Notices by Phil Plait (badastro@mastodon.social)

What's the roundest human-made object ever made? One of Einstein's most bizarre predictions led to a pretty dang spherical ball bearing because of course it did.

[also, more on kicking Elon's Nazi bar to the curb]

https://badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/what-is-the-roundest-human-made-object-also-i-nuked-my-twitter-account

WHEN WE FIND IT WE'LL HAVE A BALL

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/whats-the-roundest-object-in-the-universe/

A reminder that last year at this time I wrote my favorite thing ever, my magnum lupus:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-happens-to-a-werewolf-on-the-moon/

HOLY HIGH-ENERGY SOLAR WIND PARTICLES!

I can see the aurora by eye! MY FIRST TIME EVER!!!

The bright star in the middle is Deneb. The glow shows up way better in photos.

Holy wow. Wow.

I had a lot of fun writing this one!

When it comes to the night sky, how dark is dark?

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-dark-is-the-night-sky/

Paid subscribers to my Bad Astronomy Newsletter can read about how astronomers have found a dead planet orbiting a dead star that's like looking into a dark mirror of Earth's distant future.

https://badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/a-dead-planet-found-around-a-dead-star

A *staggering* view of Mars that you VERY much want to see. And it even has a case of phobobombing.

https://badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/jawdropping-view-mars

If Hubble can see so much detail in distant galaxies, why can't it see the Apollo astronaut bootprints on the Moon?

This is a question with a definite resolution.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-cant-the-hubble-space-telescope-see-astronauts-on-the-moon/

A rare happenstance: a ruby-throated hummingbird actually perched on our feeder. This was from about 3 meters away taken with my phone.

66 million years ago, a huge object from space slammed into Earth and gave the dinsoaurs a really, really bad day.

... and now we know what it was: an asteroid, not a comet, and it came from the outer solar system.

https://badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/dinosaur-killer-asteroid-came-deep-space-outer-solar-system

You may have heard the huge Andromeda Galaxy is doomed to collide with the Milky Way causing cosmic chaos and catastrophe. AIIIIIEEEE!!!

Or… maybe not so much. ¯\_ (ツ)_/¯

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/will-the-milky-way-and-andromeda-galaxies-ever-collide/

The Sun blew off an eruptive prominence recently, one of the most impressive and spectacular events it can generate. APOD has the story, and below is a video of it. The time-lapse covers 90 minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBL1RBj-P1g

APOD: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap240818.html

In other news…

A new JWST pic for its anniversary shows a very cool colliding galaxy pair, where one of them looks like a penguin!

And somehow I makes this about not being able to let go of bad ideas long after they're really super clearly wrong.

https://badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/new-cool-jwst-image-colliding-galaxies-looks-like-penguin

Hubble the asteroid hunter!

And I mean, holy wow, check out that image!

https://badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/hubble-asteroid-hunter-actual-good-climate-news

*Another* weird planet has been found?

Kinda makes you wonder if maybe we're the weird ones.

https://badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/another-weird-planet-im-starting-wonder-us-whos-weird

You have an astronomical revolution in your pocket I would've killed for when I was in high school.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-astronomy-helped-create-your-smartphones-camera/

JWST has very likely seen the most distant galaxy ever found, and I'm still kinda boggling about it. It's too big, too massive, and too bright to exist according to our current understanding of how the Universe works.

We need a better understanding!

https://badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/jwst-bags-distant-galaxy-ever-seen-hoo-boy-mystery

A team of astronomers discovered some of the most ancient stars in our galaxy and used the moment to thumb their noses at ingrained GOP sexism, and I am so here for it.

https://badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/planet-fomalhaut-three-ancient-stars-another-galaxy-orbit

Look, I'm not one to morphology shame, but you gotta admit this is one really weird-looking galaxy.

https://badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/ethereally-glowing-seriously-weirdlooking-disk-galaxy

Handsome boy visitation