Mark Panning
Planetary seismologist in Pasadena. Project Scientist for InSight formerly operating on Mars and PI for Farside Seismic Suite and South Pole Seismic Station headed to the Moon. Somewhat nerdy. Opinions are, of course, my own. he/him
- Reposted by Mark Panningso let’s talk about why this headline demonstrates that tech CEOs have no idea what they’re talking about and, by extension, it’s unhelpful at best for journalists to report on topics they evidently don’t know enough about.
- Elon Musk believes the best way to solve the difficulties of building AI data centers on earth is to move them into outer space. His merger this week of his rocket company SpaceX with his artificial intelligence company xAI could help get them there. cnn.it/4rqAmED
- I’m going to go with 5 classes that had nothing to do with my major Reading the Postmodern (included Watchmen!) History of Jazz (David Baker was amazing) History of Rock and Roll (Glenn Gass was too) Riots, Rebellions, and Revolutions (great name, terrible class) Music Theory (why 8 am?)
- David Baker en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_B...
- Glenn Gass en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_G... Also included a guest lecture by Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick.
- Got my favorite journal article solicitation spam today. It’s from something entitled only “Research Joirnal” and goes to a large random list of email addresses I don’t recognize and simply says “Dear Sir/Madam,” with absolutely nothing else in the email. Kind of books it down to the bare essence.
- Reposted by Mark Panningcyclops is the sound a depressed horse makes when it runs.
- Reposted by Mark PanningLast week in Minnesota, I watched ordinary people risk their lives to protect their neighbors. In the process, they not only won a significant—though not final—victory against authoritarianism, they proved virtually every MAGA social theory wrong. (gift link) www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
- On try 2, it appears I’m actually boarding!
- And by the way, assigned seating on Southwest is super weird.
- And now it’s cancelled. Going to see if there’s any way to fly in tomorrow. Not possible on American, but maybe on another airline.
- Got on a different airline to a different airport early tomorrow morning. Means I’ll miss most of the first day of the meeting, but life goes on.
- They’re continuing to play the constant delay game. And at this point, there’s no other flights to book today or tomorrow. So either this one eventually flies or I don’t go. Oh well.
- It appears they’re playing the game where they are air until it hits the boarding time and then delay it another hour. Just a little annoyed that this means I’ll be driving later in the night when everything may be colder and icier, although hopefully it will be mostly cleared.
- I want to commend the other Mark Panning who is an IT manager of some flavor who has somehow got my name and phone number on every IT marketing list. Bravo, sir, bravo.
- Despite all DCA flights being cancelled yesterday, my flight today is still listed as on time.
- So what are the odds of a successful on-time flight to DC tomorrow?
- Well, he’s here and we’re all here on a Saturday. He’s saying relatively good things, so that’s good, I guess.
- I think he’s genuinely excited, but he got a question from the VERITAS PI and kept talking about how excited he is about it DAVINCI… which is likely just about him not yet knowing the difference between these two missions and the NASA support of VenSAR on ENVISION. But it’s a little frustrating.
- A couple InSight alumni (@spacequakes.bsky.social & Constantinos Charalambous) using seismometers to track impacts on Earth as well… 🧪🛰️⚒️
- Researchers in Science present a novel way to track errant space debris as it falls to Earth in near-real-time. Their method uses publicly available data from ground-based seismic sensors to detect the shockwaves, or sonic booms, of reentering debris. Learn more: scim.ag/4jTaKxz
- Reposted by Mark PanningAlso this week: tracking spacecraft re-entry using seismometers on the ground. This method provides additional constraints on the debris trajectory, even during daytime. 🛰️🔭 #seismology
- Researchers in Science present a novel way to track errant space debris as it falls to Earth in near-real-time. Their method uses publicly available data from ground-based seismic sensors to detect the shockwaves, or sonic booms, of reentering debris. Learn more: scim.ag/4jTaKxz
- This is a real hit. I’ve gotten a lot out of both LEAG and MEPAG meetings over my time in planetary seismology.
- NASA ends support for planetary science advisory groups www.science.org/content/arti... 🧪 #PlanetSci
- And IU is the undefeated national champion. What world is this?
- Cancelled out by the personal foul. Crap.
- 1:42 to go. Just don’t give up a touchdown. And the IU fans force a delay of game. Good start.
- That Malachi Toney guy is pretty good.
- Didn’t mean that “to” in there. I was not feeling great about that one, though, but that was beautiful.
- Well, Cignetti’s going to bold.
- Feeling stressed about the game now. Miami has looked like a totally different team in the second half.
- This is some serious defense. It’s just going to be which defense makes fewer mistakes at this point. This is a closer game than I was expecting. I thought Miami was going to fade, but clearly they’re not.
- Miami’s defense isn’t exactly perfect but they’re definitely the best IU has seen since Ohio State.
- Reposted by Mark PanningTHE GODS OF DOINK HAVE NOT BLESSED THE U TODAY
- Clang! 10-0 still.
- Feeling very annoyed that there was not a targeting call against Miami, but I’ll take getting on the board first after a long drive. Miami defense so far looking head and shoulders above Alabama and Oregon, though.
- Interesting to see how it’s at the Miami home field and IU fans seem to outnumber the U fans. But still the ESPN pregame crew picked against them 3-1 or so. Just like at the Rose Bowl. Let’s see how that goes this time.
- Been mostly absent while deep in proposal hell in recent weeks, and will likely remain so for the next month or so. But tonight’s all about actually watching the college football championship game an caring. Go Hoosiers!
- Reposted by Mark PanningNew paper alert! tl;dr: the seafloor of Europa is probably tectonically inert, meaning little to no active fracturing that could expose fresh rock to seawater. Without such water–rock reactions the prospect for there being life within Europa just took a big hit. A thread:
- Last minute decision to get tickets to Game 4 of the NLCS and seeing Shohei be so very Shohei. Game 7 of the WS was a better baseball game, but this one was in person.
