planetary astronomer | nearly famous | jwst interdisciplinary scientist | looks just like an ordinary mom | oboist (thoughts expressed here are my own)
Joined July 2017
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This nice summary article about using JWST to explore our own Solar System came out while I was away. So wonderful to see many results from my guaranteed JWST time highlighted here. webbtelescope.org/contents/a…
About that spherical cow …. 🐄
1/ Physicists have a tradition of writing fake science papers for April Fools’ Day — sometimes even putting them on @arxiv
Usually harmless.
Until, years later, someone actually needs your joke paper. 🐄🧵
Dr Heidi B. Hammel retweeted
The NSF NOIRLab-produced Science On a Sphere show, The Sun: Our Living Star, has been transformed into an automated show complete with narration and a soundtrack to use at a science center near you!
Download it for free for any SOS-compatible system:
🔗 ow.ly/BBRu50ZPFEO
Awesome!
#NASARoman activated the Wide Field Instrument—a 300-megapixel infrared camera that will allow it to explore wide swaths of the cosmos. This test image captures the very first photons of starlight to reach the instrument—taken as performance assessment: go.nasa.gov/4rg4qEc
ALT At the top, a grid of 21 panels shows a series of blue images with tiny neon green and yellow circles. A larger image highlights a section of the grid with circular patterns, and an inset presents a detailed star-like diffraction pattern. The colors consist of blue, green, and yellow.
Why I drive with a paper road atlas in my car
Happy Carrington Event Day to all who celebrate.
On Sept 2-3, 1859, an enormous solar flare hit Earth with the most intense magnetic storm on record. Auroras bloomed, magnetometers went wild, and telegraph machines sparked around the world.
link.springer.com/article/10…
Chills and joy watching the @NASARoman Space Telescope separate from its ride to embark on its journey to Sun-Earth L2
Acquisition of signal confirmed for our @NASARoman telescope. We have spacecraft separation, and a last look at Roman, now flying on its own. go.nasa.gov/4chzg9c
Dr Heidi B. Hammel retweeted
Falcon Heavy’s looking sharp in the hangar before the real glow‑up begins with the launch of @NASARoman.
Roman made its way to the hangar to meet its ride to space earlier this week.
ALT A large rocket payload fairing with NASA and Roman Space Telescope logos is illuminated at night outside a tall vertical hangar. The fairing sits atop a transport vehicle, surrounded by warm orange and cool white lighting that highlights its curved shape as it is moved out of the facility. NASA/Sydney Rohde (Rocz)
Falcon Heavy in the hangar at pad 39A in Florida ahead of Sunday’s launch of @NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope
I was not prepared to hear about Dolly Parton 💔 death don’t have no mercy. We deperately need more good humans like her. RIP, Dolly.
Dr Heidi B. Hammel retweeted
🚨 AN IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FROM URANUS 🚨
In solidarity with Beaver’s Mini Mart in Beavercreek, Ohio, we have made a slight update to Rex Uranus.
He is now a beaver.
Buc-ee’s is suing this small, family-owned neighborhood store over its name, smiling beaver and red signage. Apparently America has reached its legal limit on smiling cartoon rodents.
But Beavercreek is fighting back by forming a whole damn colony. Local businesses are adding beavers to their logos, residents are supporting the store, and the city is considering a resolution reminding everyone that the beaver has represented Beavercreek for more than 200 years.
So Uranus is joining the colony.
Rex still wears the stars and stripes. He still rides a rocket. He has simply grown two front teeth and a big flat tail in support of a small business being pushed around by a corporate giant.
Because when nature calls, we’d rather pee in Uranus than piss off another beaver.
There is plenty of room in America for more than one beaver, especially when one of them is headed straight for Uranus.
Stand with Beaver’s Mini Mart.
Now on @sciam: Behold! These are the sharpest images of the sun's surface ever obtained, and they reveal something *wild*: never-before-seen whirlpools of plasma called Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities that are fundamental to solar energy flow.
scientificamerican.com/artic…
Dr Heidi B. Hammel retweeted
Scientists using the @NSF Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope have made a major breakthrough in solar physics! Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability on the surface of the sun, a finding that could help explain explosive solar activity @NatSolarObs tinyurl.com/msyp596z
Big shout out to the @NOIRLabAstro staff working to reatore access to our facilities on Tololo and Pachón!
And to be clear, totality is a million times better than near total (literally). Make the effort!
If you have the opportunity to be in the path of totality during the solar eclipse on August 12, you should absolutely do it: theatlantic.com/science/arch… (my Atlantic story from 2024's event)
We live in a lovely universe
ICYMI: Last week, DECam's view of the Corona Australis Molecular Cloud was selected as NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day! 🔗 go.nasa.gov/4g1gzZC
📸 Dark Energy Survey/@DOEScience/FNAL/DECam/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA
Dr Heidi B. Hammel retweeted
Happy 250th U.S.A. from AURA! In patriotic red white & blue, from NASA’s Hubble, this is the largest protoplanetary disk ever observed circling a young star.
📷 NASA, ESA, STScI, Kristina Monsch (CfA); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)
250 years of American astronomy!
Dr Heidi B. Hammel retweeted
The #WordOfTheDay is ‘semiquincentennial.’
ow.ly/190b50ZihI4
ALT WORD OF THE DAY Merriam- Webster JULY 4, 2026 semiquincentennial noun❘ sem-ee-kwin-sen-TEN-ee-ul a 250th anniversary or its celebration Background Image: Cupcakes that have "250" on them
Dr Heidi B. Hammel retweeted
Before leaving town for the July 4 recess last night, the Senate unanimously passed a bipartisan resolution recognizing June 30 as Asteroid Day.
kelly.senate.gov/newsroom/pr…
The UN designated June 30 as Intl Asteroid Day in 2016. It's the annv of the 1908 Tunguska event in Siberia.