Create accountLogin

Recent searches

No recent searches

Search options

Only available when logged in.
eupolicy.social is one of the many independent Mastodon servers you can use to participate in the fediverse.
This Mastodon server is a friendly and respectful discussion space for people working in areas related to EU policy. When you request to create an account, please tell us something about you.

Administered by:

Server stats:

236
active users

eupolicy.social: AboutProfiles directoryPrivacy policy

Mastodon: AboutGet the appKeyboard shortcutsView source codev4.3.6

#Astrodon

34 posts28 participants1 post today
Replied in thread
Public *
Dr. Divya 🍉

Very little support in 4 weeks but things have gotten worse, with the team paying out of pocket to keep things running despite needing that money to feed their families. The space is really close to having to be closed.

This co-working space in Gaza is NOT a business. It’s a lifeline for families to get income through their remote jobs (which don’t stop under bombing), and students to connect to remote studies which have been all but completely suspended!

Chip in & share: chuffed.org/project/spark-spac

Chuffed🇵🇸 Gaza Needs Your Support: Help Build a Lifeline for Students and Remote Workers!In Gaza, war has destroyed homes, blocked roads, and left countless people without work. Yet, amidst the rubble, hope remains. Students and remote workers face daily struggles—power outages, broken internet lines, and a lack of safe spaces—making education and work nearly impossible. But Gaza’s youth refuse to give up. They just need a chance. And that chance can come from you!
#tech#remotework#AcademicChatter
Public *
cafuego 🔭🤦🏼‍♂️

I pointed the little seestar s30 at a random part of Vela that had some interesting looking nebulosity in the star atlas and told it to make a mosaic.

Despite it starting to cloud over and about half of all images being useless because of that, it did take 703 x 10 second snaps and finished in the early hours. This is the result.

It looks like some nice nebulosity that might benefit from having the serious telescope stare at it for a few nights.

The star in the center is HD 77020, the one near the patch of nebulosity at top left is FZ Velorum.

A dense star field with a few bright stars scattered about. Faint pink nebulosity is visible everywhere, but some brighter patches sit along the top and on the left.
#Astrodon#astrophotography#seestar
Public
François, suricate nihiliste

2048 × 4096 × 2048 resolution simulation to reach a mixed large / small-scale dynamo regime with magnetic Reynolds numbers = 500, and magnetic Prandtl number Pm=1 (and, incidentally, to debunk a previous recent paper published in Nature).

The Sun is hard (notably because modelling Pm<< 1 remains really hard)

#astrodon #physics

aanda.org/articles/aa/full_htm

www.aanda.orgSmall-scale and large-scale dynamos in global convection simulations of solar-like stars | Astronomy & Astrophysics (A&A)Astronomy & Astrophysics (A&A) is an international journal which publishes papers on all aspects of astronomy and astrophysics
Public
Alan Mac Cárthaigh 🇮🇪

HOLY MOLY!!!🤯😍.. It’s: “Return of the Aurora…✨🌌”. What an epic #auroraborealis / #northernlights display (yet again..) over Courtmacsherry areas in West Cork, Ireland as light pillars ‘dance’ in the night sky! 🤩🥰📸🌠💥🌊🐣💚🩷 #aurora #astronomy #Astrodon #sunset #astronomy #spring #april #easter #Cork #Ireland #mastodon #mastoart #mastodonart #mastoartist #mastodonartist #mastodaoine #photography #photo #photograph #photographer #landscape #landscapephotography #art #colours #nature #naturephotography

HOLY MOLY!!!.. It’s: “Return of the Aurora…”. What an epic #auroraborealis / #northernlights display (yet again..) over Courtmacsherry areas in West Cork, Ireland as light pillars ‘dance’ in the night sky!
HOLY MOLY!!!.. It’s: “Return of the Aurora…”. What an epic #auroraborealis / #northernlights display (yet again..) over Courtmacsherry areas in West Cork, Ireland as light pillars ‘dance’ in the night sky!
Public
ESO

We love how excited you are about our announcement of an exoplanet orbiting two brown dwarfs in a perpendicular orbit. Are you up for a fun game to test you knowledge?

This beautiful illustration is packed with clues about how astronomers found this weird world. Some are easy to find, but other ones are trickier!

But no worries, this is an open book quiz 😉 You can peek at our press release and the research paper linked there:

eso.org/public/news/eso2508/

Can you find all the clues? Let us know!

📷 University of Birmingham / Amanda Smith

A drawing in red, white and black of a room with a large window overlooking a landscape with telescopes under a starry sky. The room contains several drawings.
#astrodon#astronomy#space
Public
ESO

In case you missed it yesterday, using ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), astronomers have found a planet that orbits at an angle of 90 degrees around a rare pair of peculiar stars.

This is the first time we have strong evidence for one of these ‘polar planets’ orbiting a stellar pair 😲

Check out this brief video recap 👇

youtube.com/watch?v=VSl7QLU2pV

YouTubeA planet in a perpendicular orbit around two brown dwarfs | ESO NewsBy European Southern Observatory (ESO)
#astrodon#astronomy#astrophysics
Public
AstronomieNL

🇬🇧 This Thursday Abha Khakurdikar will defend her thesis 'Search for ultra-high energy neutrinos', at Radboud University in Nijmegen. Succes Abha!

🇳🇱 Deze donderdag verdedigt Abha Khakurdikar haar proefschrift 'Search for ultra-high energy neutrinos', aan de Radboud Universiteit in Nijmegen. Succes Abha!

astronomie.nl/promoties/search

cc:
@Radboud_uni

www.astronomie.nlSearch for ultra-high energy neutrinos (promotie Abha Khakurdikar, RU)
#astronomy#astrodon#astronomie
Public
CosmicRami

You may have seen headlines today - such as in The New York Times - suggesting the possible detection of a biosignature on an exoplanet. It’s an exciting prospect, no doubt. But it’s also an extraordinary claim, and as the saying goes, "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence" (Carl Sagan).

While the molecule in question is associated with biological processes, it’s important to note that non-biological (abiotic) pathways for its formation exist as well (see: Reed et al. 2024 ApJL; Sanz-Novo et al. 2025 ApJL). These results are interesting, but far from conclusive.

Scientists work within a robust framework to test such claims. This includes:

- Peer review and replication
- Community feedback and critique
- Cross-validation through multiple instruments and techniques
- Avoiding sensationalism in science communication
- Building consensus through sustained investigation

I am looking forward to hearing more from the exoplanet and astrobiology communities on these findings before drawing conclusions.

In the meantime, the ripple effect of bold headlines - like "Possible Signs of Extraterrestrial Life" - has already begun. A friend at the dentist this morning spotted a very misleading headline about this on Channel 9 News!

This is where science communication becomes critical: managing public interest and excitement without compromising scientific accuracy.

We should use moments like these to show the process - how scientific ideas are proposed, tested, debated, and refined - to broader audiences. Whether we’re talking about space, climate change, or pandemics, this transparency is essential to building trust in science.

Aliens make for a great headline, but the real story is in how we do the science.

Screenshot of NYTimes article with a picture of Earth and teh headline that reads "Astronomers Detect a Signature of Life on a Distant Planet"
The search for life beyond Earth has led scientists to explore many suggestive mysteries, from plumes of methane on Mars to clouds of phosphine gas on Venus. But as far as we can tell, Earth’s inhabitants remain alone in the cosmos. Now a team of researchers is offering what it contends is the strongest indication yet of extraterrestrial life, not in our solar system but on a massive planet, known as K2-18b, that orbits a star 120 light-years from Earth. A repeated analysis of the exoplanet’s atmosphere suggests an abundance of a molecule that on Earth has only one known source: living organisms such as marine algae. “It is in no one’s interest to claim prematurely that we have detected life,” said Nikku Madhusudhan, an astronomer at the University of Cambridge and an author of the new study, at a news conference on Tuesday. Still, he said, the best explanation for his group’s observations is that K2-18b is covered with a warm ocean, brimming with life. “This is a revolutionary moment,” Dr. Madhusudhan said. “It’s the first time humanity has seen potential biosignatures on a habitable planet.”
#JWST#Astronomy#Astrobiology
Public
ESO

Did you find the #StarWars world, Tatooine, and its companion stars impressive? Then check this! 😉

ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) has discovered the first planet that not only orbits a pair of stars but does so at an angle of 90 degrees.

Both stars are brown dwarfs, objects bigger than gas-giant planets but too small to be proper stars. When tracking their orbits, astronomers found that the orbits themselves change over time. After carefully ruling out other explanations, they concluded that the gravitational tug of a planet in a polar orbit was the only way to explain the motion of the brown dwarfs.

Read more: eso.org/public/news/eso2508/

📷 ESO/L. Calçada

A computer illustration showing two bright orange stars orbiting each other. The orbits of the stars are shown as blue ellipses. A third object –– a planet shown as a smaller, fainter source –– orbits perpendicularly to the plane that contains the orbits of the two stars.
#astrodon#astronomy#astrophysics
Public
ESO

The Sun is rising over Cerro Armazones in #Chile!

And so does ESO's ELT: with the structure of one of the dome’s sliding doors now fully installed, construction on the dome of the telescope has reached its highest point.

The occasion also marks over 60% completion of the ELT. It was celebrated today at ESO's Headquarters in Garching, Germany, as well as at the ELT construction site in Chile!

Read more: eso.org/public/announcements/a

🎥 E. Garcés/ESO

#astrodon#astronomy#astrophysics
ExploreLive feeds
About