@markmccaughrean@mastodon.social
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markmccaughrean

@markmccaughrean@mastodon.social

Former Senior Advisor for Science & Exploration at the European Space Agency / JWST Science Working Group Interdisciplinary Scientist / Co-founder Space Rocks / New worlds ahead / Opinions very much own

Located in The Netherlands for now, so expect lots of cycling with wide horizons & big skies for a bit longer 🚴‍♂️

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markmccaughrean, to Netherlands
@markmccaughrean@mastodon.social avatar

A return to lovely early summer weather for this evening’s enjoyable 52km ride 🌞🙇‍♂️

Not fast, as I was up at 4am & knackered by now, but sometimes it’s more about soaking up the ambience … 🤷‍♂️

Not least as I’m now in my final few rides before moving from The Netherlands – I’m getting quite emotional about it 😭

🚴‍♂️
🇳🇱
🎧

The row of wind turbines at the Barrepolder which supply the Heineken brewery outside Leiden with electricity. The setting Sun is behind one of the turbines and the rotating blades are casting a moving shadow over the foreground field, which has some geese in it.

AkaSci, (edited ) to random
@AkaSci@fosstodon.org avatar

Here are the much anticipated 10 images taken by the Euclid "Dark Matter Hunter" space telescope.

The images and accompanying papers were presented today at a gathering by the Euclid Consortium. We have seen the first image before.

These are part of the Euclid Early Release Observation program. The first results from Euclid’s wide and deep main surveys will take until fall, first cosmology papers at least until late 2025.

https://www.euclid-ec.org/first-early-release-observation-science-and-reference-paper-release/
https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Euclid/ESA_s_Euclid_celebrates_first_science_with_sparkling_cosmic_views

1/n

markmccaughrean,
@markmccaughrean@mastodon.social avatar

@knud "by", Knud, not "until"; the great mystery of that strange German mistranslation continues – I shall make it my mission to eradicate it when I'm back 💪

Of course, if you had said "there will be a constant stream of non-cosmology science papers until then", it would have been correct 😉

markmccaughrean, to random
@markmccaughrean@mastodon.social avatar

“What was the best space film you ever saw?”

“Well, I’ll tell ya. I seen a lot of ‘em & most of ‘em are just pictures on a wall. But there was one film I once saw which I think truly did have the right …

… What was the best film I ever saw? Well, err, you’re looking at it 😄”

😉

markmccaughrean, (edited )
@markmccaughrean@mastodon.social avatar

Just in case there are young folk here who haven’t seen The Right Stuff, the dialogue is an adaptation of Gordo Cooper’s riff on being asked who was the best pilot he ever saw, the reply being “You’re looking at him.”

It’s a running joke in the film, but near the end, he goes off track & starts talking about Chuck Yeager without actually naming him.

I mean, I love The Right Stuff, but there is one space film that’s better, the Yeager to its Cooper.

YMMV, of course 🙂

https://youtu.be/3keXDg7naPU?feature=shared

markmccaughrean,
@markmccaughrean@mastodon.social avatar

@bert_hubert See my profile header … but you knew that already, Bert 🤪

markmccaughrean,
@markmccaughrean@mastodon.social avatar

@Impertinenzija Great questions, to which only the last one has a very obvious answer 🤪 As for the written works, it varies from day to day and book to book, but Iain M Banks is very high up there 🙇‍♂️ And perhaps not hard sci-fi, but I have a lot of time for David Mitchell as well. Ann Leckie writes great stuff too … I could go on & on … 🙂

markmccaughrean,
@markmccaughrean@mastodon.social avatar

@Impertinenzija Remind me in the future – bed time now 😴

markmccaughrean,
@markmccaughrean@mastodon.social avatar

@birchbirch You are of course correct.

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