Professor of astronomy, farmer of goats. Asteroid (42910). She/her.
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2026-07-04T12:52:19+02:00 Event JSON
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Last Notes npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler Oh gosh this article makes me want to cry. Why does everyone keep printing what that awful CEO says without fact-checking it? https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-02218-9 npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler I calculated an average of 1 collision avoidance maneuver every 75 seconds in the Starlink megaconstellation based on the numbers they gave in their last conjuction report. But sure, launch more Starlinks. npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler I used to be excited about rocket launches. Fuck you, SpaceX, for taking that away from me by destroying the sky, the atmosphere, and dropping shit on me because of your terrible safety and nonexistent environmental practices. npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler EXCELLENT The Independent picked up our Conversation article! https://www.independent.co.uk/space/space-mirror-satellite-reflect-orbital-b3013688.html npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler Everything is terrible, but my goats are very happy. Please enjoy my happy chaos goats. npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler Auuuggghhhh I have to update the megaconstellation numbers (mostly Starlink) for a talk tomorrow. I hate this. npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler I always find it completely hilarious when I'm biking and an ENTIRE HERD of cows stops eating to all stare at me npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler Fun animal story: there is an eastern kingbird who has started hanging out by the back door. The bird knows there are moths that like to hide in the weather stripping around the back door, and dive bombs the moths every time the door opens. npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler Want some reminders of how fucking terrible this idea is? npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK NOOOOO npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler New grass parade! npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler I had 3 hours straight of back-to-back intense meetings on various aspects of satellites destroying astronomy with different groups of people. This dishcloth I knitted during the meetings expresses my sentiment perfectly. npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler HAHAHA FUCK SpaceX just launched a nuclear powered satellite. npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler I missed reading Starlink's latest conjunction report when it came out a bit over a month ago. I just skimmed through it and I think I need to go lay down for a while. It's terrifying how close we are to major collisions in orbit all the time... (I especially love the note about how space-track.org being offline briefly caused them to miss a potential collision... SO FRAGILE AAUGH) npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler Potatoes. PO - TAY - TOES. Boil 'em, mash 'em, stick 'em in a stew. npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler YOU GUYS!! We live on a planet where the perfect combination of chemistry, atmospheric temperature and pressure, and geometry means that this ridiculously beautiful thing just HAPPENS sometimes!!! npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler YES. npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler Some questions that keep coming up: npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler Don't worry, Sam, SpaceX won't ACTUALLY launch 7,000 satellites! (There are currently 10,296 Starlink sats in orbit) npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler I won an astronomy communication and public education award from the Canadian Astronomical Society, for yelling about satellite pollution! I'm quite honoured, and now obligated to continue yelling. npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler Upside to 2am barn checks for the #BabyGoatCountdown: there were full-sky auroras! (It *finally* wasn't cloudy, yay) npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler Good morning! It's very cold and sparkly. And there are no new baby goats. But the 5 baby goats so far are SO CUTE and very healthy. #BabyGoatCountdown npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler I am... really tempted to pin this to the top of my account... Print it and put it on my office door... send it as my email signature... wear it around my neck at conferences.... npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler Such very round goats. npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler Trying to edit a stupid FCC comment on Yet Another Fucking Stupid Orbital Data Center (fuck you, Blue Origin) and I need to go outside and rage-scream for a while. And I have an easily accessible hayfield to rage-scream in!! (Also maybe baby goats, I'll check for those too #BabyGoatCountdown) npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler Have to try to start playing tetris to pack my car with all the stuff we acquired in the last few months of travel (and decide if it's worth mailing anything to ourselves instead). And make decisions about weather and the long drive to Sask. npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler I very much appreciate the way they wrote this: "SpaceX, which recently reported two Starlink satellite failures that created new space debris, yesterday accused Amazon and its launch partner Arianespace of negligence that 'needlessly and significantly increases risk to other operational systems and inhabited spacecraft.'” npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler *Secret hilarious project* is now live! npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler Just submitted my Reflect Orbital reply comment to the FCC. And I managed to not throw my laptop out a window. npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler For no reason at all, please give me your favourite cow-related figures of speech! (Stuff like "No use crying over spilled milk" or "until the cows come home", puns extremely welcome) npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler Yesterday my partner and kids visited the Antarctic Centre in Christchurch, and they were all delighted by the penguins and huskies. They were less impressed by the "cold room" (which was -8C and had fans that also blow wind at 40km/hr, they have parkas you can borrow...) npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler Fuck. Reflect Orbital apparently had more time than we thought to respond, and they just did. We have a lot more writing to do. Hopefully some of you who wrote comments will also write and submit replies to Reflect Orbital's FCC response. I'm sure it's total bullshit, and I am not sure when I will have the strength to read it. npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler The third article in this (horrible) series of articles I've co-authored is now out. https://theconversation.com/a-million-new-spacex-satellites-will-destroy-the-night-sky-for-everyone-on-earth-277938 npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler I presented at the local planetary journal club this morning about the 3 articles I co-authored for The Conversation in the past weeks about the effects that one million satellites would have on the night sky, the atmosphere, and the orbital environment (spoiler alert: all very very bad) npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler Well, I have now been quoted calling SpaceX "fuckweasels" in a real publication by real journalists: https://au.pcmag.com/ai/116598/spacex-to-start-small-with-1-million-satellite-plan-pushes-back-on-critics npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler You know what's really cool? Sociable eels in small streams on a university campus in New Zealand. npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler FUCK all my North American meetings get one hour earlier this week?!! AUUUGHHHH I hate daylight savings time. npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler The next few days are going to be extremely hard for personal reasons (on top of everything else happening). npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler Just FYI, the correct response to someone saying "This conversation is a good example of sealioning" is not "I did NOT bring in any unrelated questions! Show me your references!" npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler I love love love love (in a sarcastic, dark humour sort of way) the title of the article Dr. Laura Revell, Dr. @nprofile…k5hz and I wrote last week https://theconversation.com/a-new-space-race-could-turn-our-atmosphere-into-a-crematorium-for-satellites-276366. npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler Ok, now that you've sat through that rant, my family and I saw SEVEN KIWIS yesterday! 3 were on Ulva Island, and 4 were just snarfling around in the grass on the sides of the roads around Oban, the only town on Stewart Island. The giant New Zealand pigeons, Kurerū, were abundant and delightful. We saw kākā parrots in town and in the woods, too! npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler Kia Ora, Invercargilll! npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler New article out about what a million satellites could do to our atmosphere. It's bad. https://theconversation.com/a-new-space-race-could-turn-our-atmosphere-into-a-crematorium-for-satellites-276366 npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler I got to borrow a bike today and I biked waaayyy longer than I meant to because Christchurch's biking infrastructure is AWESOME, it's super flat and easy to bike here, and I am still constantly guessing directions wrong because I'm in the opposite hemisphere I'm used to (took the "scenic route") npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler @nprofile…medq So in Canada, SpaceX gave $5000 to each family that found space debris on their property. Something tells me they won't do this in Madagascar 😠 npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler Too wound up to go to bed, so I just sent lots of emails to people hoping that they'll spread the word and get lots more people to write comments to the FCC telling them that orbital data centres and sunlight-as-a-service are incredibly stupid, dangerous ideas and should never be launched. npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler Reflect Orbital wants to destroy the night sky to deliver "sunlight as a service". SpaceX wants to destroy Low Earth Orbit to launch one million "AI datacentres" npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler Observations from a Canadian visiting New Zealand: npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler There are lots of satellites here in the southern skies too. But the stars behind the satellites are absolutely incredible! The Milky Way was absurdly bright! The Magellenic Clouds were so easy to see! WOOOOWWWWW npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler What the actual fuck. It's not April Fools Day, right? This is real?! Fuck you, SpaceX. Maybe this will help regulators realize how fucking shortsighted companies' plans in orbit are? npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler Hello Aotearoa New Zealand!! (I am so tired and need to stay awake longer) #ProfSamLectureTour npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler The friends I'm staying with have a hilariously sad, ancient folding bike they found with a "free" sign years ago. I really desperately wanted a bike ride, so I pumped up the tires and explored a bit on the greenways of Surrey. npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler I started writing this book project using zettlr in markdown, because that seemed like the best way to incorporate many citations from a wild variety of journals/books/articles. But I am now having serious problems trying to integrate files. npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler @nprofile…jks6 It does lower the risk of Kessler Syndrome. But it means that reentries will happen more frequently because satellites will require more fuel to stay in orbit and will likely have shorter operating lifetimes. So more pollution from reentries and launches, more ground casualty risks. Also satellites will be significantly brighter because they're lower. npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler One of my million meetings yesterday was the space debris subcommittee of the AAS Committee on the Protection of Astronomy and the Space Environment (yeah, it's a long name). But the very very best part of that meeting is always getting the orbital traffic report from Jonathan McDowell @nprofile…p855 npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler Reposting for those not bridged to BlueSky, and to add alt-text, because this is important! npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler Just sitting here at my desk, procrastinating on packing, and a very specific screw from one of the meteor cameras that I lost months ago just fell on my foot from somewhere underneath my desk?! WHAT. npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler Crowdsource recommendations please! npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler I had to count it all up for a stupid university information form thing, so just sharing that I did 61 media interviews this year (more than one a week on average, again, and I probably didn't even write them all down because that's ... a lot of interviews). npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler I'll say it again: there is a hard limit to how many satellites you can have in orbit without terrible consequences, and I am quite sure we are already above that limit, mostly thanks to Starlink. npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler @nprofile…z64c @nprofile…weex Dude you're completely wrong about Starlink satellites being less bright now: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2507.00107 npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler I should add...other than obviously consolidate my lists into one list... npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler About 3 weeks until my epic trip, that will include lots of lectures (both for researchers and the general public), meeting with research collaborators, and hopefully a tiny bit of vacation time. npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler I'm famous in Ituna! npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler I cannot believe how much misinformation there is about comet 3I/ATLAS. It's just very cool on its own without having to be an alien spaceship conspiracy... npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler Listening in to a meeting of radio astronomers: direct-to-cell satellites are SO BRIGHT that even though they're following the rules and broadcasting in their allocated bands, they destroy astronomical observations across a huge swath of frequencies. npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler The 3I/Atlas wacko emails keep getting weirder and weirder. This one involved Trump changing the orbit of Earth. Thanks a lot, Avi, I blame you. npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler I've got the house totally opened up to absorb that last bit of warmth! The animals seem to know they should be out and enjoying the sun also. npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler It's becoming increasingly clear to me that Reflect Orbital's fucking stupid giant mirror satellite, with absolutely NOTHING useful to offer, which will cause countless safety issues, ecological disasters, and destroy the night sky, is going to launch. npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler Just got my official letter for the fellowship to New Zealand! And I have a possible lead on a local farm sitter, but nothing is set yet. npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler Fediverse! I need some help! npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler Once the llama has locked on to you, this pattern is inevitable npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler Damn, it sure was nice not hearing much about Poilievre for a while there. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/poilievre-byelection-parliament-return-1.7612438 npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler I think I get shielded a bit from how enshittified the internet has gotten because so much of what I'm looking up is usually in reputable news sources or peer-reviewed research in astronomy (which isn't a big money-maker). But wow, trying to find information on solar panel efficiencies or home repair, there certainly are a lot of completely useless shit websites out there. I can only imagine this is even worse in health or other areas that already had lots of scamminess... This sucks. npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler I am happy to say that I reached the point in my career where I got a 4:30pm phone call from CBC national news asking if I'd do a live TV interview about the Perseids in less than 2 hours (less than 1 hour by the time I noticed the voicemail), and I just...didn't. Because WOW that's short notice and while I appreciate journalists reaching out to astronomers to talk about astronomy things, surely there's got to be someone else who can talk about this particular thing that happens once a year? npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler Continuing the rant: I got a talk accepted at an upcoming conference in the US. I specifically requested a remote talk, for SO MANY REASONS. They sent me an email yesterday saying I'm accepted for an in-person talk, but they might possibly accept a few remote talks if it's well-justified. npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler The student finally wrote back! ...and they're actually still travelling and not heading back to the US for another day. So, I'll save my worrying about them for tomorrow. npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler I'm really hopefully freaking out about nothing, but I am working with a Canadian student based at a high-ranking US university, and I haven't heard from them at all after they were supposed to get back to their university after an international trip. npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler Well fuck. Reflect Orbital just filed for their first satellite with the FCC. https://www.reflectorbital.com/ npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler It's been 3 days since I put in these numbers and just to make sure I am super angry as I go to bed, I checked again. npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler I'm updating satellite numbers for yet another talk. npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler Good morning from the goat-and-llama parade npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler Morning megaconstellations-are-bad reading: https://thexlab.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Starlink_Analysis_Working_Paper_v0.2.pdf npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler The answer to your paper title is an emphatic "No", Avi Loeb. npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler SpaceX spends a lot of time saying how safe they are with their threshhold for collision avoidance maneuvers, which is great. But they HAVE to be! With those densities, high collision probability conjunctions happen many times per day. It is impressive that they have been operating perfectly, but how long do they think they can keep this up with zero mistakes? npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler Kessler Syndrome update: npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler New SpaceX report on Starlink conjunctions and deorbits (a.k.a. dumping tons of metal/plastic/solar panels/computers into the upper atmosphere) https://www.scribd.com/document/883045105/SpaceX-Gen1-Gen2-Semi-Annual-Report-7-1-25 npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler Happy Canada Day! I'm going to try to get my kids to bike with me 10km on gravel roads+grassy highway shoulder 4x4 trail to the nearest town. There is a pancake breakfast and a ridiculous cheesy Canada Day parade waiting at the end if we manage it in less than 2 hours... this will be challenging! Wish us luck! npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler Hahaha well, I just got elected to be on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Astronomical Society. I'm also the co-chair of the light/satellite pollution committee for the American Astronomical Society. I think I have volunteered for tooooo mannnnyyyy thiinnngssss! (Good thing they're all full of truly awesome people that I'm excited to work with.) npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler Was up late for obnoxious reasons and feeling really grumpy about it, but the upside was there were dozens of fireflies! I know that doesn't sound like much if you're from New England or somewhere with lots of fireflies, but that's more fireflies than I've ever seen here! It was so cool! npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler Those of you who have written science research papers, what's the oldest paper you've cited in a paper you published? (I just saw a citation to an 1843 paper.) Pretty sure mine is only 1920 or so. npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler Co-author Michele Bannister posted a thread about this paper yesterday on bluesky: https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:f3jxtgz7tnwvzkpgzb6wsqqj/post/3lr7qoirmxr27 npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler The more I learn about atmospheric chemistry, the more terrified and angry I am about satellite companies' blatant lack of consideration for how their actions will harm the atmosphere. I hope this gets a lot of press. Great work by a whole team of scientists, including @nprofile…27rq! npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler Updating talk slides so you all get to be horrified along with me at the current Starlink numbers. npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler I may have accidentally given my llama a mohawk. npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler Oh hey cool, an op-ed I wrote is now published! npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler Since I'm bored and stuck at the stupid airport, here's a plot I'm putting in my talk. The orbits shown are the "ETNOs" that are supposed to be clustered by Planet 9 (note, this is 2D only). The only ones I think are super interesting are the 3 pink ones, which have pericenters that are distant enough and semimajor axes that are small enough that they can't be explained with known dynamics. THOSE are the interesting ones. Let's find more! npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler I need an interesting-but-simple shawl or poncho pattern to work on while I'm at a conference. Any recommendations? npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler Thorough analysis of satellite reentries over the last 5 years, and how they were affected by the May 2024 solar storm: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2505.13752 npub1dls3fr60k92efj3980hthkhjdgcqky8jawpg9tcqmkvd68dt70esy7hn0x Prof. Sam Lawler The error bars are getting smaller on the Venus probe reentry! Now at 6:30 UTC on 10 May, +/- 4.1 hr https://sattrackcam.blogspot.com/2025/04/kosmos-842-descent-craft-reentry.html
