HEADS UP:
"NOAA forecasters are predicting a strong G3-class geomagnetic storm (aka. Aurora) on March 23rd when a CME is expected to directly hit Earth."
"G3 (Strong) Geomagnetic Storm Watch for 23 Mar" by NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center - The Sun erupted a coronal mass ejection (CME) expected to reach Earth on March 23 UTC at G3 storm level. That means forecasted Kp=7 for aurora down to Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and Massachusetts. https://www.spaceweather.gov/news/g3-strong-geomagnetic-storm-watch-23-mar #astronomy #aurora #AuroraBorealis #AuroraAustralis #CME #SpaceWeather
"What Makes a Moon?" by @badastro - Starting with our own #Moon as the original example, long ago it was easy to define a moon as any natural object orbiting a planet. Then telescopes got better and the definition became harder to nail down. Some things are too small to call moons, like particles in Saturn's ring. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/whats-the-definition-of-a-moon/ #astronomy
There is a huge prominence on the Sun's west limb today, associated with a series of expanding coronal loops that looks set to lift off sooner rather than later. This view in hydrogen alpha light was made about three hours ago.
#UMPlus - Giant Cosmic Webs
https://www.universomagico.net/2025/03/redes-cosmicas-gigantes.html
This beautiful structure, composed of clouds and filaments, is located in the southern constellation of Vela and lies about 800 light-years from Earth. It is all that remains of a massive star that died in a powerful explosion known as a supernova. The image is a small part of a larger image taken with the.....
#astronomy #space #astrophysics #astrophotography
#FollowFriday Prof. Sam Lawler
@sundogplanets
She’s a professor of astronomy who’s written about the problems with the proliferation of Starlink satellites and about the SpaceX space junk that fell down on her neighbor’s farm in Saskatchewan — but also about her goats. (Baby goats coming in early April!) I appreciate both her space-related posts and her farm-related posts!
https://mastodon.social/@sundogplanets/114070997892994929
This is the spiral galaxy M100, in the Virgo Galaxy Cluster. It's not quite there yet. I'll probably work on it more tonight if it's clear.
#space #astronomy #astrodon
To clarify: this is only possible thanks to adaptive optics, which corrects atmospheric turbulence and allows us to read those tiny labels.
Check out these pics to catch one last glimpse of Saturn's rings before they "disappear" from view for a while! 
On 23 March, the Earth's orbit will cross the plane of the rings, making the majestic rings appear edge-on from our perspective. Since Saturn will be positioned very close to the Sun in the sky, it won’t be possible to observe it as the Earth crosses the plane. The rings will then become visible again in September this year.
Courtesy of ESO astronomer Abigail Frost, these images were captured in early January through the Nasmyth A focus of Unit Telescope 1 at our Very Large Telescope (VLT) in #Chile .
Forecast noted cloudy last night. Took a peak outside this morning and was able to sneak in 30 minutes of telescope time. Decided to observe some #galaxies i have observed before. Here is #m104 #SombreroGalaxy . #unistellar #odysseypro #space #astronomy #amateur
The primary mirror of our Extremely Large Telescope will be 39 m wide –– too large to be made from a single piece of glass.
Instead, the mirror will consist of 798 hexagonal segments working together thanks to thousands of extremely accurate sensors and actuators.
Do you want to see them up close? Check out our latest ELT video update: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-FXOoo1kXo
On this day in 1916, Albert Einstein published his general theory of relativity, suggesting that gravity curves spacetime itself—a revolutionary concept that needed proof.
This #video explains how astronomers used a 1919 solar eclipse to confirm #Einstein's theory and change #physics forever:
https://zurl.co/vJOtN
News from the early Universe: using ALMA, astronomers have found oxygen in JADES-GS-z14-0, the most distant known galaxy.
We're seeing this galaxy when the Universe was less than 300 million years old, ~2% of its current age. Heavy elements are forged in stars and released when they die, so this has implications for our understanding of how the first galaxies formed.
Press release: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2507/
Video explanation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSqzYuyc7aw
Phew, even pro astronomers get photobombed sometimes 
Sam Lawler @sundogplanets tells me the story how she pointed her telescope 
at the Kuiper Belt, just to have Saturn crash the party with massive overexposure. In the end, this accident helped discover 128 new Saturn moons.
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DvwzbHTcDo
Maybe I shouldn’t delete my bad photos after all?
What does it mean to be human? My talk and conversation at Synapse 2025 in New Delhi about black holes, the universe, us, and the divine now on YouTube. I had lots of wonderful discussions afterwards and felt really at home among this crowd. Lots of synergies.
https://youtu.be/PCg0eFVhMDo?feature=shared
Thanks to @markmccaughrean for convincing me to go 
#astrophysics #astrodon #astronomy #christianity #India #hinduism
Using ALMA, in which we are a partner, astronomers have found oxygen in the most distant known galaxy!
The galaxy, known as JADES-GS-z14-0, is so far away that we see it as it was when the Universe was less than 300 million years old, about 2% of its present age.
Researchers had thought that this early on the Universe was still too young to have galaxies ripe with heavy elements. Yet this record-breaking detection indicates that JADES-GS-z14-0 has about 10 times more heavy elements than expected, making scientists rethink how quickly galaxies formed in the early Universe.
Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2507/
ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/S. Carniani et al./S. Schouws et al/JWST: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Brant Robertson (UC Santa Cruz), Ben Johnson (CfA), Sandro Tacchella (Cambridge), Phill Cargile (CfA)
A mesmerizing timelapse of the Sun in ultraviolet light, captured by the SDO spacecraft over the course of a month.
Credit: NASA/SDO
Last night we were over at the Leiden University board game society demoing the Acrux star board game.
This is the latest near final prototype with the box and folding board.
The rules are solidifying now but the students suggested one interesting variation we are going to try out.
My mind is still a bit blown from #Euclid telescope images last night.
When I zoomed in on a tiny patch of sky — field of view: 7.1' x 3.6, which is about the size of a grain of rice held at arms length — there was so much to see.
Walls and walls of galaxies. And then more walls of galaxies behind this.
Each galaxy hosts hundreds of billions of stars and there are millions of them, all, in this tiny field of view.
We are tiny tiny creatures.
