Our Island Universe
🌌 #𝑶𝒖𝒓𝑰𝒔𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒅𝑼𝒏𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒆 explores all things space — how what happens 𝙪𝙥 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚 shapes life 𝙙𝙤𝙬𝙣 𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚. #Astronomy connects us across #cultures and #time; by sharing stories of our #cosmic past and present, I hope to inspire a brighter future. #SpaceWatch 🌟🔭🛰️🚀🪐
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- Reposted by Our Island UniverseMaster Your Unistellar Telescope & Do Science That Matters is a five-part workshop for Unistellar users who want to move beyond imaging into true scientific observing. This course is presented by @astrosociety.org, in partnership with @unistellar.bsky.social and the SETI Institute. 🧪 🔭
- An essay on time, music, and the unfinished work of becoming. 🔗 bit.ly/trying-again
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- Reposted by Our Island UniverseTrue! Many people live in cities where all but the brightest stars have been erased due to light pollution. When we can no longer see a dark starry night sky with the Milky Way blazing overhead, something fundamental to being human has been lost. I think that's what Calvin & Hobbes captures here. 🧪🔭
- Reposted by Our Island UniverseSave the date! The first Astronomy on Tap DC will be on January 21st at @dc9club.bsky.social. Stay tuned for details about the talk line-up and make sure to RSVP for your free ticket before the show sells out: dice.fm/event/mx8dxr...
- Reposted by Our Island UniverseThe White House has been caught. The administration inserted a photo of Bill Clinton, Michael Jackson, and Diana Ross into the Epstein files and falsely implied it showed them with victims. In reality, it’s a publicly available fundraiser photo featuring Jackson and Ross’s own children.
- Reposted by Our Island UniverseThe winter solstice occurs Sunday morning at 10:03am EST — the longest night of the year. Long before modern calendars, people knew this moment in advance. From Newgrange to Chankillo, ancient monuments show how careful skywatching became humanity’s first way of trusting time. 🧪🔭 bit.ly/WhySolstice
- Reposted by Our Island Universe#ourworldiswonderful; tonight I leave you with a moody sky above a moody North Sea. This was taken from the beach at Flamborough lifeboat station on Flamborough Head in East Yorkshire.
- Ready to go beyond imaging with your #Unistellar #telescope? Join the @astrosociety.org’s live 5-session workshop and learn to analyze FITS data, build light curves, detect variable #stars + #exoplanets, & contribute to real citizen #science. Starts Jan 21 Register → bit.ly/UnistellarWorkshop
- Reposted by Our Island UniverseSome songs don’t just play — they open a portal. I thought about @pearljam.com, my brother & how music becomes the #universe’s way of remembering those we’ve loved & lost. If a song has ever carried you back in time, this is for you. "Music is how your soul remembers." substack.com/@ourislandun...
- Ever notice how certain songs become time machines? I thought about how @pearljam.com & their music ties me to my brother, to the past, & to the versions of ourselves we never fully lose. If a song has ever hit you like memory itself, this essay will speak to you. open.substack.com/pub/ourislan...
- #CarlSagan joked that to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the #universe. The truth is even more beautiful: the apples, the sugar, and the atoms in our own bodies were forged in ancient #stars. Read @shanilv.ca's #Thanksgiving reflection! 🔗 open.substack.com/pub/ourislan...
- Reposted by Our Island UniverseIf you wanted to make an apple pie from scratch for today, you’re ~13.8 billion years late!🧪🔭 #CarlSagan was right: every apple, every atom, every one of us was forged in ancient stars. ASP's own @shanilv.ca tells the #cosmic story behind your #Thanksgiving pie: 🔗 open.substack.com/pub/ourislan...
- Reposted by Our Island Universe“Science is a way of seeing, not just knowing.” On what would have been Carl Sagan’s 91st birthday we celebrate one of #science’s greatest storytellers — a reminder that curiosity & wonder unite us all. 💫 Read @shanilv.ca reflection: open.substack.com/pub/ourislan... #CarlSaganDay #Astronomy #ASP
- On what would have been his 91st birthday, I reflect on how Carl Sagan helped humanity look up & inward, reminding us that science is a way of seeing, not just knowing.🔭🧪 💫 Read on #Medium — The Candle in the Dark: #CarlSagan’s Legacy 🔗 medium.com/@shanil.vira... #CarlSaganDay #Cosmos #PaleBlueDot
- Reposted by Our Island UniverseWE ARE BACK!! And the Roman telescope is looking *GREAT* as we continue to prep it for launch here at @nasagoddard 🚀✨ Roman is designed to unravel the mysteries of the dark universe - dark matter & dark energy - as well as finding tens of thousands of new planets outside our solar system.
- Reposted by Our Island UniverseGood morning Bluesky friends! We have started our holiday sale early so you can take your time to shop small this season! 💖 20% off (nearly) everything in the shop will automagically appear in your cart 🛒 shop.startorialist.com
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- Reposted by Our Island UniverseOn what would have been his 91st birthday, I reflect on how Carl Sagan helped humanity look up & inward, reminding us that science is a way of seeing, not just knowing.🔭🧪 💫 Read on #Medium — The Candle in the Dark: #CarlSagan’s Legacy 🔗 medium.com/@shanil.vira... #CarlSaganDay #Cosmos #PaleBlueDot
- “We are a way for the cosmos to know itself.” On what would have been #CarlSagan’s 91st birthday, I reflect on how he helped us look up — and inward — reminding us that #science is a way of seeing, not just knowing. 💫 Read on #Substack: 👉🏽 open.substack.com/pub/ourislan... #CarlSaganDay #Cosmos 🔭
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- Excited to attend the @astrosociety.org gala tonight & receive the Nancy Grace Roman Award! I read about her life & career on my way here. Did you know she was responsible for making NASA data archives public so that everyone could benefit, not just PIs? Such an amazing impact on our field. 🔭
- Reposted by Our Island UniverseJoin us at our November Astronomy on Tap at @dc9club.bsky.social on Tuesday November 18th! Talk program TBA shortly. Make sure to RSVP for your free ticket: dice.fm/event/eow3y2...
- Reposted by Our Island UniverseWe are so happy to see @juliaastro.org leading a #JuliaLang workshop at #AAS247! Our inaugural #Astro101 for @unistellar.bsky.social #smart #telescope users introduced 30 participants to #Julia for data analysis — showing how #smartscope users can explore #astronomy with professional-grade tools.🧪🔭
- Would you or your colleague like to improve the performance of your data analysis? Then please join us at our @julialang.org workshop at the 247th @aas.org meeting on Jan 3, 2026 in Phoenix, AZ. The regular registration deadline is Nov 7. aas.org/meetings/aas... #aas247 #JuliaLang #astrocode
- Reposted by Our Island UniverseAmazon is helping fund a $300 million build of a ballroom for the White House. Independent bookstores are donating to food banks and organizations that help with food insecurity. They are not the same.
- Reposted by Our Island Universe#Science and #scienceeducation are in real danger. Funding is vanishing, public trust is fading, and even 136-year-old institutions like @astrosociety.org face an uncertain future. This #NationalEstatePlanningWeek consider a legacy that keeps #curiosity alive. Fund #wonder: 🔭 bit.ly/ASP-Legacy-G...
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- Wonder & awe about the natural world begins outside the #classroom. #Planetariums, citizen #science, & #storytelling spark the #curiosity that keeps #physics alive. Read why #informal #learning is essential to the discipline itself 🔗 arxiv.org/abs/2507.18851 #ScienceCommunication #Inspiration #APS
- Informal #physics #education isn’t an add-on. It’s a key part of physics. #Outreach, #museums, & citizen science don’t just inspire; they shape public trust, identity, & belonging in #science itself.🧪🔭 📄 #APS (@apsphysics.bsky.social) paper → arxiv.org/abs/2507.18851 #JNIPER #ScienceCommunication
- Reposted by Our Island Universe#Physics & #astronomy thrives when 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙤𝙣𝙚 has a way in. #Science is our quest to understand why the #cosmos is the way it is & 𝘯𝘰𝘵 some other way. #Informal #education isn’t a “bonus” — it’s the bridge between #discovery & #society. It's how we share what we've learned. This #APS paper hits the 🎯.
- Informal #physics #education isn’t an add-on. It’s a key part of physics. #Outreach, #museums, & citizen science don’t just inspire; they shape public trust, identity, & belonging in #science itself.🧪🔭 📄 #APS (@apsphysics.bsky.social) paper → arxiv.org/abs/2507.18851 #JNIPER #ScienceCommunication
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- Reposted by Our Island Universe#Immigrants have long made significant & disproportionate contributions to the #Physics #NobelPrize. Today’s news is more than a triumph of #quantum #science — it’s a story about what we get right when we open doors, not close them. www.boundless.com/blog/u-s-imm... #PublicEducation #ScienceMatters
- 🎃✨ Halloween is older than you think! Its roots reach to the stars — to a time when our ancestors tracked the Sun’s halfway point between equinox and solstice. They called it a cross-quarter day — a cosmic threshold between light & dark, life & death, summer & winter. soundcloud.com/shanil-viran...
- 🎃 Halloween’s roots are written in the #stars.🔭🧪 Before candy & costumes, it marked a cross-quarter day — when ancient #skywatchers tracked the Sun’s halfway point between #equinox & #solstice. 🪐 #Halloween #Astronomy is TOMORROW! 🔗 REGISTER: bit.ly/HalloweenAstro #STEMeducation #HalloweenScience
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- Reposted by Our Island UniverseIf the govt shuts down, make SURE the constant and consistent message is, "Repubs would rather shut down the government than allow Americans to keep their health care!" Everywhere, repeat, repeat, repeat. Don't be distracted by other orange garbage. Make sure ALL MAGAts understand who and why.
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- Standing at the Cosmic Crossroads Will we choose enlightenment — curiosity, discovery, and progress? Or will we choose regression — prejudice, superstition, and a new Dark Age? History is watching. Our children are watching. The future depends on what we do now. 🧪🔭 🔗 medium.com/@shanil.vira...
- Reposted by Our Island UniverseCouldn’t agree more! Vivian’s gift for sparking wonder & awe is extraordinary. She lead our #NASA-funded Eclipse Ambassadors program (reached ~200k people in 47 states) & showed the power of eclipses to #unite. #Australia will be #eclipse central — 2 totals in the next 5 yrs + an annular in 2035!🧪🔭☀️
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- Reposted by Our Island UniverseAs the week closes, remember: the stars are more than science. They are teachers, ancestors, and guides shaping our path. Each culture adds a verse to the cosmic song. When you look up tonight, do you see equations, stories, or a little of both? #sunday #star #astronomy #charliekirk #daboswinney
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- Reposted by Our Island UniverseCould life have started on #Mars & spread to Earth by meteorites? This idea, called #panspermia, is gaining new relevance as evidence mounts that #life once took hold on Mars. We know life arose early on Earth but did it begin elsewhere first? The #ASP’s @shanilv.ca says more about what this means.🧪
- From #Viking’s life experiments to #Perseverance’s biosignatures, Mars has whispered the same question for decades: are we alone? Why is this time different? Humanity may be on the brink of a cosmic revolution. Read more in my #Substack post. 🔭🧪 👉 bit.ly/Mars-OIU #Mars #LifeonMars #Astroniology
- From #Viking’s life experiments to #Perseverance’s biosignatures, Mars has whispered the same question for decades: are we alone? Why is this time different? Humanity may be on the brink of a cosmic revolution. Read more in my #Substack post. 🔭🧪 👉 bit.ly/Mars-OIU #Mars #LifeonMars #Astroniology
- Reposted by Our Island Universe#Mars May Have Left Us a Message. Are we listening? 🧪🔭 From #Viking to #ALH84001 to #Perseverance’s new potential #biosignatures in Jezero Crater — we’re on the edge of a #cosmic revolution. It's clear we've reached a tipping point. The Not So Quiet Revolution in Astronomy: 👉 bit.ly/MarsRevolution
- Reposted by Our Island Universe🌌 BREAKING: Mars may have left us a message. #NASA’s Perseverance rover has discovered potential #biosignatures — clues that life may not be unique to Earth. 🔭🧪 “This is the closest we’ve come to recognizing that life on Earth is not unique.” 🔗 MORE: tinyurl.com/OurIslandUni... #Mars #Astrobiology
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- This isn’t spell check. It isn’t Clippy. It isn’t Grammarly. It’s a revolution. Dario Amodei (CEO, @anthropic.com) warns #AI could erase half of all entry-level white-collar jobs in 5 yrs. Our students will face that world — prepared or not. Read my essay on #medium: medium.com/@shanil.vira...
- Reposted by Our Island UniverseDo you own a @unistellar.bsky.social #eVscope, #eQuinox or #ODYSSEY? New to #astronomy & want to learn the #science of what’s captured in your #smart #telescope? Spots are filling up fast for our very special 5-part #workshop series dedicated to @unistellar.com.web.brid.gy owners! tiny.cc/Astro101
- "Astro 101: Imaging the Universe with Your Unistellar Telescope" is a brand-new five-part online workshop series designed exclusively for @unistellar.bsky.social smart telescope owners who are ready to unlock the full scientific power of their instrument. 🧪 🔭
- Reposted by Our Island UniverseDr. Ian Weaver, Unistellar Education Lead at the SETI Institute, will be one of the workshop leaders alongside @shanilv.ca, Cosmic Engagement Specialist at ASP. Registration ends Friday, September 5, at 12:00pm Pacific Time. Learn more and register here: www.seti.org/events/astro...
- Reposted by Our Island Universe"Astro 101: Imaging the Universe with Your Unistellar Telescope" is a brand-new five-part online workshop series designed exclusively for @unistellar.bsky.social smart telescope owners who are ready to unlock the full scientific power of their instrument. 🧪 🔭
- Reposted by Our Island Universe🔍 What’s next in our investigation of the cosmos? 🔭 🧪 Join Drs. Bose, Higgs, LaMassa & Zellem as they explore gravitational waves, Rubin Observatory, galaxies, and exoplanets. Oh my! 💻 Still time to join & access full recordings! 🔗 bit.ly/ASP2025SYMP #ASP2025 #Exoplanets #JWST #SciComm
- Reposted by Our Island Universe🚨 ASP2025 kicks off TOMORROW at 11a ET! Panel 1: Questioning — What’s next in #space #science? 🌌 Cabrol (SETI) 🌍 Grinspoon (NASA) 🧠 Siegel (Starts with a Bang) 🪐 Storey-Fisher (Stanford) 💻 One day. Online. $69.🔭🧪 🎟️ Register now: bit.ly/ASP2025SYMP #ASP2025 #Astronomy #SciComm #JWST #DarkEnergy
- Viking 1 may have glimpsed life on Mars. Voyager 2 still sails through interstellar space. Launched two years apart today these missions carry a legacy & a warning about what we risk losing if we turn away from #science. A reflection from @shanilv.ca posted on #medium: medium.com/@shanil.vira...
- #OTD 𝗶𝗻 𝘀𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗹𝗼𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: 50 yrs ago, #Viking1 launched. 48 yrs ago, #Voyager2 followed. One searched for #life on #Mars. The other carries our voices into #interstellar #space. These anniversaries remind us what we once dreamed — and what we may now be giving up.🔭🧪 👉 medium.com/@shanil.vira...
- Reposted by Our Island Universe🪐 What lies beyond the edge of the universe? 👥 16 thought leaders. 4 big questions. 1 powerful virtual gathering. Join us August 21 for #ASP2025 — a 1-day online symposium exploring the future of #astronomy, #education, & #storytelling.🧪 🎟️ Register: bit.ly/ASP2025SYMP #SciComm #Astronomy #EdTech
- Reposted by Our Island Universe🧑🏫 Just getting started teaching astronomy? 🔭 Our 4-part Nuts & Bolts for Teaching Astronomy series is now on demand! 🪐 Full of classroom-ready labs, demos & tools. 🎓 Watch now: learn.astrosociety.org/products/rec... 📬 Don't Miss Our Fall Online Classes: tiny.cc/ASPLearn #AstronomyEducation #STEMed
- Reposted by Our Island UniverseBorn #OTD in 1919 Margaret Burbidge helped reveal one of the great truths of the cosmos — that the atoms of life were forged in the hearts of stars. She then broke barriers to ensure women could study them. We are made of starstuff & all deserve the chance to discover it. #Astronomy #WomenInScience
- 🌌 26 yrs ago today, Chandra brought the high-energy universe into razor-sharp focus — a leap in imaging clarity optical astronomy took 400 yrs to achieve, made in just 40 of X-ray exploration. Its unmatched vision is now at risk. #Astronomy #SaveChandra 🔗 Read why: medium.com/@shanil.vira...
- 26 years ago today, we sent the command that brought the high-energy #universe into sharp focus. #Chandra’s angular resolution transformed X-ray #astronomy — a 400-year leap in just 40 years of progress. 🔭🧪 Now, #politics threatens its future. Here’s why that matters: 🔗 medium.com/@shanil.vira...
- Reposted by Our Island Universe🔭 This one-of-a-kind 5-part online workshop designed exclusively for Unistellar smart #telescope owners. You’ll learn the #science behind your images & how to contribute to real research! 📅 Starts Sept 6, runs every other week 🧠 Led by #astronomers from #ASP & #SETI / #Unistellar 🔗 tiny.cc/14zq001
- Dr. Ian Weaver, Unistellar Education Lead at the SETI Institute, will be one of the workshop leaders alongside @shanilv.ca, Cosmic Engagement Specialist at ASP. Registration ends Friday, September 5, at 12:00pm Pacific Time. Learn more and register here: www.seti.org/events/astro...
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- Reposted by Our Island UniverseTomorrow is the last day for (extended) early registration discount!
- 🚀 Register now for #ASP2025 #Virtual #Symposium — Eyes on the #Cosmos: Embracing the Future! TOMORROW IS THE LAST DAY FOR early bird registration! Explore 4 themes: Questioning, Investigating, Adapting & Connecting. Explore discoveries, strategies & shared sky stories. 🔭🧪 🔗 bit.ly/ASP2025SYMP
- Reposted by Our Island UniversePaging all astronomers/scientists! Want to engage & inspire the next generation of scientists, engineers, innovators, & entrepreneurs? What a great way to connect with young learners & spark interest in #STEM, especially at a time when our government is doing everything it can to put out the light.🧪
- Scientists! @skypeascientist.bsky.social matches scientists with classrooms, libraries, & more for virtual Q&As! It's easy and fun! We are looking for 750 more volunteers by 8/15 If you're down to chat with 1-5 classrooms this semester, sign up here www.skypeascientist.com/sign-up.html
- Reposted by Our Island UniverseWe are excited to support @astrosociety.org in promoting their annual symposium! Registrants will receive an exclusive discount code to our online shop valid through the end of August ⭐️
- 🌟 The countdown to #ASP2025 has begun! 🌟 We’re thrilled to unveil our lineup of leading astronomers who will be tackling some of the most pressing & profound questions in science! 🚀 Explore 4 themes. 🧠 Meet the minds behind the ideas. 💬 Be part of the conversation. 👉 See the list:
- “Farewell, Captain Lovell. The Moon you never walked upon will forever carry your shadow.” 🌙 We echo @shanilv.ca’s tribute to Jim #Lovell, #Apollo 13 commander, whose leadership turned a near-tragedy into one of #NASA’s finest hours. May his courage inspire us to keep reaching for the #stars. 🧪🔭
- Jim Lovell died at 97. In him we saw the best of the Apollo age: courage in the face of disaster, quiet command in the deep night between Earth & Moon. Five #Apollo #astronauts remain — 4 who walked on the #Moon. Their legacy is not just history. It’s an unfinished story, calling us to dare again.
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