Steve Desch
Professor of astrophysics / planetary science / meteoritics at Arizona State University.
- I agree, but by any definition my birth year (1970) is pretty much peak Gen X. And in true Gen X fashion, I think we, as a generation, kinda suck.
- Five concerts you’ve seen with female lead singers Joan Jett and the Blackhearts Garbage Suzanne Vega Alannah Myles B-52s Twice (soon)
- Reposted by Steve DeschEsto de @danielpazahora.bsky.social está más vivo que nunca.
- Ruin a song by changing one letter: Duran Duran’s “The Reflux”
- Reposted by Steve DeschPhoto by Pierre Lavie. Yes this is me. And I threw my Leica. It landed on the bass plate with hardly a scratch. Another Photographer grabbed it along with my phone and I was able to track him later. I was held face down tear gas deployed right in front of me and pepper sprayed directly into the eye.
- Reposted by Steve DeschIxion Left: Lapith Right: Plutino arxiv.org/abs/2601.09639 Kilic et al., Astronomy & Astrophysics, in press
- Reposted by Steve DeschIt’s time to stop the influx of immigrants who take drugs, father children out of wedlock, and steal from the government. by Elon Musk
- Reposted by Steve Desch🧵 In a 2025 study, Guanming Liang and Robert Caldwell of Dartmouth College propose a new theory for the origin of dark matter (DM). ➡️ home.dartmouth.edu/news/2025/05... Graphic by Midjourney/Richard Clark 🔭 🧪 #cosmology #science 1/11
- Very cool! It should also break one Harvard astronomer’s heart to learn this is not a 20 km- diameter object. Since we’d expect to see thousands of smaller comets for each comet that big, this wouldn’t be an interstellar comet. But, turns out, it’s a smol, D=1 km, statistically likely what? COMET.
- A little 3I/ATLAS update building on @marshall-eubanks.bsky.social's nice RNAAS from last week. Given its non-grav acceleration and the rate at which it's losing mass, you can work out its size. The answer: a diameter around 1 km, very typical for comets. arxiv.org/abs/2512.18341 🔭 🧪
- Reposted by Steve DeschINTERSTELLAR COMET #3IATLAS IMAGED TODAY IN ITS CLOSEST APPROACH TO #EARTH. It keeps its inner coma activity with waving jets, and the intense antitail. We explained its transitional nature from spectra and photometry. Outreach: t.co/K0xqGPy1fX Research preprint: t.co/MAVDRxLowC #PlanetarySciences
- Reposted by Steve DeschPicture a stellar newborn that, between one hiccup and the next, launches jets of gas at insane speeds, leaving behind a trail of rings like footprints in the cosmos. 🔭 That's the story told by the recent discovery on SVS 13, a protostar... ➡️ www.almaobservatory.org/en/press-rel... 🧪 #Science 1/9
- Reposted by Steve DeschThe name "Popular Science" doesn't mean we shift our coverage depending on public opinion. It means we cover relevant subjects that are rigorously researched, reliable, and grounded in reality. And trans lives are grounded in reality. We see y'all. No matter what. www.popsci.com/science/tran...
- Reposted by Steve DeschAll you ever wanted to know about what meteorite tell us about Solar System Formation! Check out the newest @issibern.ch book ⬇️ #planetSci
- Check out the latest Topical Collection in Space Science Reviews on "Evolution of the Solar System: Constraints from Meteorites" edited by Dominik C. Hezel, Herbert Palme, Jutta Zipfel, Alessandro Morbidelli and Klaus Mezger Find all papers here (open-access): link.springer.com/collections/...
- I get these emails often. I'm not that kind of doctor. We are honored to invite you to be a Speaker with the speech topic "The breakup of a long-period comet is not a likely match to the Chicxulub impactor" at the 13th International Congress of Gynaecology and Obstetrics (ICGO-2026 Asia).
- Reposted by Steve DeschHappy Hanukkah to our friends who celebrate. Rachel Posner, a rabbi’s wife in Kiel, Germany, took this photograph in 1931 -- a potent reminder that fascism must be fought in every generation, even if it's wrapped in an American flag and a red hat.
- Great article (in Spanish) about scientists who pass to the Dark Side, destroying science from within, the psychology of it, and the irresponsibility of our media in promoting it.
- Buenos días. Se me lean ustedes esto, por favor 😉Avi Loeb y los científicos que se pasan al ‘lado oscuro’: cuando el enemigo de la razón duerme en casa www.eldiario.es/1_c3aebe?utm...
- Reposted by Steve DeschIt's funny to have to make this case but tbqh we don't make it enough: human efforts to counter fossil fuel use have had *at least some* effect on total greenhouse gas emissions since the signing of the Paris Agreement in 2015, and there's some evidence to back up this position A lil thread 🧵
- Interesting but I think off the mark. It presumes 26Al isn’t inherited from molecular cloud because rare inclusions have low 26Al/27Al and “predate” 26Al. But as cited PP7 chapter & Desch+2023 explain, it’s a chemical heterogeneity. 26Al was always there, no need to make it: arxiv.org/pdf/2307.07750
- For that matter, planets like Earth *could* be dry (<0.1% water) because of 26Al heating and dehydration of planetesimals, as Desch & Leshin (2004!) and later Lichtenberg et al. suggested; but probably Earth just formed inside water snow line, with little role for 26Al.
- Reposted by Steve DeschHubble reobserved interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS on November 30. At the time, the comet was about 178 million miles (286 million kilometers) from Earth. Hubble tracked the comet as it moved across the sky. As a result, background stars appear as streaks of light: go.nasa.gov/4iCU2lH 🔭 🧪
- Reposted by Steve DeschThanks to Chris Young at Interesting Engineering for the chance to contextualize 3I/ATLAS. I would have preferred two thumbnails of the comet itself, but... enjoy. interestingengineering.com/space/3i-atl...
- ¿No crees en la colonización? Este es nuestro cielo. Corrección: este era nuestro. Todos hemos perdido un poco. ¿Quién gana?
