Ross Church

We (Lund Observatory) have an open PhD position in theoretical astrophysics, to work with @astroandersj.bsky.social on studying how and where planets form in the Galaxy and the origin of interstellar comets. Application deadline December 1. lu.varbi.com/en/what:job/...

There is still time for early career scientists to apply for the ESO Fellowship Programme 2026/2027! ➡️ Fellowships are available both at our Headquarters in Garching and Santiago. ➡️ Application deadline: 15 October 2026. Details: https://recruitment.eso.org/ 🔭 #ESOjobs

Great moments in Scottish physics history: James Clerk Maxwell has the lads around to show off his new Ooni tabletop pizza oven and gets ready to slice and serve which is great cos Peter Guthrie Tait is starving

The first light of MOONS! Mounted on our VLT, the scientific instrument Multi-Object Optical and Near-infrared Spectrograph (MOONS) has successfully made its first observations. During its ten-year design lifetime, it is expected to observe up to ten million objects. 🔭 🧪 1/3

The narrator/Gardam on Hardy. Exactly right

Hull Maritime Museum is reopening this Saturday after six years of being closed to the public. The museum, which has undergone a £20m renovation programme, tells the story of the city's maritime heritage as a hub for trade, migration, fishing and whaling. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Antiques Roadshow xkcd.com/3281/

only Hull is spared

I'm sorry, what? In writing my first monograph, I spent six weeks trying to track down a citation in TWO languages I didn't know. And good thing too, because the citation was wrong. That's scholarship. That's research. You know, the thing we're trained to do?!?

A really rare, cool (and permanent) position has just opened up in the Physics dept of my institute, Uppsala University @uu.se 🇸🇪 for an Associate Prof with specialisation in physics/astro education. An amazing chance to research your own topics *and* education as a topic! #scicomm #iTeachPhysics 🧪🔭

Medan vi i Sverige har firat påsk, har fyra människor tillbringat de senaste dagarna med att resa till månen. Spana in de första bilderna från Artemis II 📸 www.popularastronomi.se/2026/04/fors...

Crescent Earth as viewed by the Artemis II crew yesterday (April 4th). flic.kr/p/2s5Z9yc

This image of home just came down from the Artemis II crew. Taken after their translunar injection burn, there are aurorae at top right and lower left, and zodiacal light at lower right. Credit: NASA/Reid Wiseman

Loveliest of trees? Not yet, but soon there will be Bloom along the bough #Haiku on a theme by Housman

Happy International Women's Day! Perfect time for me to (re)share our white paper on increasing the retention of women in professional astrophysics (really full of suggestions that broaden participation in academic science in general). arxiv.org/abs/2512.24465 🧪🔭☄️👩‍🔬

I do like it when students say "thank you" when they leave a lecture. It makes me feel like someone important, such as a bus driver.

wikipedia turns 25 today! the last unenshittified major website! backbone of online info! triumph of humanity! powered by urge of unpaid randos to correct each other! somehow mostly reliable! "good thing wikipedia works in practice, because it sure doesn't work in theory" - old wiki adage

Telescope Types xkcd.com/3182/

We are delighted to share that Dr Lara Cullinane has been awarded a prestigious Leibniz Junior Research Group based at the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (@aippotsdam.bsky.social). Image Credit: AIP/Spikermann #4MOST #astronomy #astrophysics

The application for the ESO Summer Research Programme 2026 has just opened! It‘s a six week programme in Garching close to Munich where pre-Ph.D students can work on a hands-on project. Working at @eso.org is a fabulous experience, so please help me spread the word ✨ 🔗 eso.org/sci/meetings...

Join Jessica Pilling from the University of Sussex for a day in her life commissioning the 4MOST instrument! Credit: J. Pilling #4MOST #astronomy #astrophysics #telescope #observatory 1. Arrival at Paranal observatory 🔭

1/ The 4MOST instrument installed on our VISTA telescope in Chile completed its first test observations. @4most-eu.bsky.social will help us unravel our galactic history, explore dark matter, and more. www.eso.org/public/annou... 🔭 🧪 #instrumentation 📷 AIP/A. Saviauk

Welcome to the official 4-metre Multi-Object Spectroscopic Telescope (4MOST) Bluesky account! Stay tuned for our first-light events coming very soon, and updates on all of the amazing science we will be completing over the years to come! 📷: Y. Beletsky/ESO #4most #ESO #telescope #astronomy

This only happens to you once

The Swedish translation of Blue Machine, published this week. It’s a beautiful hardback. Do share the news with any Swedish speaking friends who need the ocean in their life! And thank you to the Voice of the Ocean foundation for hosting me in Stockholm today.

Images from Palomar at 2 different infrared wavelengths last night - one that Saturn's methane atmosphere absorbs, and one the it reflects! (The faint point source is the moon, Tethys!) Taken by David Ciardi, Catherine Clark, @lowbacca.bsky.social and Miranda Felsmann; animated by me (and ezgif!)

This was an enormous amount of fun! And the bridge is so beautiful.

🍾FINALLY ON ARXIV! 🍾 Here are some lessons learnt from creating my Virtual Research Assistant for the ATLAS sky survey (And no it's not some bullshit black box with a call to OpenAI - this is STATISTICS 📊 baby!) So first, what is it? 1/14 arxiv.org/abs/2506.09778

This budget, if approved, would be an extinction-level event for NASA Astronomy. Awful. 🔭🧪

I used to sit and watch beavers at this pond for hours a few years ago. Then the family moved out after they ate most of the birch and willow. However, there was at least one beaver there tonight. He wasn’t as happy to see me as I was him. 🌿🦊🦫

My island of strangers: a poem | Michael Rosen

So the Department of Physics at the University of Auckland is looking to hire a lecturer/senior lecturer in one of the following areas: - Physics education research, - Quantum optics and quantum information, - Biophotonics and/or medical physics, - Astrophysics and/or space technology. 1/2...

'Radioactive mud? Well, colour me intrigued...' In today's blog, rare books librarian Katie Birkwood explores the surprising history of radioactive mud being promoted as a treatment for medical conditions in the 1920s. Read now👉 history.rcp.ac.uk/blog/radioac... #histmed @rcphysicians.bsky.social

Sightseeing i Västerbotten med besökande vänner!

📢 *3* astronomy #PhD positions now open at 🇸🇪 Uppsala University studying stars with 2 incredible supervisors! I genuinely cannot vouch for our astro dept enough: supportive yet relaxed, fun yet challenging... PLEASE apply & feel free to ask me Qs! Deadline 4 April 🧪🔭🪐 uu.varbi.com/en/what:job/...

fortran favors the old

Wrote up my notes on proactively managing your workload Boundary Conditions https://idiolect.org.uk/notes/2025/01/10/boundary-conditions/

A little comic about desire paths.

I’m starting a little series about writing post PhD. The first is about gift authorship. That’s when someone gets credit for writing without doing any work patthomson.net/2025/01/12/a...

#Postdoc alert: come join us at Uppsala University 🇸🇪 to work on the first stars of the universe (Pop III) 🌟✨⭐️ Deadline Jan 20! aas.org/jobregister/... I can honestly *not* praise UU’s Astro dept and its work environment enough, it’s so lovely and kind. Please feel free to DM me if you have Qs! 🔭 🧪

My supervisor, Jens Hoeijmakers, is advertising a 4-year PhD position in exoplanet atmospheres in Lund! 🪐🔭 I’ve absolutely loved working with Jens, and I’ll be very sad to leave after defending my PhD. Jens is an excellent supervisor and mentor! 🔗 lu.varbi.com/en/what:job/... Deadline: January 15

Atoms are binary. They are either intended to be hydrogen or helium. We can't just scrap this worldview just because of a handful of exceptions

A great - saddening - essay:

A high school summer job in Hull University's chemistry department was my first experience of research – without it I doubt I'd have become an academic. This is really sad news, for the city and the university.

We have a PhD position in Lund! Shoot me a message if you have any questions ☺️ lu.varbi.com/se/what:job/...

Fig 1 and Fig 2