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30 Oct, 4 tweets, 2 min read
In a couple hours I will be boarding a flight to London on roughly this route and I have a window seat on the left 👀🤞🏼✈️ #AuroraBorealis A topographic map of the region of Earth over the Atlantic,
I will report back as to whether I see any incredible aurora and/or discover any downsides to being airborne at high altitude during a geomagnetic storm 🤩😬
I’m ready. Come on aurora! A photo of an engine and another plane out an airplane windo
Aurora update: more like NO-rora, for me, alas. ☹️ I spent a bit of time huddled against the window with a blanket over my head but saw only stars and the grandeur of the infinite cosmos. I was told the pilots didn’t really see anything either. Next time, perhaps!

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More from @AstroKatie

Katie Mack Profile picture
26 Oct
Just spoke with @LBC about the discovery of what might be a planet in another galaxy: bbc.com/news/science-e…

Which is very exciting! But (and I didn't get to this in the interview) there are reasons to be skeptical about this claim.
The astronomers observed a dip in the bright x-ray light from a binary system consisting of a massive star locked in an orbit with a compact stellar remnant: a black hole or neutron star. The claim is a planet passed in front of the system and briefly blocked the x-ray emission.
Such a "transit" event is certainly plausible -- we've detected thousands of exoplanets via transits in our own galaxy! But this case would be a VERY lucky situation. The alignment would have to be perfect and the timing EXTREMELY lucky to have caught it.
Read 4 tweets
Katie Mack Profile picture
10 Oct
At Nashville Airport, heading home shortly. Mask use here (as in all US airports) is mandatory, but is currently standing at about 50%. Maaaaaybe as high as 70% if you pretend that noses don’t exist. 😑
See you soon Raleigh Me leaning against my arm a...
I am back in Raleigh! My suitcase, alas, is not ready to come home yet. The airline tells me it will be on its own flight tomorrow afternoon. While I respect its desire to assert its independence, I would really have preferred having access to my clothes and toothbrush tonight.
Read 4 tweets
Katie Mack Profile picture
2 Oct
[poll] Did you know? #MercuryRetrograde is when Mercury:
For a really great explainer of what #MercuryRetrograde actually means, check out this video by @JossFong vox.com/2016/9/10/1286…
The short version is that because Mercury is closer to the Sun, it orbits faster than us, and so if we were to chart its sky position relative to distant stars, when it’s scooting between us and the Sun it’ll look like it’s going the “wrong” way. But it’s a trick of perspective.
Read 5 tweets
Katie Mack Profile picture
2 Oct
Hello I am an astronomer, I have a small telescope and I’ve done lots of stargazing. I’ve never seen Mercury (it’s very close to the Sun) and I never pay attention to where it is in its orbit. The only impact it has on my life is unfortunate people blaming it for their troubles.
The thing people call “Mercury retrograde” is an accident of perspective by which if you WERE observing Mercury every night, sometimes it would appear a little east of where it was yesterday & sometimes a little west, from our perspective. But it’s just orbiting; nothing changes.
Unless you’re out there with a telescope and a sextant making charts of the position of a small dot near the Sun, you won’t observe apparent retrograde motion. Even if you were ON MERCURY you wouldn’t notice anything unless you were tracking Earth. It’s just not really a thing.
Read 5 tweets
Katie Mack Profile picture
10 Sep
I’m totally fine and there is no need to worry or anything like that (honestly!!) but I will not be answering e-mails today Me sitting in a hospital bed in a hospital gown, wearing an
Anyway if I tweet weird later, it’s just the anesthesia 😅
Thanks everyone for the well wishes! Surgery and post-op went fine and I’m home now and resting, looked after by @cavaticat. Still not answering any e-nails today 🙅‍♀️ Me peeking my face out of a giant mass of white blankets in Me reclining on a sofa at home looking woozy but smiling, we
Read 5 tweets
Katie Mack Profile picture
27 Aug
The seating chart makes it especially clear that defining a “close contact” as “within six feet for more than 15 minutes” is absurdly insufficient in the context of (1) an indoor space and (2) the Delta variant. Being close is worse but indoors the whole room is at risk.
The above kind of story is why I cringe every time I see a press conference or other event in which everyone is masked EXCEPT the speaker at the front. You create the most droplets and aerosols when you’re speaking — that’s when you need the mask MOST!
The official advice is “masks work best when everyone is wearing them.” They can be helpful protection for uninflected people to wear but they’re MOST helpful as source control: worn by infected people. With Delta, most transmissions happen BEFORE SYMPTOMS APPEAR. Please mask up.
Read 4 tweets

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