PEOPLE OF SPACE! I’m super excited to be hosting this week! We’ll be covering a bunch of topics that are near and dear to me including #space (obviously), astronomy, supernovae, radio astronomy, science communication, and MORE
🧵
#science #scicomm #spacetwitter #intro #Thread But who is this random dude yelling at us about space?
Well the short version is that I’m a physicist who finished high school with every intention of becoming a lawyer - pictured is 19yo me not caring about science
#accidentalscientist #accidentalphysicist #throwback #SPACE

The mission patch was based on a design from well known Italian fashion designer, Emilio Pucci. The design has three stylized birds flying over the Hadley-Appenine landing site with the crew names on the lower part of the outer border. In an early version of an Easter egg, the crew snuck a Roman numeral XV into the crater shadows. According to a story I heard from one of Al Worden's @ExploreSpaceKSC presentations, NASA discouraged Roman numerals on the Apollo patches, thus the hidden nature.

On board were (left to right) Lunar Module Pilot Jim Irwin, Commander Dave Scott, and Command Module Pilot Al Worden

Today I’ll be working on some research for the big Mars exhibition! As I said yesterday, I’m working on researching how people have been imaging the Red Planet throughout history. Today we have orbiters circling Mars and rovers that take pictures of the surface. But the history of imaging Mars stretches back centuries, from depicting Mars in art to the canals people thought they saw on the planet.

Going to talk about designing a temporary display today! In Science Museum lingo, there are 2 kinds of displays:
🚀Exhibitions (temporary displays) - these can last up to a year
🚀Galleries (permanent displays)

🧬 Life as we don't know it 🧫

Exotic solvents & life's building blocks are among the more speculative
#astrobiology topics, but still important to study scientifically! Our own system contains places potentially able to host life unlike on Earth. Not just Titan!

#AstroThread

https://twitter.com/People_Of_Space/status/1393504031209820161

All Earth life is carbon-based and needs water to survive. 💦

'Mildly' exotic life might share these traits, but use e.g. other information molecule (or differently coded DNA, even with different/more 'letters') or opposite chirality (left/right-handedness) of some compounds.

I promised an #Enceladus thread yesterday; it starts here! Let's take a look at this tiny, but all the more interesting icy moon of Saturn! 🪐

https://twitter.com/People_Of_Space/status/1391834523294437384

Though discovered already in the late 18th century by William Herschel, we had long known extremely little about it. 🔭

That changed with the Voyager flybys! 🛰️

If you were to search for extra-terrestrial life in the Solar System and had a budget for let's say a medium-class/New Frontiers mission, where would you go? 🛰️

Not doing a poll; too many possible good answers!

For me, though, 🪐 moon Enceladus is (narrowly) the top choice. There are other great options, of course!

Venus.
Mars.
Europa.
Titan.

Less likely other subsurface ocean-bearing moons or dwarf planets; we still know so little about them all!

While the deadline for this year's opportunity to apply for #ESA student sponsorship for the #IAC passed a week ago, I'd like to share my overwhelmingly positive experience of the program from 2016, so that you can decide to apply next year if possible! ⬇️

https://twitter.com/ESA__Education/status/1385516270133682177

I was finishing my MSc. in early 2016 and I was active in space outreach - organizing seminars, writing popular science articles for mags such as @Vesmir1871 (CZ) or @clarkesworld (EN) and trying out space workshops for kids, and I had ideas to put in an abstract for #IAC2016.

For as long as I remember, I've loved science and also science fiction. 🚀 Science came first for me, but for many, it's been the other way around.

SF is great for inspiring future scientists and igniting interest in science. Luckily, #scicomm & #outreach has begun to notice! ⬇️ I'm currently leading the 'Science Fiction as An Astrobiology Outreach & Education Tool' at @EAIastrobiology. We used reprint SF stories accompanied by original science essays in 'Strangest of All', released last spring to aid outreach amidst lockdowns.

julienovakova.com/strangest-of-a…

We've had several astrobiologist hosting @People_Of_Space already, for instance the wonderful @cosmobiologist, but unless I'm mistaken, most were US-based. Can you pursue an #astrobiology career elsewhere?

Well of course :)! I have a few Europe-based suggestions. First of all, like elsewhere, specialized programs are few and the most usual career path is to study biology, chemistry, astronomy or another related field and pursue interdisciplinary, astrobiological subjects - factors of habitability, life detection...

Hi everyone! 👋 I'm Julie (@Julianne_SF) and I'll be hosting People of Space this week. I'm an educator, biologist (astrobiology, evolutionary bio) & sci-fi writer/editor. PhD candidate at @science_charles, outreach co-leader at @EAIastrobiology, and the first Czech to host PoS! For much of my teenage life, I was uncertain whether to go for biology or astronomy. Math being the only less than stellar class of mine and everything living so utterly fascinating, I went for biology, but kept writing nonfiction+fiction about space. I've also got astrobiology!

🧵 I'm sure you've heard of the "space debris crisis". We knew about it in the late '70s + by the early '00s we had a robust set of laws that established the 25yr rule, required operators to design craft to withstand minor collision + to minimise the odds of in-orbit explosion... It's fascinating that even in the time I have read about it we have learned so much about the problem, though often we only find it turns out more difficult than previously thought 😕

Pre-Kessler it was thought "natural removal" (i.e. orbit decay) would take care of most...

Grote Reber (the inventor of the radio telescope) moved to TAS in the 1950s + spent the rest of his life here, after recognising conditions ideal for his work.

A high Southern latitude, where the ionosphere tends to be thinner, w/ a distinct lack of terrestrial RF interference. .@UTAS_ operates a buncha telescopes in picturesque locations across the state, both radio + optical, but there is also a big independent/hobbyist community here.
Astrophotography 📸✨ is a hit here due to our lack of light pollution, and we also get the 🌌 Aurora Chasers 🌌

Hello everyone 👋 I'm Mars (@TheMartianLife) and I am your host for this week.

A quick intro: I am a PhD candidate at @UTAS_/@CSIRO working on using Machine Learning to improve tracking precision and reliability for satellites and space debris. Before this, I had never worked in space before (though I was a BIG enthusiast); I actually came from computer science, where I have worked on ML for a range of other domains.

Needless to say, I am very excited to be able to combine the two. And for such an important issue 📡~🛰

So a final thread from me as your host today: some top tips on how to write for a popular audience about complicated subjects #space #science #writing #storytelling The essence of any good communication is simplicity. It’s the same in print, television, radio, online, or attaching notes to carrier pigeon’s legs.

So for my final half day, I wanted to share some "top tips" on writing for a popular audience - especially about space, and I already collected some thoughts here, but will now take the opportunity to expand on them where I can twitter.com/i/events/12229… Before I begin, I will obviously refer to Dick Feynman a great deal, because as I explained, quite by accident I came into his orbit and Al Hibbs, both of whom knew how to explain things

So my final thread on this last full day of tweeting - and my God what a day for anyone who is interested in .... checks notes.... Mars. What I wanted to do is make a few points about journalism .... and in particular, people who write about space #Mars #JournalismIsNotACrime To set some context, then, what exactly is a “space journalist”? It is an interesting question and one which is fairly easy to answer. As a journalist, your function is to report what happened and also why.

So as I suspected I would be exhausted today, being an industrious sort of fellow, I had prepared some tweets ahead of time if #Perseverance hadn't worked........ but with a little tweaking, still relevant #countdowntomars

@xipteras As everyone who follows space knows, there is a narrow line between success and failure - and there but for the grace of God.......telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/02/1…

So today it begins: the starter pistol has been fired to return samples of Mars this decade. What a time to be alive! We’ve been waiting a long time: the first proposal to do this envisaged it in 1984, and I recently found this story I did in 1996 (and have no memory of it – that’s old age for you) graphicnews.com/en/pages/05586…

I see my old paper is very subtly using the word "overseas" in its correct sense Later, when the caffeine has kicked in, I will tweet some more about journalism - but for now, on this happy day of Mars exploration, will share some great headlines that I have collected over the years