I give you a momentary reprieve from the madness: The Vera Rubin Observatory has taken its first images of the sky, and they are *extraordinary*. Mind blowing detail, jaw dropping beauty.
Bad Astronomy Newsletter
Rubin opens its eye. And what it sees is the Universe.
Mind-blowing first images from the huge telescope.
I can think of a LOT of places in the universe I'd rather be than in the middle of a clump of nearly a dozen quasars blasting out planet-vaporizing amounts of energy. The question is, what are they doing there in the first place?
Bad Astronomy Newsletter
A clump of quasars REALLY defies the odds
Astronomers find neatly a dozen quasars jammed into a small volume of space, and no one knows why they’re there.
You know that "gravitational slingshot" thing they always use in scifi movies and TV shows? Yeah, that's real*. Here's how it works.
Scientific American
Here’s How Interplanetary Missions Slingshot around the Solar System
Spacecraft can get a significant boost by stealing energy from planets
 * though they usually get it wrong in movies and TV shows
A city-sized sphere of neutrons with the mass of a star is doing weird stuff while plowing through the gas floating around the galaxy.
Bad Astronomy Newsletter
A pulsar plucks the Guitar Nebula
Super-high-speed electrons from a dead star are plowing through the gas
 This article is for paid subscribers, who literally make it possible for me to buy food and stay alive.
Some thoughts on the #nokings protest, and the SPECTACULAR JWST shot of the iconic Sombrero Galaxy pulled a fast one on me.
Bad Astronomy Newsletter
No Kings protest thoughts; the spectacular Sombrero Galaxy fools me again
No Kings rally more than just a protest; a gorgeous galaxy looks a lot better than I first thought
I know y'all have other things on you're mind right now, but if you need a distraction I wrote about a very nearly complete census taken of all cosmic objects within 65 light-years of the Sun, and it's cool.
Scientific American
Cosmic Secrets Are Hiding in This Census of Our Interstellar Neighborhood
A near-complete census of our interstellar neighborhood hopes to answer how stars, brown dwarfs and rogue planets form throughout the universe
I am furious — incandescently furious — over the attacks on science by Trump and his regime, especially the actions of RFK Jr., which, *as history has plainly show us*, result in deaths upon deaths. You want the receipts? I've got the receipts.
Bad Astronomy Newsletter
Standing Up for Science
Why we must defend science, and the text from my national rally speech
My new conspiracy theory: Earth is indeed round, but its orbit is shaped like a bowling pin.
Scientific American
Every Year the Sun Makes a Figure Eight in the Sky. Here’s Why
A curious celestial phenomenon known as the analemma is a reflection of Earth’s orbit and tilted axis
I am furiously, flamingly, incandescently, *supernova-levels* of angry right now. Trump is trying to kill NASA science. And hoo boy, do I have something to say about it.
Bad Astronomy Newsletter
Trump threatens to eviscerate NASA
The Presidential budget proposal is a death sentence for the space agency
A supermassive black hole in another galaxy tore a star to shreds and spewed its guts all over space. <puts finger to earpiece> We're getting reports of a second supermassive black hole
Bad Astronomy Newsletter
A star ripped to shreds reveals a galaxy’s second black hole
Nothing about this story isn’t really big