Stories, sights & secrets of space Astronomy writer, author & speaker Asteroid (15347) Colinstuart More space stories like these (free): astroclub.colinstuart.nethttps://bsky.app/profile/colinstuartspace.bsky.socialhttps://bsky.app/profile/colinstuartspace.bsky.social/post/3miwde5dqec24When Ptolemy, now long ago, Believed the Earth stood still, sir, He never would have blundered so, Had he but drunk his fill, sir: He'd then have felt it circulate, And would’ve learnt to say, sir, The true way to investigate Is to drink your bottle a day, sir! Astronomer’s Drinking Song 1800 🧪⚛️🔭07 Apr 2026 17:44 +0000at://did:plc:s47snnm74o7i5pmpkljfbjon/app.bsky.feed.post/3miwde5dqec24https://bsky.app/profile/colinstuartspace.bsky.social/post/3mitf6kgfuk2uA starspot on Zeta Andromedae. That’s a surface feature on a star 181 light years away. #astronomy ⚛️🧪 Image: Roettenbacher et al06 Apr 2026 13:38 +0000at://did:plc:s47snnm74o7i5pmpkljfbjon/app.bsky.feed.post/3mitf6kgfuk2uhttps://bsky.app/profile/colinstuartspace.bsky.social/post/3mirkl6em622bThis Easter, here’s an Easter egg straight from NASA. The tire treads of the Curiosity rover spell out JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) in Morse code. 🧵(1/2) #astronomy 🧪05 Apr 2026 20:09 +0000at://did:plc:s47snnm74o7i5pmpkljfbjon/app.bsky.feed.post/3mirkl6em622bhttps://bsky.app/profile/colinstuartspace.bsky.social/post/3mio75koiuk2eA cosmic rainbow of polarised zodiacal light. It’s faint light scattered off solar system dust. Hue indicates direction and saturation indicates degree of polarisation. Look closely and you can even see The Pleiades just above centre. #astronomy 🧪 ⚛️ Image: NASA/SwRI04 Apr 2026 12:07 +0000at://did:plc:s47snnm74o7i5pmpkljfbjon/app.bsky.feed.post/3mio75koiuk2ehttps://bsky.app/profile/colinstuartspace.bsky.social/post/3miguottrwc2rPallasites are arguably the most beautiful of all meteorites. Large crystals of olivine suspended in a metal matrix gives a stained glass window effect. #astronomy 🧪 Image: Doug Bowman01 Apr 2026 14:11 +0000at://did:plc:s47snnm74o7i5pmpkljfbjon/app.bsky.feed.post/3miguottrwc2rhttps://bsky.app/profile/colinstuartspace.bsky.social/post/3micamtjgos2gA false colour, composite image of the Moon taken by the Galileo spacecraft. Red = lunar highlands Blue to orange = volcanic lava flows (blue contains more titanium than orange) Purple = pyroclastic deposits formed by explosive volcanic eruptions #astronomy 🧪 Image: NASA/JPL30 Mar 2026 18:01 +0000at://did:plc:s47snnm74o7i5pmpkljfbjon/app.bsky.feed.post/3micamtjgos2ghttps://bsky.app/profile/colinstuartspace.bsky.social/post/3mi7jts75t226A marine chair designed for the express purpose of observing Jupiter and its moons while on a ship. Designed in 1757 by Christian Kratzenstein, the purpose was to help determine the ship’s longitude. #astronomy ⚛️🧪29 Mar 2026 16:08 +0000at://did:plc:s47snnm74o7i5pmpkljfbjon/app.bsky.feed.post/3mi7jts75t226https://bsky.app/profile/colinstuartspace.bsky.social/post/3mhyc6nthjk23Some star names are short, like Vega or Rigel. Others are beautiful tongue twisters, like Zubenelgenubi or Shurnarkabtishashutu. And yet, one bright star had no official name until very recently. This is the story of the star with no name. 🧵 (1/6) #astronomy 🧪⚛️ Till Credner / AlltheSky.com26 Mar 2026 19:03 +0000at://did:plc:s47snnm74o7i5pmpkljfbjon/app.bsky.feed.post/3mhyc6nthjk23https://bsky.app/profile/colinstuartspace.bsky.social/post/3mhtgghxhyc2jFalse colour image of Jupiter’s volcanic moon Io. The yellow shows sulphur plumes. It’s the most volcanically active place in the solar system. #astronomy 🧪 Image: ALMA (ESO/ NAOJ/ NRAO)/ I. de Pater et al./ NRAO/ AUI NSF/ S. Dagnello/ NASA/ ESA/ UC Berkeley.24 Mar 2026 20:35 +0000at://did:plc:s47snnm74o7i5pmpkljfbjon/app.bsky.feed.post/3mhtgghxhyc2jhttps://bsky.app/profile/colinstuartspace.bsky.social/post/3mhod5exc2k2q“The King of Siam, an honourary member, reported as dead, is still alive” Spotted in an old @royalastrosoc.bsky.social paper. #astronomy 🧪22 Mar 2026 19:53 +0000at://did:plc:s47snnm74o7i5pmpkljfbjon/app.bsky.feed.post/3mhod5exc2k2qhttps://bsky.app/profile/colinstuartspace.bsky.social/post/3mhdxjmlvlc2eMars’s moon Phobos set against the Red Planet. At an average diameter of just 22km across, it is smaller than a city. (Although I always say it looks like a giant space potato). #astronomy 🧪 Image: Mars Express18 Mar 2026 16:59 +0000at://did:plc:s47snnm74o7i5pmpkljfbjon/app.bsky.feed.post/3mhdxjmlvlc2ehttps://bsky.app/profile/colinstuartspace.bsky.social/post/3mh6cinwzzk2aOne of Carl Sagan’s most famous lines compares Earth to a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. But it wasn’t his. He pinched it from Sir James Jeans, who wrote in the 1930s: “our Earth will look smaller than the tiniest of motes in a sunbeam” #astronomy ⚛️🧪 Image: NASA/JPL16 Mar 2026 10:59 +0000at://did:plc:s47snnm74o7i5pmpkljfbjon/app.bsky.feed.post/3mh6cinwzzk2ahttps://bsky.app/profile/colinstuartspace.bsky.social/post/3mh4mvk36zc2nI’ll be live in an hour, talking about the future of human missions to Mars. Rockets, radiation, dust storms and what it will actually take to live on another planet. Got a question about Mars? Leave it here and I’ll try to answer it live. 8pm UK / 4pm ET https://open.substack.com/live-stream/126226 🔭⚛️🧪15 Mar 2026 19:00 +0000at://did:plc:s47snnm74o7i5pmpkljfbjon/app.bsky.feed.post/3mh4mvk36zc2nhttps://bsky.app/profile/colinstuartspace.bsky.social/post/3mh45sqafa226Julius Caesar was famously murdered on this day in 44BCE. Four months later, a comet blazed across the daytime sky in Rome. Some thought it was Caesar’s soul. A cult grew around the comet & eventually it appeared on Roman silver coins. 🧵 (1/2) 🔭🧪⚛️ #history 📸 Classical Numismatic Group/ NASA15 Mar 2026 14:30 +0000at://did:plc:s47snnm74o7i5pmpkljfbjon/app.bsky.feed.post/3mh45sqafa226https://bsky.app/profile/colinstuartspace.bsky.social/post/3mh3ppff3rs26The IceCube detector in Antarctica detected three high energy neutrinos nicknamed Bert, Ernie & Big Bird. Big Bird’s energy was a billion times bigger than a dental X-ray, jammed into a particle with a mass less than a millionth of an electron. #astronomy ⚛️🧪 Image: IceCube Collaboration15 Mar 2026 10:18 +0000at://did:plc:s47snnm74o7i5pmpkljfbjon/app.bsky.feed.post/3mh3ppff3rs26https://bsky.app/profile/colinstuartspace.bsky.social/post/3mgzdz2hy7c2cA cosmic ray once hit the Earth so hard astronomers named it the Oh My God particle. It had travelled 1.5 billion light years to reach us. But it was travelling so close to light speed that from its perspective the journey took a mere 1.7 days. #astronomy ⚛️ 🧪14 Mar 2026 11:43 +0000at://did:plc:s47snnm74o7i5pmpkljfbjon/app.bsky.feed.post/3mgzdz2hy7c2chttps://bsky.app/profile/colinstuartspace.bsky.social/post/3mgxql7fhdk2wWe’re going back to the Moon in April, could Mars be next? Come and find out how we might pull it off and the obstacles that still stand in our way. This Sunday 8pm UK / 4pm ET Livestream: https://open.substack.com/live-stream/126226 (Calendar links below) #astronomy 🧪⚛️13 Mar 2026 20:22 +0000at://did:plc:s47snnm74o7i5pmpkljfbjon/app.bsky.feed.post/3mgxql7fhdk2whttps://bsky.app/profile/colinstuartspace.bsky.social/post/3mgv3eu57n227Jules Verne is one the few craters on the Moon named after someone’s full name. Normally it’s just their surname (or occasionally first name for megastars like Tycho). Image: LRO #astronomy 🧪12 Mar 2026 18:58 +0000at://did:plc:s47snnm74o7i5pmpkljfbjon/app.bsky.feed.post/3mgv3eu57n227https://bsky.app/profile/colinstuartspace.bsky.social/post/3mgu4hqugec2eThe peak of Everest isn’t the highest on Earth. At least if you’re measuring from the planet’s centre. That honour falls to Mount Chimborazo in Ecuador. It’s close to the equator, where the Earth bulges outwards as it spins. 🔭🧪⚛️ Image: Eduardo Navas12 Mar 2026 09:45 +0000at://did:plc:s47snnm74o7i5pmpkljfbjon/app.bsky.feed.post/3mgu4hqugec2ehttps://bsky.app/profile/colinstuartspace.bsky.social/post/3mgsnix4zls2wMars is cold enough to freeze your blood, dusty enough to choke machines & bathed in radiation. Yet we’re planning to send people there. This Sunday I’m giving a live talk on how humans might survive the Red Planet. 8pm UK / 4pm ET https://open.substack.com/live-stream/126226 (Calendar links below) ⚛️ 🧪 🔭11 Mar 2026 19:44 +0000at://did:plc:s47snnm74o7i5pmpkljfbjon/app.bsky.feed.post/3mgsnix4zls2whttps://bsky.app/profile/colinstuartspace.bsky.social/post/3mgrxtnvykk2iThe Tropic of Cancer is drifting southwards by about 15 metres every year. Some Mexican highways used to have signs marking the changes. The shift happens because Earth’s axial tilt is slowly decreasing, due to gravitational tugs from the Sun and Moon. #astronomy 🧪 ⚛️ 📷 Roberto González11 Mar 2026 13:16 +0000at://did:plc:s47snnm74o7i5pmpkljfbjon/app.bsky.feed.post/3mgrxtnvykk2ihttps://bsky.app/profile/colinstuartspace.bsky.social/post/3mgq7lp3nak2kMeteorites scattered across a blue-ice moraine in Antarctica’s Miller Range. They’re easier to find here because glaciers act like slow conveyor belts, carrying meteorites toward mountain ranges where wind strips away the snow and exposes the ice. #astronomy ⚛️ 🧪 Image: NASA10 Mar 2026 20:30 +0000at://did:plc:s47snnm74o7i5pmpkljfbjon/app.bsky.feed.post/3mgq7lp3nak2khttps://bsky.app/profile/colinstuartspace.bsky.social/post/3mgphwjofd22aNASA’s Genesis mission crash-landed back on Earth because an accelerometer was installed backwards. Despite the impact, scientists still managed to recover some of the solar wind particles trapped inside. #astronomy 🧪 ⚛️ Image: USAF 388th Range Squadron10 Mar 2026 13:26 +0000at://did:plc:s47snnm74o7i5pmpkljfbjon/app.bsky.feed.post/3mgphwjofd22ahttps://bsky.app/profile/colinstuartspace.bsky.social/post/3mgnmqi5stk2fIn 1932, two newlyweds packed a folding kayak with: • hard-boiled eggs • chocolate • strawberries • two bottles of brandy Then they pushed out into the Black Sea as refugees from the Soviet Union. 🧵 (1/8) 🔭 ⚛️ 🧪 #histsci Image: George Gamow09 Mar 2026 19:47 +0000at://did:plc:s47snnm74o7i5pmpkljfbjon/app.bsky.feed.post/3mgnmqi5stk2fhttps://bsky.app/profile/colinstuartspace.bsky.social/post/3mgmtbfhj722fMercury and Venus photobombing our view of the Sun. The Sun itself is hiding behind the central white circle and you can clearly see it spewing hot plasma into space. #astronomy 🧪 ⚛️ Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center09 Mar 2026 12:11 +0000at://did:plc:s47snnm74o7i5pmpkljfbjon/app.bsky.feed.post/3mgmtbfhj722fhttps://bsky.app/profile/colinstuartspace.bsky.social/post/3mgkzojezxs2w1 hour to go until @ryanjfrench.bsky.social joins me live to discuss solar flares and space weather. Join us at 8pm UK / 4pm ET / 1pm PT https://open.substack.com/live-stream/121358 🧪 ⚛️ 🔭08 Mar 2026 19:01 +0000at://did:plc:s47snnm74o7i5pmpkljfbjon/app.bsky.feed.post/3mgkzojezxs2whttps://bsky.app/profile/colinstuartspace.bsky.social/post/3mgkjxqsivc26Saturn’s moon Pan looks like a raviolo. Its distinctive equatorial ridge is likely due to material the moon has swept up from Saturn’s rings. #astronomy 🧪 Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute08 Mar 2026 14:20 +0000at://did:plc:s47snnm74o7i5pmpkljfbjon/app.bsky.feed.post/3mgkjxqsivc26https://bsky.app/profile/colinstuartspace.bsky.social/post/3mghshvvffc26Meet the greatest time traveller in human history. Oleg Kononenko has spent more than 1000 days in orbit. Moving at 28,000 km/h, relativity means he’s travelled 0.025 seconds into the future. 🔭 🧪 ⚛️ Image: Johnson Space Center / NASA / Andrey Shelepin07 Mar 2026 12:14 +0000at://did:plc:s47snnm74o7i5pmpkljfbjon/app.bsky.feed.post/3mghshvvffc26https://bsky.app/profile/colinstuartspace.bsky.social/post/3mgg5u5mj3s2sA single solar flare can unleash the energy of 10 million volcanic eruptions. Find out more this Sunday when solar flare expert Ryan French joins my Sunday Space Sessions. 8pm UK / 4pm ET Livestream: https://open.substack.com/live-stream/121358 (calendar links below) #astronomy 🧪 ⚛️06 Mar 2026 20:32 +0000at://did:plc:s47snnm74o7i5pmpkljfbjon/app.bsky.feed.post/3mgg5u5mj3s2shttps://bsky.app/profile/colinstuartspace.bsky.social/post/3mgfkr3ujzs25This quasar is surrounded by a cloud containing 140 trillion times more water than all of Earth’s oceans. #astronony 🧪 Image: NASA/ESA06 Mar 2026 14:50 +0000at://did:plc:s47snnm74o7i5pmpkljfbjon/app.bsky.feed.post/3mgfkr3ujzs25