(she/her) PhD student at McGill studying gamma-ray astrophysics with the VERITAS telescopes 🔭⚡️ | @astrobites.bsky.social author ☄️https://bsky.app/profile/samanthawong.bsky.socialhttps://bsky.app/profile/samanthawong.bsky.social/post/3mr47aiqdx22dback here just to repost another abite!! this one covers both (to varying degrees) swift-related events that went down the other week ;) [contains quote post or other embedded content]20 Jul 2026 21:07 +0000at://did:plc:mixbgvbqaetafd74dtftryba/app.bsky.feed.post/3mr47aiqdx22dhttps://bsky.app/profile/samanthawong.bsky.social/post/3mjg34efrw22sa week late whoops but still a great time [contains quote post or other embedded content]13 Apr 2026 23:59 +0000at://did:plc:mixbgvbqaetafd74dtftryba/app.bsky.feed.post/3mjg34efrw22shttps://bsky.app/profile/samanthawong.bsky.social/post/3ln4rygh7ts2l [contains quote post or other embedded content]18 Apr 2025 23:36 +0000at://did:plc:mixbgvbqaetafd74dtftryba/app.bsky.feed.post/3ln4rygh7ts2lhttps://bsky.app/profile/samanthawong.bsky.social/post/3llyx777xkk2xThis was super fun to work on! In particular, I deep-dived into the expansion of the arXiverse, which was a very meta exploration of the past few decades of astronomers “yeeting papers into the void” [contains quote post or other embedded content]04 Apr 2025 17:33 +0000at://did:plc:mixbgvbqaetafd74dtftryba/app.bsky.feed.post/3llyx777xkk2xhttps://bsky.app/profile/samanthawong.bsky.social/post/3li44v3yv3s23My last official bite as a regular author 🥹 so grateful to have written for astrobites over the past few years & excited to see what the new generation of authors brings! 🧪 Another case of using gamma-rays to track down cosmic rays, but this time from starburst galaxy M 82, aka the cigar galaxy 🚬🌟 [contains quote post or other embedded content]14 Feb 2025 02:12 +0000at://did:plc:mixbgvbqaetafd74dtftryba/app.bsky.feed.post/3li44v3yv3s23https://bsky.app/profile/samanthawong.bsky.social/post/3lhmboee4nk26This paper has been in the works since very early in my MSc (I’m now a second year PhD) — after like 18 months of reviews by a lot of large collaborations, we finally got this out into the world!! Summary below but tl;dr: do gammas and neitrinos come from the same place? Not this time! 🧪🔭 [contains quote post or other embedded content]07 Feb 2025 18:55 +0000at://did:plc:mixbgvbqaetafd74dtftryba/app.bsky.feed.post/3lhmboee4nk26https://bsky.app/profile/samanthawong.bsky.social/post/3lhmbh45lck26Another astrobite in my series of “where are we making all these cosmic rays??” themed bites. This is a theory paper that looks at modelling a scenario where all the cosmic rays at really high energies are made in our nearest AGN, Centaurus A 🔭🧪 [contains quote post or other embedded content]07 Feb 2025 18:51 +0000at://did:plc:mixbgvbqaetafd74dtftryba/app.bsky.feed.post/3lhmbh45lck26https://bsky.app/profile/samanthawong.bsky.social/post/3lesykwclec2f+ highland cows ofc!! [contains quote post or other embedded content]03 Jan 2025 06:46 +0000at://did:plc:mixbgvbqaetafd74dtftryba/app.bsky.feed.post/3lesykwclec2fhttps://bsky.app/profile/samanthawong.bsky.social/post/3leneurbj2s2whappy new years i made my cat a hat and she hates it01 Jan 2025 01:10 +0000at://did:plc:mixbgvbqaetafd74dtftryba/app.bsky.feed.post/3leneurbj2s2whttps://bsky.app/profile/samanthawong.bsky.social/post/3ldx5vmvous2tcan light travel faster than the speed of light? probably not but we can use all the times we saw light travelling at regular speed to constrain that new physics probably isn’t happening [contains quote post or other embedded content]23 Dec 2024 05:06 +0000at://did:plc:mixbgvbqaetafd74dtftryba/app.bsky.feed.post/3ldx5vmvous2thttps://bsky.app/profile/samanthawong.bsky.social/post/3ldw22dlke22tyes I am a “100 tab across multiple browser” person but I don’t think I’ve ever closed a phone tab and now I’m scared [contains quote post or other embedded content]22 Dec 2024 18:25 +0000at://did:plc:mixbgvbqaetafd74dtftryba/app.bsky.feed.post/3ldw22dlke22thttps://bsky.app/profile/samanthawong.bsky.social/post/3ldtuv37o4226i reallllly want a work/life balance so badly but like how do I do that if I have a conference the first week of january??!! my unfinished slides and buggy code are actively haunting me21 Dec 2024 21:47 +0000at://did:plc:mixbgvbqaetafd74dtftryba/app.bsky.feed.post/3ldtuv37o4226https://bsky.app/profile/samanthawong.bsky.social/post/3lco74n4czk2ppls appreciate that I put a hat on the observatory (and pray for me that it is somehow not cloudy for my event :))06 Dec 2024 22:09 +0000at://did:plc:mixbgvbqaetafd74dtftryba/app.bsky.feed.post/3lco74n4czk2phttps://bsky.app/profile/samanthawong.bsky.social/post/3lcds2dvvfk2iaddressing some anti-DEI bs - here’s just some of the DEI work I’m fortunate to do: - making teaching resources that include underrep. physicists - establishing a food pantry for grad students w/ financial stress - bringing telescopes and physics labs to remote and underserved communities [contains quote post or other embedded content]02 Dec 2024 18:49 +0000at://did:plc:mixbgvbqaetafd74dtftryba/app.bsky.feed.post/3lcds2dvvfk2ihttps://bsky.app/profile/samanthawong.bsky.social/post/3lc6owei6fk2cobserving day 10/10(!) terrible weather, sat in the control room all night to follow up a gravitational wave through the clouds ☁️30 Nov 2024 18:09 +0000at://did:plc:mixbgvbqaetafd74dtftryba/app.bsky.feed.post/3lc6owei6fk2chttps://bsky.app/profile/samanthawong.bsky.social/post/3lc2ol5vx3c2yobserving day 9/10: my American colleagues keep thanking me so much for being here to operate the telescopes on thanksgiving (I’m Canadian and literally had no idea today wasn’t just a normal day)29 Nov 2024 03:52 +0000at://did:plc:mixbgvbqaetafd74dtftryba/app.bsky.feed.post/3lc2ol5vx3c2yhttps://bsky.app/profile/samanthawong.bsky.social/post/3lbtjwsqxqs2kObserving day 5?/10 (losing track tbh) and finally spotted a coati (a desert raccoon)!!26 Nov 2024 07:41 +0000at://did:plc:mixbgvbqaetafd74dtftryba/app.bsky.feed.post/3lbtjwsqxqs2khttps://bsky.app/profile/samanthawong.bsky.social/post/3lbisf2fxyk2cObserving day 3/10! Venus sighting while looking for ringtails 🦝 before observations22 Nov 2024 01:13 +0000at://did:plc:mixbgvbqaetafd74dtftryba/app.bsky.feed.post/3lbisf2fxyk2chttps://bsky.app/profile/samanthawong.bsky.social/post/3lbdvt336222mJust started day 1/10 of a yearly observing shift! gamma-ray observatories are different than others, so wanted to share a day in the life! Winter shifts are pretty brutal —we’re working 15h sunset to sunrise and drive back up the mountain to get to the dorms (the telescopes are at the bottom).20 Nov 2024 02:31 +0000at://did:plc:mixbgvbqaetafd74dtftryba/app.bsky.feed.post/3lbdvt336222mhttps://bsky.app/profile/samanthawong.bsky.social/post/3lb5dcr5ntk2dHi everyone! I’m Sam and I’m a PhD student at McGill university in Montreal, Canada! I study pulsars and their environments in very high energy gamma-rays. I’m a current @astrobites.bsky.social author and I’m also involved in DEI efforts and run a small outreach observatory 🔭17 Nov 2024 11:44 +0000at://did:plc:mixbgvbqaetafd74dtftryba/app.bsky.feed.post/3lb5dcr5ntk2d