Topic: Pamela Gay
A Brief History of Community Science, Part 1

A Brief History of Community Science, Part 1

by | Jul 15, 2025 |

Across the centuries, people of all kinds have contributed to the field we now call science. From early developments in mathematics, to systematic observations of how objects move in the sky, and changes take place in the landscape, we’ve seen people systematically observing the world around them, looking to see what is mathematically definable, and sharing what they learn. It is this last part - sharing what they learn - that makes someone a scientist. If you go outside tonight, and you observe a bright spot on the surface of Saturn or Jupiter, or even on the shadowed side of the Moon, but...

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Dying Stars’ Final Artwork

Dying Stars’ Final Artwork

by | May 7, 2025 |

One of the justifications for building the Hubble Space Telescope was to finally get a detailed enough view  of the fuzzy blobs we call planetary nebulae that we could finally understand what is going on. Turns out, for some of the nebulae, we actually needed...

It’s a Star-Eat-Planet Universe

It’s a Star-Eat-Planet Universe

by | May 6, 2025 |

One of the most mystifying planets to many of us are the hot Jupiters. These massive worlds have orbits smaller than Mercury’s and in some cases are so close to their stars that starlight is pushing mass off the planet or the planet is raising tides on the star....

New Weird Star-Star-Planet Combination

New Weird Star-Star-Planet Combination

by | May 5, 2025 |

The Universe sometimes likes to mock us. Such is the case with exoplanets. Once upon a time, researchers would sagely say, “Solar Systems like Tatooine, with twin stars, likely don’t exist.” The thing is, this was based on models that relied on limits created with...

Rubin Observatory Brings Much Needed Joy

Rubin Observatory Brings Much Needed Joy

by | Apr 25, 2025 |

Ok, so we held off running this last little section while I waited to see if Vera Rubin observatory would put out a First Light press release. Rubin Observatory did not put out a first light press release. They put out a Facebook post saying “on-sky engineering tests...

Leading Science Via Meritocracy and Consensus

Leading Science Via Meritocracy and Consensus

by | Apr 23, 2025 |

An American flag hung upside down from a cliff by National Parks employees, signifying distress. Credit: Tracy Barbutes / San Francisco Chronical One of the imperfectly realized goals of science is to reward people fairly for their excellence and defining our future...

It’s Time to Give Up on Supersymmetry

It’s Time to Give Up on Supersymmetry

by | Apr 9, 2025 |

Since I was old enough to read about particle physics, I’ve been reading about how one possible set of solutions to explain why we have the particles we have in our universe would require the existence of a massive zoo of particles that that bring the population of...

Galaxies Seen Through Gas

Galaxies Seen Through Gas

by | Apr 7, 2025 |

One of the more surreal aspects of JWST images is that infrared light can pass through a lot of dust and gas, allowing us to see galaxies that were previously hidden. New images of Herbig-Haro 49/50 resemble a weirdly abstract Christmas tree; a ring galaxy ornaments...