In 2017, I crocheted myself a solar system costume. The headpiece is mounted on a bike helmet for stability (I got that tip from some folks who build showgirl costumes). The tunic is made from fine black linen yarn, very matte, very tedious, much like I imagine space is most of the time. The planets are made using an online sphere pattern generator, so that I could vary the sizes in a predictable way; they are strung on a fishing line with beads, and suspended from an elastic collar, also crocheted. They are also kept in place with a beaded "asteroid belt", located between Mars and Jupiter, of course. Photographed at Manhattan Beach Pier. All second-hand yarns, though I had to ask around for enough yellow to make the sun so large. #solarsystem#crochet#costume#planets#sun#astronomy#planetary#yesplutotoo
The LPI #Lunar Summer program is open again for grad students (from anywhere in the world) interested in lunar science and exploration.
I was part of this program back in 2009, which was a lot of fun, despite the fact that we watched Constellation get cancelled from under us. This should be a much better time to get into lunar exploration, and a rare opportunity for non-US students to get their foot into the NASA door.
The Andromeda Galaxy obvi gets all the attention for deep-sky objects in the #constellation#Andromeda (including in our most recent #podcast), but I also appreciate NGC 7662 aka Blue Snowball Nebula!
This planetary nebula is located ~2500 LY from earth!
From the Law & Political Economy blog. Today's must read:
"Fredric Jameson once noted that 'it is easier to imagine the end of the #world than the end of #capitalism.'
That’s the famous version. What Jameson wrote in context is, 'Someone once said that it is easier to imagine the end of the world than to imagine the end of capitalism. We can now revise that and witness the attempt to imagine capitalism by way of imagining the end of the world.'
#ClimateChange offers a vivid illustration of Jameson’s point. Through climate change, the end of the world as #humans have known it is now imaginable to an unprecedented degree. And capitalism, viewed through the lens of climate change, appears to some observers to be a terminal #planetary#disease."
Was only able to sharpen it up a tiny bit more. Bad seeing conditions that evening but I'm happy with it since I wasn't even planning on doing any planetary astronomy/astrophotography this year.
There are also extensive notes from almost all sessions that people ran on so many #Fediverse subjects, ranging from technology and standards to moderation, to enterprise needs to community building and more.
Going to talk about planetary differentiation in today's bit of teaching with the lens of one of my favourite-ever arXiv papers: what happens if you replace the Earth with an equal mass of blueberries? #astrodon#planetaryhttps://arxiv.org/pdf/1807.10553.pdf
Now that I have a new home on solarsystem.social, here's a new #introduction!
I am a #planetary scientist working at the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (#IPGP) in France. My research uses the #gravity field, #topography, and #MagneticField of the planets to decipher their internal structure and geologic evolution. My favorite terrestrial body is the #Moon, but I also work with #Mercury, #Venus, and #Mars. Soon I will need to learn about #Psyche and the icy satellites of #Jupiter!