Andrew Fraknoi
Semi-retired astronomer, college professor, lead author of a free, open-source textbook (OpenStax Astronomy), and science fiction writer with 8 stories published so far. See fraknoi.com
- Sunday is the Winter Solstice, the shortest day and longest night of the year. Why does our planet have seasons, when other planets like Venus and Jupiter do not? I posted a full explanation at: www.fraknoi.com/.../winter-s... #astronomy #astroed #sky #scienceteaching #scienceeducation #science
- Nice surprise. The editor of Worlds Within magazine nominated my science-fiction story "The Lurker" for a Pushcart Prize. It's about a probe from another civilization waiting on an asteroid; at: theworldswithin.net/the-lurker/ #sciencefiction #SETI #astroedu #science&fiction #science #astronomy
- Sat night, the #astrosociety of the Pacific gave the 2025 Fraknoi Award for extraordinary support of the Society's educational work to Connie Walker of #NOIRLab For more on her work see: bit.ly/2025fraknoia... #astronomy #astroedu @conniewalker.bsky.social #lightpollution #scienceawards
- Teaching a fun, illustrated Zoom course on atomic science for poets (meaning everyone.) Tuesdays Oct & Nov through the SF State OLLI program. For details & how to register: bit.ly/atomscourse #science #physics #atomic #scienceeducation #astroedu #onlinecourses #Zoomcourses #sciencefiction #quantum
- This wonderful cartoon was sent out today in an email from The New Yorker magazine. All teachers will especially appreciate this. #cartoons #teaching #astroedu #education #teachers #politicalcartoons #humor
- My latest astronomical #sciencefiction story (my 11th) was recently published. It's a new twist on doomsday & advanced #extraterrestrials - "In Conversation with the Downloaded Me." It's at: bit.ly/downloadedme A list of all my published stories: bit.ly/sfbyfraknoi #astroedu #hardsf #space #scifi
- The 136-year old Astronomical Society of the Pacific is holding an exciting one-day nontechnical symposium on the future of #astronomy Aug. 21. Great speakers, time for breakout groups. See: bit.ly/ASP2025SYMP (Early bird pricing ends 7/31) #astroedu #space #telescopes #amateurastronomy #science
- Reposted by Andrew Fraknoi🚀 Register now for #ASP2025 #Virtual #Symposium: Eyes on the Cosmos -- Embracing the Future (Aug 21)! Save with early bird registration by July 31. Explore 4 themes: Questioning, Investigating, Adapting & Connecting. Explore discoveries, strategies & shared sky stories. 🔭🧪 🔗: bit.ly/ASP2025SYMP
- This uncanny image shows LDN43, the cosmic bat nebula -- a region of dark dust & dense gas, where new stars are forming. The nebula is 1400 lightyears away and about 12 lightyears across. #astronomy #astroedu #astrophotos #space #spacephotos #spaceimages #astrophotography #nebula #spacepictures
- Beautiful image from Gemini Observatory: the dome of their telescope on Maunkea peak, Hawaii. In this time exposure, see the stars circle the north pole of the sky as our planet rotates. Laser beams that probe atmospheric distortion add interest. #astronomy #astroedu #astrophotos #spacephotos #sky
- Friday will be the #summersolstice -- the longest day and shortest night for the Northern Hemisphere. For the full story of how an ancient cosmic accident is responsible for our seasons, see: www.fraknoi.com/seasons/frid... #astronomy #astroedu #space #science #seasons #sky #solstice
- Amazing star-forming region, the Tarantula #Nebula, 160,000 lightyears away & 600 lightyears wide. Another great composite image produced by noted amateur astronomer #RobGendler. Massive, luminous baby stars help it to glow. #astronomy #astroedu #space #spacephotos #astroimaging #sciencephotos
- This coming weekend the summer meeting of the American Astronomical Society #AAS starts. If the administration's budget is passed by Congress, the science of #astronomy will be decimated in the U.S. #astroedu #sciencefunding #UFOs #extraterrestrials #cartoons #sciencecartoons #astronomycartoons
- My latest #sciencefiction story "The Lurker" is just out in "The Worlds Within" online magazine: theworldswithin.net/the-lurker/ Just as we send probes to other planets, might advanced aliens not send AI probes to our system? Please check it out. #astronomy #astroedu #SETI #scifi #extraterrestrials
- My latest (short) science-fiction story "Eclipsed" was published today. It's about how rare total eclipses might be, not just in the solar system, but the universe. See: bit.ly/eclipsedsfst... #astronomy #astroedu #scifi #sciencefiction #hardsf #hardsciencefiction #eclipses #eclipsechasing
- For those who enjoy #StarTrek and fine art, this is a T-shirt you can buy. (I am not involved with the company, just amused.) #astronomy #astroedu #sciencefiction #art #scifi #VanGogh #sciencehumor #astroart #scienceandart
- We see the Veil Nebula, a small part of a vast ancient remnant of an exploded star, still glowing with colorful emissions from hydrogen, oxygen, and sulfur atoms. #astronomy #astroedu #astrophotography #space #spaceimages #spacephotos #astroimages #NASA #sciencephotos
- Today is the birthday (in 1900) of Cecilia Payne, the astronomer who wrote what some historians call the most important PhD thesis in astronomy -- showing that stars were made mostly of hydrogen and helium. #astronomy #astroedu #astronomyhistory #historyofscience #womenastronomers #womeninscience
- #Astro4Earth and #debrafischer just posted a 1-min public video: huge cuts in proposed US budget for #NSF and #NASA & about the beauty and value of astronomy, at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZsQ... Please share if you resonate with it. #astronomy #astroedu #space #science #sciencebudget #budgetcuts
- Beautiful image by Robert Fesen & collaborators showing a Wolf-Rayet star (WR8) -- a massive star violently letting go its outer layer (blue) against a background of glowing gas. #astronomy #astroedu #astrophotography #space #spacephotography #astroimages #sciencephotos #spacephotos #astrophotos
- Complex, beautiful image, assembled by Rob Gendler, from several visible-light & Infrared telescopes, shows the Ring Nebula, with its many shells of material emitted by a dying star. #astronomy #astroedu #space #spacephotos #astroimaging #stars #sciencephotos #astrophotography #spaceimages
- Beautiful new #HubbleTelescope image of the "death-shroud nebula" with catalog designation #NGC2899. The central star is giving off its outer layers in dying. What does the cavity in the gas look like to you? #astronomy #astroedu #space #spacephotos #astroimaging #astronomyphotos #sciencephotos
- Sign in a bookstore window, appropriate for the day after Earth Day. (Now that I am a published science-fiction writer, I pay special attention to such signs.) #climatechange #science #sciencehumor #apocalypse #globalwarming #sciencefiction #bookstores
- Tonight and tomorrow night are peak times to see the #Lyrids #meteorshower -- a time when more shooting stars are visible if you go to a dark, open site and are patient. The chart shows you the main showers of 2025 and rates them. #astronomy #astroedu #sky #amateurastronomy #darksky #space #meteors
- Beautiful composite image by #RobertGendler of galaxy M83, 12 million lightyears away. The red regions are nebulae, where gas clouds are glowing with the energy of recently-formed baby stars within them. #astronomy #astroedu #space #spacehotos #astroimages #spacephotography #astrophotos #galaxies
- Nature's variety never fails to surprise us. Astronomers using the #ESO #VeryLargeTelescope have found a planet in a perpendicular orbit around 2 failed stars (brown dwarfs) that orbit each other: www.eso.org/public/news/... #astronomy #astroedu #space #sciencenews #astronomynews #exoplanets #sci
- Beautiful new infrared image of "star-death" nebula NGC1514 with the #JamesWebb telescope. The dying star in the center is actually a pair of stars that orbit each other in 9 years; the #nebula is hourglass shaped. #astronomy #astroedu #NASA #JWST #space #spacephotography #astroimages #spaceimages
- 128 new moons have recently been identified around Saturn, bringing its total number of moons to a record-breaking 274. Some of the new moons orbit Saturn backward, indicating they're captured and not original. #astronomy #astroedu #planetaryscience #NASA #space #Saturn #spacephotos #spacenews
- Nonprofit #OpenStax announced that the free, online book #Astronomy has now been used by 1.3 million students at 2100 colleges, saving them $92 million in textbook costs. Anyone can read it at: bit.ly/astronomytex... #astroedu #textbooks #freeontheweb #sciencebooks #opensource #openeducation
- Apr. 9 UC Professor #JonathanFortney will give a free, public, nontechnical talk on latest #JamesWebbTelescope results on #exoplanet atmospheres. #FoothillCollege in Los Altos, CA, 7 pm in Smithwick Theater. If you can't go, it will be on the Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures #YouTube channel later.
- #Hubble telescope image: NGC3350, a spiral galaxy, 40 million lightyears away. The bright central star is actually in our own Milky Way, just 10,000 LY away. It's a chance superposition. #astronomy #astroedu #space #spacephotography #scienceimages #spacephotos #astrophotography #HST #astronomyimages
- #Nvidia announced they'll be naming an advanced chip for doing AI after astronomer #VeraRubin, whose work led to our understanding that a major part of the universe is made of #darkmatter, whose nature we don't understand. #astronomy #astroedu #womeninastronomy #space #astronomyhistory #scientists
- Brand new #JamesWebbTelescope image of the outflow from a young star, with a #galaxy far, far away, at its upper left tip. In this infrared view, heated dust regions glow reddish. #astronomy #astroedu #space #spacephotos #astronomyimages #science #sciencephotography #astrophotos #spaceimages #JWST
- In this remarkable image, Rob Gendler combines #Hubble telescope and ESO infrared data to show the dark Horsehead Nebula in Orion and a bright region of glowing gas that reminds me of a bulldog face. #astronomy #astroedu #space #spacephotos #astronomyimages #sciencephotos #spacephotography #science
- Spring #equinox coming: morning of Thu 3/20. Day & night will be equal. See diagram: we have seasons because Earth's axis is tilted - due to a cosmic accident. Something hit us billions of years ago. Like many accident victims, we could never stand up straight. #astroedu #astronomy #space #science
- This beautiful image of the Trifid Nebula, assembled by Rob Gendler, shows lanes of dark dust trisecting the glowing gas. This is a region of new star formation some 9000 lightyears away. #astronomy #astroedu #space #spacephotos #spacephotography #scienceimages #astronomyphotos #nebulas #science
- This #Hubble telescope image shows the Trumpler 14 star cluster some 8000 lightyears away. The stars are extremely young, only half a million years old. Many will end their lives in a few million years in great explosions. #astronomy #astroedu #space #spacephotography #astronomyimages #sciencephotos
- The Blue Ghost Lander on the #Moon photographed last night's #lunareclipse from its unique vantage point. From the Moon, the Earth covered the Sun; here the Sun emerges from eclipse. #astronomy #astroedu #space #spacephotograph #spaceimages #sciencephotos #astrophotography #astronomyimages #science
- Happy Einstein's Birthday March 14th. Despite all the crazy politics in the world, I hope you can have a relatively happy celebration for one of the greatest minds in human history. #Einstein #science #physics #astronomy #astroedu #sciencebirthdays #piday #sciencehumor #scienceportraits
- This remarkable image, processed by Robert Gendler, shows the complex region of the Vela supernova remnant, the glowing material from a massive star that exploded some 11,000 years ago. #astronomy #astroedu #space #spacephotography #astroimaging #astronomyimages #photography #spaceimages #science
- Astronomers have found 128 new moons orbiting the planet #Saturn, bringing its total number of moons to 274, the largest of any known planet. These are small worlds, but they orbit like other moons. #astronomy #astroedu #planets #space #spacephotography #astronomyimages #solarsystem #sciencephotos
