn’t see an ‘academic bloc’ so we’re just winging it!