Andrew Higgins @a-j-higgins.bsky.social

Big new (at least for me): I’m on sabbatical leave from McGill this year and working full-time with General Fusion in Vancouver. With 2026 shaping up to be a pivot year for commercial fusion, I’m excited to be on-site and contributing directly to the effort.

www.linkedin.com

Welcome to General Fusion, Dr. Andrew Higgins!    General Fusion and McGill University have collaborated for over a decade, and we’re thrilled to welcome McGill Professor Andrew Higgins to our team… |...

Welcome to General Fusion, Dr. Andrew Higgins!    General Fusion and McGill University have collaborated for over a decade, and we’re thrilled to welcome McGill Professor Andrew Higgins to our team du...

Galaxy Map @galaxymap.bsky.social

Someone was asking what the interstellar medium around the Sun looks like in 3D. Here's a quick render. I might add an improved version of this to a room in my Star Central VR world. Brown: dust, red: ionized gas, blue: hot stars.

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

Unfiltered glimpses of our solar system revealed through raw, breathtaking images. Our group works with one goal in mind: to someday capture such images from other solar systems.

Lee Billings @leebillings.bsky.social

Now on @sciam.bsky.social: NASA’s next-gen Habitable Worlds Observatory may be our best chance to find alien life. But can a nation busy ripping itself apart unite to launch a mission to solve life’s cosmic mysteries? By @nadiadrake.bsky.social (and me). www.scientificamerican.com/article/are-...

www.scientificamerican.com

NASA’s First-Ever Alien-Hunting Space Telescope Could Enlighten Our New Dark Age

The Habitable Worlds Observatory is poised to tell us whether Earthlike planets are common—if it can get off the ground

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

“How a Billionaire’s Plan to Reach Another Star Fell Apart” Our group is still at it, stubbornly in the trenches, steadily chipping away at the key problems that must be solved to reach the nearest stars. The work continues. Onward! www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-...

www.scientificamerican.com

A $100-Million Mission to Another Star Just Disappeared

An abandoned plan to visit another star highlights the perils of billionaire-funded science

Lee Billings @leebillings.bsky.social

Now on @sciam.bsky.social: For the 1st time, we’ve seen hints of an atmosphere around a potentially habitable exoplanet. If confirmed, this would be a monumental discovery, opening a new era in the search for life beyond Earth. By @astrojonny.bsky.social. www.scientificamerican.com/article/jwst...

www.scientificamerican.com

Why a Hint of an Atmosphere on this Alien Planet is Such a Big Deal

A monumental sign of an atmosphere on TRAPPIST-1e could be the precursor to finally finding a living world around another star

Meg Schwamb @megschwamb.bsky.social

Jake Kurlander - talking about the predicted LSST asteroid and TNO discoveries - 80% Solar System small bodies will be discovered in the first two years #EPSCDPS2025

www.youtube.com

Simulated Solar System Discoveries of LSST

YouTube video by Jake Andrew Kurlander

The StarXiv ✨ podcast @starxiv.bsky.social

Michelle's final paper investigates interstellar objects (such as the 3 detected interstellar comets) for signs of alien technosignatures! So far, all 3 objects are comets, but if there were a probe out there, how could we find out? This paper outlines the methods. 🔭 ☄️ arxiv.org/abs/2508.16825

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

We’re reading “Lightsails for Interstellar Travel: Photonics for Propulsion, Thermal Management and Stability” pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

pubs.acs.org

Lightsails for Interstellar Travel: Photonics for Propulsion, Thermal Management and Stability

Lightsails are a highly promising spacecraft concept that has attracted interest in recent years due to its potential to travel at near-relativistic speeds. Such speeds, which current conventional cra...

I4IS @i4interstellar.bsky.social

Issue 50 of Principium is now published - Lead Feature : BOOK REVIEW, The Ross 248 Project. - Project Hyperion - Breakthrough Disc - "Where do you look for ET" - IAC25 - The Journals - Interstellar News .. and more ! Read it here : - i4is.org/principium-50/ Editor: @johninghamdavies.bsky.social

ToughSF @toughsf.bsky.social

Reduce the radiation load by more than half, increase efficiency by 20% and make ignition easier by using spin-polarization in a fusion rocket, which aligns the DT fuel atoms and make their neutron release directional. By @gbruhaug.bsky.social: arxiv.org/pdf/2108.01211

Astrobiology @astrobiology.bsky.social

Technosignature Searches Of Interstellar Objects astrobiology.com/2025/08/tech... #astrobiology #3IATLAS #interstellar #SETI

astrobiology.com

Technosignature Searches Of Interstellar Objects - Astrobiology

With the discovery of the third confirmed interstellar object (ISO), 3I/ATLAS, we have entered a new phase in the exploration of these long-predicted objects.

Andrew Higgins @a-j-higgins.bsky.social

Congratulations to Space Concordia Rocketry Division on the successful launch of Starsailor, featuring the largest student-built bipropellant rocket engine ever flown (35 kN thrust). The launch occurred approximately 1 hr 16 mins into the livestream linked below. www.youtube.com/live/610YciE...

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

We're reading (and hoping for a successful flyby target🤞🤞): "An Extremely Deep Rubin Survey to Explore the Extended Kuiper Belt and Identify Objects Observable by New Horizons" by @megschwamb.bsky.social doi.org/10.3847/1538...

Plateau Astro @plateauastro.bsky.social

Why were we able to see the spiral rocket plume last night, but not during other rocket launches? The time of day, the Sun’s light, and the direction the rocket heads into space causes this effect…

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

One of the members of our research group was out watching the Perseids on Tuesday night in Montreal and captured these images of the plume.

Paul Gilster @gilster.bsky.social

A Saturn mass gas giant may be orbiting Alpha Centauri A, based on solid JWST infrared results and exhaustive simulations of its orbit. It's still a candidate rather than a confirmed world, but follow-up work will tell us soon. www.centauri-dreams.org/2025/08/08/a...

Sky & Telescope @skyandtelescope.bsky.social

Direct images from the James Webb Space Telescope show what could be a Saturn-mass planet around Alpha Centauri. skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-ne... . . #astronomy #exoplanets #planetaryscience #cosmology #alphacentauri #jwst #newplanet

skyandtelescope.org

Alpha Centauri Might Have a Planet, Webb Telescope Finds

Direct images from the James Webb Space Telescope show what could be a Saturn-mass planet around Alpha Centauri.

Steve Desch @deschscoveries.bsky.social

I have a complaint about Avi Loeb's latest work and I want to speak to management. medium.com/@steve.desch...

medium.com

This is not the quality of pseudoscience infotainment to which I have grown accustomed

Teasing the public with fraudulent or self-deluded promises of aliens used to mean something. It took work. It meant slapping together…

Corey S. Powell @coreyspowell.bsky.social

After years of searching, astronomers have found strong evidence of a planet around Alpha Centauri, a near-twin of our Sun in the nearest neighboring star system. This would also be the closest exoplanet ever observed directly. 🧪🔭 webbtelescope.org/contents/new...

Lee Billings @leebillings.bsky.social

Now on @sciam.bsky.social: Using JWST, astronomers have spotted what seems to be a gas giant planet in the habitable zone of Alpha Centauri A, the nearest sunlike star to our solar system. This is *huge* if true. By @meghanbartels.bsky.social. www.scientificamerican.com/article/jwst...

www.scientificamerican.com

Astronomers Are Enthralled by This Potential Planet around Alpha Centauri

In some of its most ambitious work yet, the James Webb Space Telescope looked to spot a planet in a potentially habitable orbit around Alpha Centauri A, the nearest sunlike star to our solar system

Jason Wright @astrowright.bsky.social

It gets worse and worse. If you're interested in the slow-motion train wreck that is Avi's sci-comm on this, here are some of the latest (it's very hard to keep up!) In which spacecraft can have comae, 3I/ATLAS has a 60% chance of being alien, and new papers validate and adopt his calculations.

sites.psu.edu

More Avi and 3I/ATLAS

Following up on this and this: Today images from the Hubble Space Telescope were published by Jewitt et al., and they show the coma of 3I/ATLAS very well: Would this be enough to convince Avi that it’...

I4IS @i4interstellar.bsky.social

🌌 Announcing the Winners of the Project Hyperion Design Competition 🌌 ... hosted by i4iS. Can we imagine a society that thrives on the journey to the stars? 🏆 Winners 🥇 Chrysalis 🥈 WFP Extreme 🥉 Systema Stellare Proximum Plus 10 mentions... Full details are here : www.projecthyperion.org

David Kipping @davidkipping.bsky.social

New paper! Allow me to introduce TARS = Torqued Accelerator using Radiation from the Sun. TARS (yes inspired by Interstellar!) is a rotating light sail that's capable of launching chip sats into interstellar space using only radiation from the Sun, so let's dive into how it works.

Corey S. Powell @coreyspowell.bsky.social

Lots of news just came out about strange, rhythmic goings-on in the outer regions of our solar system. An object called 2020 VN40 moves in sync with Neptune (1 orbit for every 10 of Neptune), suggesting a large population of bodies in similar resonances. 🧪🔭 www.cfa.harvard.edu/news/astrono...

Michele Bannister @astrokiwi.bsky.social

It's paper day! The first science paper with data from @vrubinobs.bsky.social's survey camera, the mighty LSSTCam, is a VERY quick turnaround of Rubin's observations thus far of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS. ☄️ Chandler et al., submitted 🔭 A 🧵

arxiv.org

NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory Observations of Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS (C/2025 N1)

We report on the observation and measurement of astrometry, photometry, morphology, and activity of the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS, also designated C/2025 N1 (ATLAS), with the NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin ...

Jason Wright @astrowright.bsky.social

On Avi and 3I/ATLAS: sites.psu.edu/astrowright/... ☄️ 🔭

sites.psu.edu

Avi and 3I/ATLAS

Avi Loeb has gained a reputation for suggesting and outright claiming things could be alien spacecraft even when there’s little to no objective reason to think so. So when the third interstellar objec...

ToughSF @toughsf.bsky.social

The preview of 'Laser Propulsion in Space' has an excellent introduction: books.google.co.uk/books?id=9Cf... It could offers variable 1000-10,000 Isp and good thrust/watt performance, but its strongest advantage is how the heavy generator and spacecraft can be separated by long distances.

ToughSF @toughsf.bsky.social

The dragon is dead. breakingdefense.com/2025/06/darp... The DRACO nuclear thermal rocket program has been terminated by DARPA. Reasons cited: -SpaceX Starship will deliver so much propellant into orbit that fuel efficiency won't matter -Future nuclear-electric propulsion could be more promising

ToughSF @toughsf.bsky.social

Fusion starships from BIS: indico.esa.int/event/309/at... There's the classic Daedalus, the Icarus pinning its hopes on Ultra-Dense Deuterium, the mind-boggling Firefly and now the 'Ghost' using a plasma-jet magneti-inertial fusion drive to reach 0.05C then stop at its destination.

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

Ultimately, the speed of light is not an obstacle to human interstellar travel. As this thread has shown, it is relativity that *enables* journeys between stars within the span of a human lifetime. [9/9]

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

It’s not something we’ll see in our lifetimes, which is why our research group doesn’t spend time working on relativistic space travel. We stay focused on feasible, near-term steps. But, if physics doesn’t forbid it—and if people want to do it—it’s worth thinking about. [8/9]

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

Of course, the energy demands of such a mission are enormous. To exploit relativistic time dilation, propulsion must overcome relativistic mass increase. There’s no free lunch. [7/9]

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

This isn’t “faster than light” travel in any technical sense; it’s a consequence of special relativity. What appears paradoxical is just a matter of how time behaves at relativistic speeds. [6/9]

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

Accelerating to speeds exceeding 92% of light speed, the crew experiences even less time than it takes light to cross the same distance. From the crew’s reference frame, they are effectively traveling “faster than the speed of light,” without violating physical laws. [5/9]

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

For example, traveling to a star 10 light-years away would take 10 years from the crew’s perspective, though observers back on Earth would see the journey take longer due to time dilation. The onboard clock just ticks differently. [4/9]

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

If a spacecraft could accelerate to 92% the speed of light and decelerate to rest at its destination, relativistic time dilation means the crew experiences a duration equal to the distance traveled in light-years. [3/9]

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

Even without radical life extension or humanity transferring in silico, there’s no physical law preventing travel—even roundtrips—to distant stars in a current human lifetime. How? [2/9]

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

Our group focuses on near-term technologies for the first robotic forays beyond our solar system. But it’s worth addressing the oft-repeated claim: “The speed of light is a hard limit: You can’t travel to the stars in a lifetime, so it won’t happen. [1/9]

Paul Gilster @gilster.bsky.social

3I/ATLAS is the third interstellar object we've identified. Almost surely a comet, it's moving toward perihelion in October, and is already active as its surface warms. We'll learn a great deal more about it as this process intensifies. Thoughts on ISO's: www.centauri-dreams.org/2025/07/10/3...

Adam Hibberd @adamsspaceresearch.bsky.social

Go to my latest starship blog for the Initiative for Interstellar Studies (i4is), concerning missions to the third interstellar object to be discovered, 3I/ATLAS: @i4interstellar.bsky.social i4is.org/missions-to-...

Michele Bannister @astrokiwi.bsky.social

Subthread 🧵:what does VLT/MUSE show us about interstellar object 3I/ATLAS? Plenty! First: 3I has a coma, so it is also a comet. Here's the 'white light' (summed whole-MUSE-wavelength range) deep stack image of our observations on July 3 🔭

Michele Bannister @astrokiwi.bsky.social

quick scicomm: we get interstellar objects in the Milky Way because we are In the MW: it's primarily a direction of travel effect (there's more, but for that, see technical discussion linked) 🔭

arxiv.org

Predicting Interstellar Object Chemodynamics with Gaia

The interstellar object population of the Milky Way is a product of its stars. However, what is in fact a complex structure in the Solar neighbourhood has traditionally in ISO studies been described a...

Michele Bannister @astrokiwi.bsky.social

Petition to move all interstellar objects to a pleasingly less crowded region of sky thanks, an observational astronomer

ToughSF @toughsf.bsky.social

The Nautilus array of space telescopes, using fresnel diffractive lenses that are 8.5m wide yet 10x lighter than same-sized solid glass lenses, working together to act like a 50m wide telescope to find 1000+ earth-like exoplanets within 1000 ly: arxiv.org/pdf/1906.05079

Andrew Higgins @a-j-higgins.bsky.social

Our students achieved another successful high-altitude balloon flight last night in collaboration with @uvic.ca and with support from the CSA’s FAST program. Onward and upward!

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

Successful payload recovery! After a long night, we located and recovered the payload 52 km from the launch site.

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

‪10:10 pm: We’ve reached astronomical dark and that means launch!‬

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

Inflation complete. If you’ve never done this before, launching a balloon—even a small weather balloon—isn’t as trivial as it sounds; it demands extraordinary coordination among the team.

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

With flight preparations complete, all that’s left is to sit back, chill, and wait for our launch window to open at sunset.

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

In addition to a new Iridium-based tracker, we’ll be using our own LoRa-based line-of-sight telemetry to track and control aspects of the flight.

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

Our high-altitude balloon launches have been on hold for months as we worked around a fault in our once-trusty Globalstar-based tracker (which recently proved far from trusty). Having resolved the issue, we’re ready to fly high again tonight from a remote site north of Montreal.

Andrew Higgins @a-j-higgins.bsky.social

Reminder: At any time, dozens of comets cross into our inner solar system. The discovery of interstellar visitor 3I/ATLAS deservedly excites us, but I'm seeing the tropes of “nature’s wake-up call” or “the dinosaurs didn’t have a space program.” Comets are *always* zipping in. /1

Lee Billings @leebillings.bsky.social

Now on @sciam.bsky.social : Detected on July 1, the comet 3I/Atlas is only the third interstellar object ever witnessed passing through the solar system. It'll have its closest approach to the sun on October 30. Nice piece by @norabradford.bsky.social www.scientificamerican.com/article/new-...

www.scientificamerican.com

Third Interstellar Object Swoops through our Solar System, Surprising Astronomers

All eyes are on Comet 3I/Atlas as astronomers worldwide chase the exotic ice ball through our solar system

astrafoxen @astrafoxen.bsky.social

New paper on interstellar comet #3I/ATLAS is out on arXiv! By Darryl Seligman and more. Images show a fuzzy tail, and the comet's dusty coma is similarly reddish like the other interstellar comet 2I/Borisov. arxiv.org/abs/2507.02757 ☄️🔭🧪

astrafoxen @astrafoxen.bsky.social

UPDATE ON INTERSTELLAR COMET #A11pl3Z: It's OFFICIALLY LABELED 3I/ATLAS by the Minor Planet Center!!! minorplanetcenter.net/mpec/K25/K25... HUGE thank you to all the astronomers for confirming this object! The next step now is someone getting the big scopes (Hubble, JWST, etc.) to look at it! ☄️🔭🧪

Chris Lintott @chrislintott.bsky.social

It’s offical: the Minor Planet Centre record 3I/Atlas - the third interstellar visitor detected in tge Solar System. Very tentative reports of cometary activity, much more to come minorplanetcenter.net/mpec/K25/K25...

David Rankin @asteroiddave.bsky.social

FACT THREAD on New Interstellar Object #A11pl3Z This story unfolded pretty fast yesterday for a few reasons. The object was discovered on July 1st UTC by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System, or ATLAS team. A #NASA funded survey at the University of Hawaii. atlas.fallingstar.com 🔭🧪

Michele Bannister @astrokiwi.bsky.social

Only the third ever interstellar object: a tiny world that started its existence at another star. Now cruising in toward our Sun at ~58 km/s, a faint dot (V~18) in the Southern skies. What a day 🔭

ESA Operations @operations.esa.int

Astronomers may have just discovered the third interstellar object passing through the Solar System! ESA’s Planetary Defenders are observing the object, provisionally known as #A11pl3Z, right now using telescopes around the world.

I4IS @i4interstellar.bsky.social

This could be interesting, especially if @adamsspaceresearch.bsky.social can find a good spacecraft rendezvous option ...

Michael Busch @michael-w-busch.bsky.social

For any asteroid observers who have not heard about it already: Newly-discovered #A11pl3Z is a candidate interstellar object. cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/scout/#/obje...

Tony Dunn @tony873004.bsky.social

3rd interstellar object discovered? Maybe. There's a lot of buzz right now in the Astro community. More observations should come in tonight to confirm if A11pI3Z is from beyond the solar system.

astrafoxen @astrafoxen.bsky.social

Here's our images of interstellar object #A11pl3Z from Deep Random Survey's 0.43-meter scope @ Chile. The telescope was following A11pl3Z's motion, so stars appear smeared. Weather got worse by the end, so still hard to tell if it's a comet. 600-sec exposures, from 2025 Jul 2, 00:42-01:23 UT 🔭☄️

Paul Gilster @gilster.bsky.social

Using a direct fusion drive as being designed at Princeton for a Sedna orbiter. Interesting conceptual analysis & feasibility study, contrasting this option with a solar sail using desorption, blowing off embedded elements at perihelion. Hint: sail is faster. www.centauri-dreams.org/2025/07/01/a...

Tod Lauer @todlauer.bsky.social

New Horizons is so far away that the nearest stars have shifted markedly from where we see them on Earth. With the NH observed positions for two stars, from NH imagery alone we can figure out where the spacecraft is. This technique would be used on interstellar voyages. arxiv.org/abs/2506.21666

arxiv.org

A Demonstration of Interstellar Navigation Using New Horizons

As NASA's New Horizons spacecraft exits the Solar System bound for interstellar space, it has traveled so far that the nearest stars have shifted markedly from their positions seen from Earth. We demo...

Sean Raymond (planetplanet.net) @planetplanet.bsky.social

@nytimes.com article about Nate Kaib's and my recent paper on the future stability of the Solar System when passing stars are accounted for. www.nytimes.com/2025/06/28/s...

www.nytimes.com

This Is Not the Way We Usually Imagine the World Will End

Astrobiology @astrobiology.bsky.social

Direct High-Resolution Imaging of Earth-Like Exoplanets astrobiology.com/2025/06/dire... #astrobiology #exoplanet

astrobiology.com

Direct High-Resolution Imaging of Earth-Like Exoplanets - Astrobiology

We have surveyed all conventional methods proposed or conceivable for obtaining resolved images of an Earth-like exoplanet.

Paul Gilster @gilster.bsky.social

Looking at a Saturn class world in formation around the star TWA 7. This is a JWST catch & not yet confirmed, but evidence is strongly supportive of a planet here, the smallest yet found via direct imaging. www.centauri-dreams.org/2025/06/27/j...

Carl Sagan Institute @carlsaganinstitute.bsky.social

Have you seen the Rubin Observatory's first images? Rubin has the largest digital camera in the world, and it's ready to revolutionize astronomy! Over the next decade, it will discover 2000x MORE galaxies than the 10 million shown below. Let's explore how its images compare to other telescopes 🔭

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

We’re reading: “Measurements of the force produced by a negatively charged electric sail in a pulsed cathodic arc plasma” pubs.aip.org/aip/pop/arti...

pubs.aip.org

Measurements of the force produced by a negatively charged electric sail in a pulsed cathodic arc plasma

Electric sails are a propellant-less spacecraft propulsion method that uses charged wires to deflect a flowing plasma in an environment such as the solar wind o

NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory @vrubinobs.bsky.social

Introducing...your sneak peek at the cosmos captured by NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory! Can you guess these regions of sky? This is just a small peek...join us at 11am US EDT for your full First Look at how Rubin will #CaptureTheCosmos! 🔭🧪 #RubinFirstLook ls.st/rubin-first-look-livestream

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

Astronautics propulsion often comes down to plumbing, and interstellar propulsion will be no exception. So we had Swagelok Québec bring their training trailer to campus and put our personnel through a valve & fitting bootcamp.

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

For the same reason, water fountains aboard O’Neill cylinders will be spectacular.

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

We’re reading “Study of Venera Spacecraft Trajectories and Wider Implications” by Adam Hibberd (@adamsspaceresearch.bsky.social) arxiv.org/pdf/2506.09478

ToughSF @toughsf.bsky.social

An inflatable beryllium solar sail for exploring the Oort Cloud: arxiv.org/pdf/0809.3535 150 kg sail, 150 kg payload, expanding to 937m diameter near the Sun (Be to survive 1412 K peak temperature) to get a boost outwards at 400 km/s, able to reach the heliopause in 2.5 years.

I4IS @i4interstellar.bsky.social

Registration is open for the 9th Interstellar Symposium in Austin, Texas, 12-15 October 2025. irg.space/2025-irg-9th...

irg.space

2025 - Austin, Texas - Interstellar Research Group

Distant Worlds, Neighboring Opportunities An Interstellar Research Group EventOctober 12-15, 2025 AT&T Conference CenterUniversity of Texas at Austin CALL FOR PAPERS REGISTER TODAY HOTEL RESERVATION I...

Paul Gilster @gilster.bsky.social

Inflatable sails offer steep savings in mass & enable larger payloads. I look today at deep space concepts involving this technology, & new studies on using inflatable structures for exoplanet research via a starshade. www.centauri-dreams.org/2025/06/11/i...

I4IS @i4interstellar.bsky.social

Here's another excellent video by @fcain.universetoday.com describing a breakthrough in light sail technology... youtu.be/iHLm9oHMsyM?...

youtu.be

Punching NanoHoles in Light Sails Can Bring Us Closer to Alpha Centauri

YouTube video by Fraser Cain

Meg Schwamb @megschwamb.bsky.social

The @vrubinobs.bsky.social will discover ~70% of all of its small body discoveries in it's first 2 years! A video animation of our discovery predictions - Further details sorcha.space

www.youtube.com

Simulated Solar System Discoveries of LSST

YouTube video by Jake Andrew Kurlander

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

Search for elusive "Planet Nine" takes surprising twist, astronomers say www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/pla...

www.cbsnews.com

Search for elusive "Planet Nine" takes surprising twist, astronomers say

U.S. astronomers hunting for "Planet Nine" have instead stumbled on what appears to be a new dwarf planet in the solar system's outer reaches.

Nature Astronomy @natastron.nature.com

Giant planets on wide, eccentric orbits (like putative Planet 9) may form when stars are embedded in their natal stellar clusters. Sims suggest a 1-5% chance of such planets forming in exoplanetary systems & up to 40% in the Solar System. https://bit.ly/4dD7VOi #AstroSci

bit.ly

Very-wide-orbit planets from dynamical instabilities during the stellar birth cluster phase - Nature Astronomy

Giant planets on wide, eccentric orbits—like the putative Planet Nine—may form from dynamical planetary instabilities when stars are embedded in their natal stellar clusters. Simulations suggest a 1–5% chance of such planets forming in exoplanetary systems and up to 40% in the Solar System.

Paul Gilster @gilster.bsky.social

How many civilizations may have existed in the galaxy millions (or billions) of years before our own? Temporal coincidence may be an issue for detecting megastructures like Dyson swarms. New paper shows how they degrade over time. www.centauri-dreams.org/2025/05/29/m...

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

Konstantin Batygin (Caltech): “The [2017 OF201] object is unstable, so it means virtually nothing for the Planet 9 hypothesis. [The simulations show] this object is strongly interacting with Neptune.” buff.ly/k8MCYIS

buff.ly

Another Dwarf Planet in Our Solar System?

A newly discovered object in the outer solar system, 2017 OF201, is the largest found in more than a decade.

Corey S. Powell @coreyspowell.bsky.social

An object called 2017 OF201 is shaking up our ideas about the outer zone of our solar system. It follows an extreme, 25,000-year orbit. It may be 1 of 100s of such bodies filling a seemingly vacant region. And its existence casts doubt on searches for Planet 9. 🧪🔭 www.ias.edu/news/extreme...

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

For operations in near-Earth space, here's a reminder: replacing those radiators with a thin-film solar photovoltaic array of the same size would result in a greater specific power (kW/kg).

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

Can you comment on how the discovery of 2017 OF201—an extreme trans-Neptunian object (TNO) that does not exhibit a longitude of perihelion consistent with the clustering that originally inspired the Planet 9 conjecture—might change your assessment of the likelihood of Planet 9?

Seth Jacobson @sethajacobson.bsky.social

"Do you think Planet 9 exists?" The observational evidence is limited by small number statistics. That's often enough for many to conclude, somewhere between unlikely and no. But, I lean further towards more-likely-than-not, and a new paper out today helps explain why I've thought this way. 1/7

Astrobiology @astrobiology.bsky.social

Four Planets Discovered Around Barnard's Star astrobiology.com/2025/05/four... #astrobiology #exoplanet #astronomy

astrobiology.com

Four Planets Discovered Around Barnard's Star - Astrobiology

Astronomers confirm the existence of small, hot and likely rocky planets by observing the subtle gravitational wobbles of the star they orbit.

Meg Schwamb @megschwamb.bsky.social

The orbit would be disrupted by Planet 9 according to the paper, I’m not sure yet if there’s a way for Planet 9 to product a transitory population like the Centaurs.

Chris Simms @chrisnsimms.bsky.social

This is fascinating work. A possible new dwarf planet has been spotted at the edge of our solar system and it only comes to visit every 25,000 years or so. 🧪 Its unusual orbit is also evidence against the existence of the hypothetical Planet 9. Read more here: www.newscientist.com/article/2481...

www.newscientist.com

New dwarf planet spotted at the edge of the solar system

The unusual orbit of a possible dwarf planet, known as 2017 OF201, makes it less likely that our solar system contains a hidden ninth “Planet X”

arXiv bot (astro-ph)@krxiv-astro-ph.bsky.social

Discovery of a dwarf planet candidate in an extremely wide orbit: 2017 OF201 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2505.15806 Sihao Cheng, Jiaxuan Li, Eritas Yang.

arxiv.org

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

“By demonstrating that 90-day transfers are feasible using existing chemical propulsion technology, our work provides a near-term, practical alternative to proposed nuclear thermal or nuclear electric propulsion solutions that have low TRLs and require significant regulatory approval processes.”

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

We’re reading “3 months transit time to Mars for human missions using SpaceX Starship” www.nature.com/articles/s41...

www.nature.com

3 months transit time to Mars for human missions using SpaceX Starship - Scientific Reports

Scientific Reports - 3 months transit time to Mars for human missions using SpaceX Starship

David S. F. Portree @dsfpspacefl1ght.bsky.social

The second of a three-parter; in this post I look at the cinematic spaceship DISCOVERY, hero ship of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, and the real-world 1960s gas-core nuclear rocket plans that might have made it possible. From No Shortage of Dreams. 🛰️🔭🧪🚀🪐🌏🌔👩‍🚀 spaceflighthistory.blogspot.com/2016/07/coul...

spaceflighthistory.blogspot.com

Could the Space Voyages in the Film and Novel "2001: A Space Odyssey" Really Happen? (Part 2)

The story of spaceflight told through missions and programs that did not happen - that is, the great majority of them.

Paul Gilster @gilster.bsky.social

Looking for biosignatures is already controversial & will continue to be so. But a null detection can be a useful thing in any case. Alex Tolley examines how we use Bayesian statistics to better understand the probability of life elsewhere. www.centauri-dreams.org/2025/05/23/t...

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

Can you comment on the implications for Planet 9? It doesn’t appear follow the perihelion clustering that inspired the Planet 9 conjecture. In the arXiv paper, N-body simulations using the P-9 model of Siraj et al. (2025) show this ETNO would be ejected in ~100 million years but is stable w/o P-9.

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

If confirmed, this new extreme TNO could spell trouble for the Planet 9 hypothesis. It doesn’t follow the perihelion clustering that inspired the Planet 9 conjecture. N-body simulations using P-9 model of Siraj et al. (2025) show this ETNO would be ejected in ~100 million years.

Tony Dunn @tony873004.bsky.social

🚨 New dwarf planet candidate: 2017 OF201 🚨 ~700 km wide, now 90.5 AU from the Sun. Orbit: a = 838 AU, q = 44.9 AU — deep into the inner Oort Cloud. Possibly part of a hidden population totaling ~1% of Earth’s mass. 📄 Paper: arxiv.org/pdf/2505.15806 #astronomy #dwarfplanet

Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy

https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.15806 "Notably, the orbit of 2017 OF201 lies well outside the clustering of longitude of perihelion observed in extreme trans-Neptunian objects, which has been proposed as dynamical evidence for a distant, undetected planet." (Time to make some plots with this brand […]

michael ❄️ @radplanets.com

👀👀👀

Tony Dunn@tony873004.bsky.social

🚨 New dwarf planet candidate: 2017 OF201 🚨 ~700 km wide, now 90.5 AU from the Sun. Orbit: a = 838 AU, q = 44.9 AU — deep into the inner Oort Cloud. Possibly part of a hidden population totaling ~1% of Earth’s mass. 📄 Paper: arxiv.org/pdf/2505.15806 #astronomy #dwarfplanet

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

Two key figures: This newly discovered extreme TNO does not conform to the clustering of the perihelion longitudes that led to the Planet 9 hypothesis. Using the Planet 9 model of Siraj et al. (2025) in N-body simulations, this new ETNO would be ejected in ~100 million years.

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

We’re reading “Discovery of a dwarf planet candidate in an extremely wide orbit: 2017 OF201” Key quote: “The orbit of 2017 OF201 also presents an intriguing challenge to the Planet X / Planet 9 hypothesis.” arxiv.org/abs/2505.15806

arxiv.org

Discovery of a dwarf planet candidate in an extremely wide orbit: 2017 OF201

We report the discovery of a dwarf planet candidate, 2017 OF201, currently located at a distance of 90.5 au. Its orbit is extremely wide and extends to the inner Oort cloud, with a semi-major axis of ...

Astrobiology @astrobiology.bsky.social

Exoplanet Detection With Microlensing astrobiology.com/2025/05/exop... #astrobiology #astronomy #exoplanet

astrobiology.com

Exoplanet Detection With Microlensing - Astrobiology

Microlensing is the method of exoplanet detection that discovers solar system analog exoplanets.

ToughSF @toughsf.bsky.social

ToughSF is back! A new blog post: The Laser Revolution Part I: Megawatt beams to the skies toughsf.blogspot.com/2025/05/the-...

Thomas Telkamp @telkamp.eu

Just listening to the Voyager 1 signal on a Wednesday evening. More than 23 light hours away (25 billion km). Of course with the historic @radiotelescoop.bsky.social!

Tony Dunn @tony873004.bsky.social

A visual look at two possible orbits for Planet Nine—one based on @plutokiller & @kb4batygin’s model, the other inspired by a recent IRAS/AKARI paper (arXiv:2504.17288) by @takao_nakagawa, @AmosChen, @frosztfang, @NomisOh, and @seongjin_torres.

ToughSF @toughsf.bsky.social

Microlensing data from KMTNet suggests that rocky super-Earth planets are common far from their star, in orbits like Jupiter: arxiv.org/abs/2504.20158 In fact, there would be 0.35 'distant Earths' per star, compared to the general 1-planet-per-star ratio.

Paul Byrne @theplanetaryguy.bsky.social

These are real images of exoplanets. Four super-Jupiters, imaged 10 times over 12 years around a star 133 lightyears away. These are real, giant worlds, out there in the dark. And we can see them.

Astrobiology @astrobiology.bsky.social

Reconstructing The Free-floating Planet Mass Function With The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope astrobiology.com/2025/05/reco... #astrobiology #exoplanet #astronomy

astrobiology.com

Reconstructing The Free-floating Planet Mass Function With The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope - Astrobiology

ree-floating planets comprise one of the most enigmatic populations of exoplanets in the Galaxy.

Paul Gilster @gilster.bsky.social

A vast molecular cloud turns up much closer to the Sun than the Orion Nebula. Its discovery is a marker for how we're beginning to chart nearby interstellar space, a prerequisite if we are ever to navigate regions of dust and gas at a percentage of lightspeed. www.centauri-dreams.org/2025/04/29/c...

Mike Brown @plutokiller.com

I have a couple of thoughts about the new paper the finds a candidate Planet Nine in some old data. First, it is difficult to tell how seriously to take this because a false alarm probability is never discussed, and second, if it is real, it is not Planet Nine. Read on: 🧵🔭🧪 arxiv.org/abs/2504.17288

arxiv.org

A Search for Planet Nine with IRAS and AKARI Data

The outer solar system is theoretically predicted to harbour an undiscovered planet, often referred to as P9. Simulations suggest that its gravitational influence could explain the unusual clustering ...

ToughSF @toughsf.bsky.social

NEA Scout failed, ACS3 didn't deploy, LightSail-1 never sailed and LightSail-2 barely raised its orbit while tumbling. What's next for solar sails? Are there any other missions planned?

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

It is tiny, but the Alpha CubeSat from Cornell University is heading to orbit this summer and will deploy a ChipSat lightsail. youtu.be/yQ5ndggAYz4?...

youtu.be

Alpha CubeSat is on the way to Houston! 🚀 #engineering #cornelluniversity

YouTube video by Cornell Engineering

Paul Gilster @gilster.bsky.social

JWST data are shaping our view of 'sub-Neptune' planets. Maybe the ocean world hypothesis needs a second look. This is part 2 of my examination of where the debate now stands. www.centauri-dreams.org/2025/04/22/t...

Paul Gilster @gilster.bsky.social

K2-18b just may be a water world under a hydrogen atmosphere, the category dubbed 'hycean' for hydrogen/ocean. Interesting detection of potential biosignatures here, but let's scrutinize carefully. Some thoughts: www.centauri-dreams.org/2025/04/18/a...

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

If Planet Nine exists, this is how we will find it, either through direct observation or by identifying a statistically significant number of TNOs that support the Planet Nine hypothesis.

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

“…it is unlikely chemical signatures (even from in situ measurements!) will be convincing enough for us to announce the discovery of life.” Which means—to verify discovery of life on an exoplanet—we are going to need to *go* *there*.

Sarah Hörst @planetdr.bsky.social

Sarah’s rules of looking for life with only chemical signatures: 1) the smaller the molecule(s) the more likely they can also be produced by abiotic processes 2) one molecule, if it can be produced by any abiotic process, will never be enough to definitively claim detection of life

ToughSF @toughsf.bsky.social

This is the iridium target used at CERN's Antimatter Factory. The Proton Synchrotron's 3.5 GeV beam is diverted to strike it, releasing a spray of radiation from which antiprotons are extracted. Extremely inefficient, but we don't know better. indico.cern.ch/event/105632...

ToughSF @toughsf.bsky.social

Laser-Accelerated Plasma Propulsion System at 100,000s Isp: www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/11... Intense laser pulses strike a solid target, creating such strong electric fields that ions are ejected at high velocity via TNSA acceleration. It has many advantages over a pure photon rocket.

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

Could you elaborate a bit more on this? Our (admittedly undergraduate) understanding of electromagnetism is that static magnetic fields ultimately permeate most media. How, then, would the electron beams be shielded from the ambient magnetic fields?

ToughSF @toughsf.bsky.social

By far the most terrifying interstellar weapon: a radiation beam, delivered by ultra-relativistic electrons that can penetrate deep into Earth's crust and thoroughly sterilize the planet... No shield, no warning or escape, invisible. @kurzgesagt.org: youtu.be/tybKnGZRwcU

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

Thus, from a star 42 light years away, the beam would make several loops before reaching Earth (if it can reach it at all). Fluctuations in the magnetic field of the interstellar medium would result in the beam being completely incoherent by the time it reaches Earth. Are we missing something?

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

We have difficulty making the numbers for the interstellar ultrarelativistic electron beam work. Even with a β=v/c=0.99999999999999999999999999998, an electron will still spiral around the magnetic field of the galaxy (B ~ 3 µT) with a radius of curvature of ~10 light years.

Tony Dunn @tony873004.bsky.social

🚀 All of the hyperbolic spacecraft currently escaping the solar system. Explore them in this interactive, pan-able browser simulation: orbitsimulator.com/gravitySimul...

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

Attendees at the 8th Interstellar Symposium in 2023 received a preview of this research that you can view here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmRn...

www.youtube.com

Propelling Interstellar Exploration: Extreme-Aspect-Ratio Metamaterials in Post-Moore Era

YouTube video by Interstellar Research Group

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

We're reading: “Pentagonal photonic crystal mirrors: scalable lightsails with enhanced acceleration via neural topology optimization” #OpenAccess www.nature.com/articles/s41...

www.nature.com

Pentagonal photonic crystal mirrors: scalable lightsails with enhanced acceleration via neural topology optimization - Nature Communications

Here the authors develop large-scale nanomaterials to improve the performances of laser propulsion using an easily scalable structure, thus bringing us closer to relativistic travel to our closest sta...

Corey S. Powell @coreyspowell.bsky.social

It's been an exciting couple weeks for the exploration of planets around other stars. First up: *Direct* images of planets orbiting two young, nearby stars. HR 8799 (left) has four super-Jupiters. 51 Eridani (right) has a planet 4 times the mass of Jupiter. 🧪🔭 webbtelescope.org/contents/new...

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

Currently, state-of-the-art photovoltaics achieve power levels of only kilowatts per kilogram (kW/kg), making it challenging to envision achieving another three orders of magnitude in power density.

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

This is only true if your power conversion system, which transforms the delivered laser power into electricity, can achieve a power density of megawatts per kilogram (MW/kg). Otherwise, the system is just too heavy to accelerate in a timely way.

ToughSF @toughsf.bsky.social

If your target velocity for an interstellar probe is 0.2C, then the optimal Isp is 3,800,000s, better delivered by a laser-electric drive than a direct laser-propelled lightsail: www.geoffreylandis.com/Laser_ion.htp This continues to be true up to about 0.5C.

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

Amid the numerous groundbreaking scientific contributions yet to come, if Planet Nine exists, the LSST at @vrubinobs.bsky.social will be the instrument to discover it—either directly or indirectly.

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

We’re reading “Four Sub-Earth Planets Orbiting Barnard’s Star from MAROON-X and ESPRESSO” doi.org/10.3847/2041...

ToughSF @toughsf.bsky.social

Antimatter propulsion concepts: arc.aiaa.org/doi/10.2514/... The most interesting designs are the solid-propellant rocket with ablative LiH walls reaching 1400s Isp, and the 'pellet drive' reaching 1,000,000s Isp with good TWR in the region of 0.1-1

Prof. Abel Méndez @profabelmendez.bsky.social

Our #AreciboWow! project is conducting the most in-depth analysis of the Wow! Signal using results from the world’s longest-running SETI initiative. Excited to welcome @hectorsocas.bsky.social & @davidkipping.bsky.social to the team! 📡🔭✨ #Astronomy #SETI

Andrew Higgins @a-j-higgins.bsky.social

It is now routine to hear proponents like Robert Zubrin (@zubrin.bsky.social) and Peter Diamandis argue that knowledge will be the primary export of space settlements. Today, I stumbled across a 1970 talk by Arthur Kantrowitz, in which he made the exact same point. A man truly ahead of his era.

Paul Gilster @gilster.bsky.social

Research at Caltech under Harry Atwater tracks silicon nitride lightsail proxy's reaction to laser beam. This kind of work is crucial if we are to use beamed energy to push sails to high velocities. Can we get to Proxima b? Choice of sail materials is crucial. www.centauri-dreams.org/2025/03/03/s...

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

Oh, and did we forget: The 7th largest telescope ever built…operating 1 million miles from Earth.

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

A good day for the DSN to remind us of what we are capable of at our best: Simultaneously communicating with three spacecraft at Mars, a mission en route to Europa to look for life, another heading to the Jovian Trojan asteroids, and our two furthest interstellar envoys.

Paul Gilster @gilster.bsky.social

To make a beamed sail interstellar mission possible, we need plenty of experimental work on sail materials of all kinds. Today I review previous work and look toward questions we need to answer about laser & microwave beaming: www.centauri-dreams.org/2025/02/27/e...

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

Antimatter: Scientists freeze positronium atoms with lasers www.bbc.com/news/science...

www.bbc.com

Antimatter: Scientists freeze positronium atoms with lasers

Positronium has the potential to revolutionise physics but the elusive substance had been too hot to handle.

Paul Gilster @gilster.bsky.social

Life as a series of 'hard steps' may make extraterrestrial civilizations unlikely. But do 'hard steps' really exist? New work reconsiders Brandon Carter's famous paper in light of evolutionary environmental change. Good news for SETI? www.centauri-dreams.org/2025/02/21/s...

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

We’re reading “Ringworlds and Dyson spheres can be stable” by Colin McInnes arxiv.org/abs/2502.12806

arxiv.org

Ringworlds and Dyson spheres can be stable

In his 1856 Adams Prize essay, James Clark Maxwell demonstrated that Saturn's rings cannot be comprised of a uniform rigid body. This is a consequence of the two-body gravitational interaction between...

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

Official Artwork for IRG 2025 Symposium Released! This breathtaking piece represents our theme: “Distant Worlds, Neighboring Opportunities.” Learn more: irg.space

triple cheeseburger @triplchii.bsky.social

guide to the planetary system of Proxima Centauri, 2598 revision

Paul Gilster @gilster.bsky.social

Given vistas opening through our telescopes & probes, what would surprise you the most about what we may find in the galaxy? I'm homing in on basic questions of life's formation, curious to know what our core assumptions are. How do they color our research? www.centauri-dreams.org/2025/02/14/w...

Erika @explorecosmos.bsky.social

New research suggests that material from Alpha Centauri has reached our Solar System, mostly in the form of tiny rocks. The study modeled how particles ejected from Alpha Centauri, which is moving towards us, could travel through space and reach the Oort Cloud. 1/2 👉 arxiv.org/pdf/2502.03224

Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social

Our first “Earth-like” exoplanets probably won’t have atmospheres With JWST, we're finally able to start probing Earth-sized planets within about 50 light-years for atmospheres. Here's why it's very unlikely that we'll find any. bigthink.com/starts-with-... #space #astro #astronomy #science

bigthink.com

Our first "Earth-like" exoplanets probably won't have atmospheres

Seeking life beyond the Solar System, we first look to the closest star systems with Earth-like planets. Here's why that's not good enough.

Astrobiology @astrobiology.bsky.social

Earth Detecting Earth astrobiology.com/2025/02/eart... #astrobiology #exoplanet #SETI #technosignature

astrobiology.com

Earth Detecting Earth - Astrobiology

If an extraterrestrial civilization existed with technology similar to ours, would they be able to detect Earth and evidence of humanity?

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

Mason Peck's idea of using Lorentz-actuated flybys of planetary magnetospheres offers a potentially innovative (and free!) method for reaching the speeds required for interstellar travel. However, a charge-to-mass ratio of 10 C/kg is insanely large for anything bigger than a speck of dust.

ToughSF @toughsf.bsky.social

Gravity-Assist maneuvers using electrically charged spacecraft: arc.aiaa.org/doi/10.2514/... A probe that can add or remove an overall charge of 1-10 C/kg can exploit the Lorentz force when interacting with the target planet's magnetic field without expending propellant.

Paul Gilster @gilster.bsky.social

Just what constitutes a technosignature? The possibilities go far beyond radio & Dyson spheres. New paper digs into what may eventually be detectable, quantifying the possibilities. Fascinating work that pins down what we do know, & what we don't. www.centauri-dreams.org/2025/02/05/q...

Dr. SkySkull @drskyskull.bsky.social

New book blog post! Tau Zero, by Poul Anderson! skullsinthestars.com/2025/02/02/t...

skullsinthestars.com

Tau Zero, by Poul Anderson

Book 7 for my 2025 goal of 30 books for the year! I love a good science fiction story that really leans into one of the weird aspects of modern physics, and so as soon as I learned the premise of P…

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

We’re reading “Analyzing the acceleration time and reflectance of light sails made from homogeneous and core-shell spheres” #OpenAccess doi.org/10.1364/OME....

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

Asteroid fragments upend theory of how life on Earth bloomed www.nature.com/articles/d41...

www.nature.com

Asteroid fragments upend theory of how life on Earth bloomed

Samples from Bennu contain the chemical building blocks of life — but with a twist.

Adam Hibberd @adamsspaceresearch.bsky.social

Please do go to my recent starship blog for the 'Initiative for Interstellar Studies' (i4is). i4is.org/tunguska-and...

Prof. Abel Méndez @profabelmendez.bsky.social

Searching for extraterrestrial intelligence across a century - IOPscience https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/2877/1/012050

Adam Frank @adamfrank4.bsky.social

Thank you so much for this! I am glad to hear that the research direction is still bearing fruit.

Adam Frank @adamfrank4.bsky.social

Does anybody know what’s going on with Breakthrough Starshot?

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

Propelling Interstellar Exploration: Extreme-Aspect-Ratio Metamaterials in Post-Moore Era Prof. Richard Norte, TU/Delft youtu.be/hmRnk0BV3OA?...

youtu.be

Propelling Interstellar Exploration: Extreme-Aspect-Ratio Metamaterials in Post-Moore Era

YouTube video by Interstellar Research Group

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

You can view talks from the Breakthrough Starshot-funded research presented at the Interstellar Symposium here: Starshot From Science to Spacecraft and Missions Prof. Harry Atwater, Caltech youtu.be/jV2sNOYzaFA?...

youtu.be

Starshot From Science to Spacecraft and Missions

YouTube video by Interstellar Research Group

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

To further clarify, our research group is not affiliated with Breakthrough Starshot, although we inhabit the same research circles. In July 2023, we hosted the 8th Interstellar Symposium in Montreal, where many of the research results from Breakthrough Starshot were reported.

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

(2) Demonstrating that inexpensive fiber-optic lasers or solid-state lasers can be phased-locked to form a phased array, effectively acting as a single optical element of arbitrarily large size.

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

(1) Demonstrating that photonic sail materials can be fabricated in the lab with a combination of high reflectivity and, more importantly, low absorptivity, allowing them to withstand the laser flux necessary for a laser-driven interstellar light sail.

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

To clarify, the 2016 Breakthrough Starshot initiative was *not* intended to directly fund the development of an interstellar probe, but rather to assess its technological feasibility. Significant progress was made under this effort, including:

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

In various interviews from 2024 available online, Pete Worden (Executive Director of the Breakthrough Starshot) has stated that the initial phase of Breakthrough Starshot has concluded, and further research is on pause while they write up the results from the preliminary studies.

Paul Gilster @gilster.bsky.social

Did a heavy iron cover on an underground nuclear blast in 1957 get blown clear out of the Solar System? Almost certainly not. In fact, the odds on its reaching space are tiny. Comments from one involved as well as calculations: www.centauri-dreams.org/2025/01/07/a...

Eric Choi (蔡文信) @aerospacewriter.bsky.social

The Hard-Science SF Writers and Artists Group kicks off their 2025 speaker series this Saturday with science fiction scholar Marleen S. Barr. I will be presenting on September 6th about science fiction and space exploration. Registration: tinyurl.com/4a48hce4 YouTube Channel: tinyurl.com/3wcwx24x

www.youtube.com

Tucson Hard-Science SF Channel

Welcome to the Tucson Hard-Science Fiction SF Channel. Here we will share some of our great Zoom speakers and other fine science fiction content. We hope you will join our virtual science fiction co...

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

Encouraging signs: Data is being transmitted down from the Parker Solar Probe via the Deep Space Network following its record-setting perihelion on December 24.

I4IS @i4interstellar.bsky.social

Here's a great video by Isaac Arthur on the Medusa Spaceship Drive, an interesting concept for interstellar propulsion. It's a variant of the Orion drive, similarly using nuclear explosions but with several claimed advantages... youtu.be/MNkc-PCwSNo?...

youtu.be

The Medusa Spaceship Drive

YouTube video by Isaac Arthur

Paul Gilster @gilster.bsky.social

Interstellar trajectory: Re-examination of idea that goes back to beginning of Voyager mission. A tank-emptying final burn, a symbolic gesture bending their courses towards the vicinity of nearest star to each. A kind of requiem, a promise to keep exploring. www.centauri-dreams.org/2024/12/24/h...

Astrobiology @astrobiology.bsky.social

Experimental Tests Of The Calibration of High Precision Differential Astrometry for Exoplanets astrobiology.com/2024/12/expe... #astrobiology #astronomy #exoplanet

astrobiology.com

Experimental Tests Of The Calibration of High Precision Differential Astrometry for Exoplanets - Astrobiology

High precision differential Astrometry is the branch of astronomy that evaluates the relative position

Tod Lauer @todlauer.bsky.social

A wonderful piece on Ed Stone, and what it takes to PI a whopping mission of discovery. Ed was the scientific lead of the Voyager missons. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

www.nytimes.com

How Edward Stone Resolved NASA’s Scientific Turf Wars (Gift Article)

To run a scientific expedition that travels billions of miles, it takes more than great engineers — it takes a great manager as well.

Dr. Jack Brown @drjackbrown.bsky.social

Due to it's closest approach yet to the Sun and the phenomenon of gravitational assist (aka gravitational 'slingshot'), the Parker Solar Probe just became the fastest human-made object at ~ 690,000 km/hr (430,000 mi/hr). This is ~ 192.22 km/sec (119.44 mi/sec) – only 0.000641 of the speed of light.

Randall Munroe @xkcd.com

Sun Avoidance xkcd.com/3029

Dr. Erika Palmerio @erikapal.bsky.social

Happening on Xmas Eve: Parker Solar Probe's first-ever closest approach to the Sun, at a distance of only 9.86 solar radii, is scheduled for ~11:45 UT on Dec 24, 2024. This animation shows the trajectory of Parker's Encounter 22 projected onto the solar equatorial plane ☀️🛰️ #heliophysics #parker

Corey S. Powell @coreyspowell.bsky.social

Earlier today, the Parker Solar Probe set two space records: closest approach to the Sun, and fastest-ever human object, hitting a speed of 191 km/sec. 🧪 parkersolarprobe.jhuapl.edu

Eric Choi (蔡文信) @aerospacewriter.bsky.social

On the occasion of the #ParkerSolarProbe reaching perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) earlier today, I put together a 1:30 scale paper model of the spacecraft I got at the #AGU24 conference. There was a full scale model of Parker at the @jhuapl.bsky.social booth at AGU. tinyurl.com/4t8ahbyz

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

Good discussion of warp drive feasibility by @adamfrank4.bsky.social starting here: t.co/B91E8jcQfN

Tony Dunn @tony873004.bsky.social

On Christmas Eve, the #ParkerSolarProbe will make its closest pass ever to the Sun, flying at a record-breaking 191 km/s! 🌞 It will pass just 6.1 million km above the Sun's photosphere, navigating through the scorching corona. 🔥

Paul Gilster @gilster.bsky.social

Because I believe human migration into the Solar System & beyond is inevitable, a new paper on preserving already existing space artifacts has my attention. Anthropology meets space tech, and also encounters legal questions. We need to think long-term. www.centauri-dreams.org/2024/12/18/c...

Michele Bannister @astrokiwi.bsky.social

Interstellar objects are a lot of fun to work on. Feels like a few different ideas are all getting to a good place

ToughSF @toughsf.bsky.social

The classic Relativistic Rocket accelerates at 1g to the edge of the speed of light: 2.3 years to Alpha Centauri (4.2 ly) 10 years to the center of the Milky Way (26,000 ly) 15 years to Andromeda (2,500,000 ly), reaching a level of time dilation where 1 second = 1 month

ToughSF @toughsf.bsky.social

The 'Hypertelescope': a concept for creating telescopes of unlimited size using arrays of small mirrors, 25 km wide inside a lunar crater or as a 100,000 km diameter laser-trapped flotilla, with a prototype in a French valley. hypertelescope.org/hypertelesco... hypertelescope.org/wp-content/u...

Paul Gilster @gilster.bsky.social

If a technology can move entire stars, what observational signal will this throw? Spectral signatures for a galaxy change if lower-mass stars are gradually enveloped in Dyson Spheres to generate energy for their eventual 'harvesting.' Life in a high-end civ: www.centauri-dreams.org/2024/12/04/a...

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

Great conversation by Everyday Spacer with our collaborator Jeff Greason. While the discussion starts with space policy, it quickly pivots to Jeff's work on interstellar propulsion. Also, thanks for the shout-out to our laser thermal propulsion work! www.youtube.com/live/gBpxotu...

Astrobiology @astrobiology.bsky.social

NEID Earth Twin Survey Delivers On Its Goal to Push the Limits of Exoplanet Discovery astrobiology.com/2024/11/neid... #astrobiology #exoplanet #astronomy #Imaging

astrobiology.com

NEID Earth Twin Survey Delivers On Its Goal to Push the Limits of Exoplanet Discovery - Astrobiology

For four years the NEID spectrograph has been delivering on one of its main science goals.

Eric Choi (蔡文信) @aerospacewriter.bsky.social

Scenes from the #DaydreamingInTheSolarSystem book launch at the Merril Collection of Science Fiction, Speculation, and Fantasy: Author @arcticsaxifrage.bsky.social and illustrator Michelle Parsons, John in conversation with astronomer Sarah Rugheimer, and my copy autographed. tinyurl.com/3cxbn9x2

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

Let’s go find out.

Astrobiology @astrobiology.bsky.social

Spotlight on SETI: Episode 3 with Dr. Pascal Lee www.seti.org/spotlight-se... #astrobiology #astrogeology @setiinstitute.bsky.social

www.seti.org

Spotlight on SETI: Episode 3 with Dr. Pascal Lee

Eric Choi (蔡文信) @aerospacewriter.bsky.social

The book launch for #DaydreamingInTheSolarSystem is tomorrow at the Merril Collection of Science Fiction, Speculation and Fantasy in Toronto. Written by @arcticsaxifrage.bsky.social and Jesse Rogerson, the book takes readers from the craters of Mercury to the icy dunes of Pluto. tinyurl.com/4m9r3twa

ToughSF @toughsf.bsky.social

Huge lasers as the only plausible option for propellant spacecraft to relativistic speeds, using phased arrays like DELTA that can be expanded from grams to tons of payload: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... There's also a fun 1000 ton, 10 PW Avatar ISV example with 36 km reflector to reach 0.7C

I4IS @i4interstellar.bsky.social

We’re Building a Generation Ship. All We Need Is ... Everything. Care to Help? 💡🌌 Project Hyperion invites YOU to submit designs for an interstellar generation ship. Go to projecthyperion.org for details. #projecthyperion #interstellar #generationship Image: @macspace.bsky.social

Dr Ryan MacDonald @distantworlds.space

Preparations for NASA's Habitable Worlds Observatory 🔭🪐 (HWO) are well underway. Planned to launch in the 2040s, this 'Super-Hubble' will revolutionise astrophysics and survey at least 25 potentially habitable exoplanets for signs of alien life. 👾 This week we held a HWO workshop in Baltimore. 🧵

Heidi B. Hammel @hbhammel.bsky.social

🧵on the Habitable Worlds Observatory - which in addition to astrophysics and exoplanets - will absolutely ROCK for Solar System studies #planetsci

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

You’re added!

Paul Gilster @gilster.bsky.social

Millisecond pulsars as stellar engines, but with what payload? Part II of my post on Clément Vidal's 'spider engine,' a way of moving entire stars. Can advanced cultures do this & work with neutron stars themselves as hosts for intelligence? www.centauri-dreams.org/2024/11/19/s...

Andrew Higgins @a-j-higgins.bsky.social

Congratulations @bsky.app on reaching 20 million users. I think you might just make it. (h/t @natalie.sh for the counter)

spaceleclerc @spaceleclerc.bsky.social

Just 6 light-years away… skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-ne...

skyandtelescope.org

Barnard’s Star Has a Confirmed Planet — At Last!

Astronomers have found a sub-Earth-mass planet orbiting Barnard's star, just six light-years away — for real this time.

McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group @mcgill-adastra.bsky.social

Our group has created a Start Pack for interstellar flight researchers and enthusiasts, along with the journalists, YouTubers, and podcasters who cover their work. go.bsky.app/9cA6F93

Interstellar Flight Starter Pack

Starter pack by McGill Interstellar Flight Research Group

Interstellar flight researchers and enthusiasts, along with the journalists, YouTubers, and podcasters who cover their work. If you wish to be removed or added to this list, please DM us.

Paul Gilster @gilster.bsky.social

Have decided to move to BlueSky for good, having left X for obvious reasons. Future posts from my Centauri Dreams site will be linked here. Current post considers Clément Vidal's striking concept for using millisecond pulsars to move entire stellar systems. www.centauri-dreams.org/2024/11/14/a...