I have a new paper out today, led by Matthew Hopkins & @astrokiwi, predicting the properties of interstellar objects - visitors from other Solar Systems which pass through our own. The paper has all the detail, but let me explain a little here. . (1/n)arxiv.org/abs/2402.04904 We've seen 2 interstellar objects so far - 'Oumuamua which surprised us all in 2017, and Borisov two years later. For a summary of what we know & why these things matter, there's my @greshamcollege lecture, now on Youtube: (2/n)

Anyone want to hear an amazing story that came up during the talks to celebrate the 80th birthday of Jocelyn Bell Burnell @oxfordphysics yesterday? (1/n) Jocelyn, of course, is the discoverer of pulsars, and the most famous pulsar is that which lives at the heart of the Crab Nebula, the remnant of a supernova that exploded nearly a millennium ago (2/n)

Results just released from @NANOGrav and international partners show - for the first time - the signature of long-wavelength gravitational waves rippling through space. (1/n) @NANOGrav These waves, which buffet the Earth, are believed to most likely be the result of the mergers of supermassive black holes at the centres of galaxies (2/n)

This story from @nasa is causing confusion- black holes don’t make sounds! So what’s actually happening?

https://twitter.com/NASAExoplanets/status/1561442514078314496

This is an image of a cluster of galaxies in the constellation of Perseus, viewed with a telescope (@NASAChandra) that picks up light from hot gas. We’re seeing gas that fills the whole cluster, between the galaxies.

A couple of further comments on the paper out earlier with the tentative identification of very distant galaxies in early #JWST data (1/n)

https://twitter.com/physicsJ/status/1549780839772217345

Firstly, the paper's not reviewed yet, so take appropriate pinches of salt, though what's done looks sensible to me. (The team themselves note the dangers of working with a new instrument they may not fully understand yet). (2/n)

For all the excitement about the images yesterday, I hope someone at the agency is rethinking how they present such things. Yesterday’s #jwst release was painful, despite the best efforts of some fabulous communicators. (1/n)

https://twitter.com/whereisyvette/status/1546869973322268678

Firstly, I think there’s a tendency to be over ambitious. A live show, crossing to many different locations, and incorporating numerous live elements is tough, especially if you haven’t done it many times before. (2/n)

Last night we had the first science-ready image from #JWST, NASA & ESA’s new space telescope. Today, we’re going to do it all again with a press conference at 3.30pm BST revealing the rest of #JWST’s first photo album. (1/n)

https://twitter.com/astrokatie/status/1546622500825702400

Here’s a list of the shots we’re expecting. After the beauty and wonder of last night’s distant galaxies, I’m drooling at the prospect of Stephan’s Quintet in particular (2/n)

https://twitter.com/NASAWebb/status/1545413807996129280

We're about an hour away from the release of the first proper images from #JWST, the telescope that launched on Christmas Day. (1/n) Since then, the team from NASA & ESA have been working hard to commission the instruments and get it ready for science. Today is a milestone in that process. (2/n)

Next up at #NAM2022 is @astronomerslc25 on the manifold wonders of brown dwarfs, stars with atmospheres more like giant planets such as Jupiter. @astronomerslc25 Like @DrJoVian, I'm a little surprised to be reminded brown dwarfs were first discovered in my lifetime. They're such a central part of astronomy right now (because of links to exoplanets), bizarre to think it was only 1987 when first one was found.

Happy Black Hole day everyone! The @ehtelescope team are announcing new results at noon today. You might remember the image released in 2019, showing the centre of the galaxy M87. (1/n) That image, made with data from radio telescopes around the world, shows the silhouette of the massive black hole at the heart of M87. We’re not ‘seeing’ the black hole itself, just its effect on light, but it’s still an amazing image. (2/n)

Interesting experiment in #citizenscience ethics this morning! Along with millions of others, I’ve been logging health with @timspector’s @join_zoe app since the start of the pandemic. They’ve produced accurate data on symptoms and case rates throughout 1/n. My reward as a participant has been access to that data, which has been interesting and useful. Now the app wants permission to ask me questions associated with other diseases and conditions, investigating their link to nutrition. 2/n

At the #AAS237 conference yesterday I went to a panel discussion on the effect of large constellations of satellites on astronomy from the ground. The thousands of satellites @spacex and others want to launch are a serious problem. 1/n @SpaceX The launch of so many satellites might change the appearance of the night sky for ever and the trails they leave in astronomers' cameras and the potential for interference with radio telescopes are serious problems 2/n

A team led by @jgreaves6 have found what might be signs of life high in Venus' atmosphere. They have detected phospine, a gas which on Earth is produced only by life, in quantities they say are too large to be produced any other way. (1/17) The discovery was made by using sub-mm (microwave) telescopes @eao_jcmt and @almaobs; phosphine is detected roughly 50km above the surface; parts of the atmosphere have temperature and pressure similar to sea level on Earth (2/17)

I normally ignore conspiracy nonsense, but the world is weird and people are scared so: There is no asteroid or comet on a collision course with Earth right now. (1/7) I know this because anyone finding anything remotely interesting shouts about it in order to get others in different parts of the world to look. The sky is there for all of us - there are no secrets in space. (2/n)

Good news - the UK and @RoyalAstroSoc are going to celebrate National Astronomy Week in November: astronomyweek.org.uk cc @natastroweek.

For a grumpy astronomer take, read on (1/n) @RoyalAstroSoc @NatAstroWeek The reason for choosing November is that it's a great time to see a nice, bright, close apparition of Mars in the evening sky. This is great - seeing Mars through a telescope is cool, and it really makes a difference when Mars is close. (2/n)

Sometimes, astronomers can't help themselves. A @umontreal_news press release says 'water detected on an exoplanet in the habitable zone...a a major discovery in the search of alien life'. Except it isn't. It really isn't. @uMontreal_news If you read the paper (arxiv.org/abs/1909.04642) you find a fascinating description of a planet unlike any in our Solar System. It's more like a mini-Neptune than anything Earth like - though warm. Sort of like a cross between Venus and Neptune.