#xraysarethebestrays — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #xraysarethebestrays, aggregated by home.social.
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art, science communication and efforts to make astronomy more sustainable. And on why I think this made me a better scientist, advisor and science manager."
Honestly excited about this one, even though it's tricky one (and I definitely did not end up on a classical university faculty position).
2/2
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art, science communication and efforts to make astronomy more sustainable. And on why I think this made me a better scientist, advisor and science manager."
Honestly excited about this one, even though it's tricky one (and I definitely did not end up on a classical university faculty position).
2/2
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Speaker at the X-ray Universe 2026 conference: "Is someone in the audience who wasn't alive when XMM-Newton launched?"
Shocked laughter from the audience, mostly from the folks who remember the launch in 1999... (still working, still 7 to 9 times oversubscribed...)
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Speaker at the X-ray Universe 2026 conference: "Is someone in the audience who wasn't alive when XMM-Newton launched?"
Shocked laughter from the audience, mostly from the folks who remember the launch in 1999... (still working, still 7 to 9 times oversubscribed...)
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Vander Meulen, Hu, Grinberg & Krawczynski (A&A submitted): "Predictions for the X-ray polarisation modulation in Cygnus X-1 from reflection off the stellar companion and its wind"
-- we set up a radiative transfer model combining a general relativistic description of the polarised source emission + focussed stellar wind model to show effects of the stellar wind & reflection off companion star on X-ray polarization:
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Vander Meulen, Hu, Grinberg & Krawczynski (A&A submitted): "Predictions for the X-ray polarisation modulation in Cygnus X-1 from reflection off the stellar companion and its wind"
-- we set up a radiative transfer model combining a general relativistic description of the polarised source emission + focussed stellar wind model to show effects of the stellar wind & reflection off companion star on X-ray polarization:
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Author order (in astrophysics) is a function of contribution to a paper. But also a function of seniority or, rather, precarity.
We are finalising a paper. I was about to ask my favorite theory collaborator to be moved onto the second author position instead of me and then I realised that we don't need to play this game anymore because they are now permanent (and in Europe) 🥳
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Author order (in astrophysics) is a function of contribution to a paper. But also a function of seniority or, rather, precarity.
We are finalising a paper. I was about to ask my favorite theory collaborator to be moved onto the second author position instead of me and then I realised that we don't need to play this game anymore because they are now permanent (and in Europe) 🥳
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Yay! Very positive referee report + the feedback, while meaning some work, will actually really improve the paper and is well doable (especially for the amazing postdoctoral first author).
What a good thing to wake up to on the last Saturday of your vacation!
I worried about this one - we try a new approach that is in that sweet spot of being both tricky and obvious (which made it very fun to work on when an excellent postdoc took it on and gave it her spin).
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Yay! Very positive referee report + the feedback, while meaning some work, will actually really improve the paper and is well doable (especially for the amazing postdoctoral first author).
What a good thing to wake up to on the last Saturday of your vacation!
I worried about this one - we try a new approach that is in that sweet spot of being both tricky and obvious (which made it very fun to work on when an excellent postdoc took it on and gave it her spin).
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It's a sad day for X-ray Astronomy: Martin Weisskopf passed away this past weekend. #Astrodon #Astronomy #XraysAreTheBestRays
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It's a sad day for X-ray Astronomy: Martin Weisskopf passed away this past weekend. #Astrodon #Astronomy #XraysAreTheBestRays
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It's fun how, even as a pretty senior person, you end up in research projects with PhD candidates or postdocs who assume you an expert while you panicky try to read up on what you are working on and at least understand the basics enough to be able to follow and usefully contribute.
In other news: X-ray polarization is weird.
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It's fun how, even as a pretty senior person, you end up in research projects with PhD candidates or postdocs who assume you an expert while you panicky try to read up on what you are working on and at least understand the basics enough to be able to follow and usefully contribute.
In other news: X-ray polarization is weird.
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Back to being part of the NewAthena community science working groups: https://www.the-athena-x-ray-observatory.eu/en/athena-community
🎉 🎉 🎉
Feels good to be back (I could not be part pf the official community for a bit due to work), Athena was/is such an integral part of who I am as a scientist and where I see the future of astrophysics! -
Back to being part of the NewAthena community science working groups: https://www.the-athena-x-ray-observatory.eu/en/athena-community
🎉 🎉 🎉
Feels good to be back (I could not be part pf the official community for a bit due to work), Athena was/is such an integral part of who I am as a scientist and where I see the future of astrophysics! -
It's not about numbers, but still, they play some role. Here a nice one for me: sometimes during the last week, I've passed the 4000 citations limit.
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It's not about numbers, but still, they play some role. Here a nice one for me: sometimes during the last week, I've passed the 4000 citations limit.
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@elizabethtasker only on mastodon 🙃
Looking forward to read stuff from you on xrism since #XraysAreTheBestRays ;)
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@elizabethtasker only on mastodon 🙃
Looking forward to read stuff from you on xrism since #XraysAreTheBestRays ;)
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A little preview of tomorrow's not-a-surprise-if-you-have-been-following-the-chandra-center surprise
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A little preview of tomorrow's not-a-surprise-if-you-have-been-following-the-chandra-center surprise
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(X-ray) Astronomer's mantra: we don't give up, we calibrate.
(Lovely statement from a colleague... 👌)
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(X-ray) Astronomer's mantra: we don't give up, we calibrate.
(Lovely statement from a colleague... 👌)
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The reason I am in Argentina
More info here: https://congresos.unlp.edu.ar/astralx/
I'm really excited to teach here - I wanted to do one of the capacity building workshops for a while.
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The reason I am in Argentina
More info here: https://congresos.unlp.edu.ar/astralx/
I'm really excited to teach here - I wanted to do one of the capacity building workshops for a while.
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Today's exploration: looking at "On the use of C-stat in testing models for X-ray spectra" (Kaastra 17) and how to use it in Sherpa (this is a long-standing issue that I've only got to now).
https://github.com/DougBurke/sherpa-standalone-notebooks/blob/main/Kaastra17.ipynb
I expect this logic will make it into som part of CIAO for the 4.18 release, assuming we are still employed. There are improvements to this work (that is, theoretical statistical work expanding on the Kaastra 17 result, but that's for another day).
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Today's exploration: looking at "On the use of C-stat in testing models for X-ray spectra" (Kaastra 17) and how to use it in Sherpa (this is a long-standing issue that I've only got to now).
https://github.com/DougBurke/sherpa-standalone-notebooks/blob/main/Kaastra17.ipynb
I expect this logic will make it into som part of CIAO for the 4.18 release, assuming we are still employed. There are improvements to this work (that is, theoretical statistical work expanding on the Kaastra 17 result, but that's for another day).
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In Science News:
My postdoc, Luca Ighina, just published an analysis of a VERY FASCINATING high-redshift quasar. In short, not only is it radio-loud and ___the X-ray-brightest non-blazar at these redshifts___ it seems like it just might be super-Eddington!
Press release here: https://chandra.si.edu/photo/2025/red6/
And, of course, this is a #ChandraXRay result!
#Astronomy #Astrophysics #Astrodon #SciComm #XRaysAreTheBestRays
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In Science News:
My postdoc, Luca Ighina, just published an analysis of a VERY FASCINATING high-redshift quasar. In short, not only is it radio-loud and ___the X-ray-brightest non-blazar at these redshifts___ it seems like it just might be super-Eddington!
Press release here: https://chandra.si.edu/photo/2025/red6/
And, of course, this is a #ChandraXRay result!
#Astronomy #Astrophysics #Astrodon #SciComm #XRaysAreTheBestRays
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I miss my high energy astro community here who would find thie final slide of a talk absolutely amusing... 😭😭😭
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I miss my high energy astro community here who would find thie final slide of a talk absolutely amusing... 😭😭😭
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Discovery Awaits! Highlights of the upcoming #ChandraXRay Cycle 27 Science Program. From what makes Jupiter's aurorae glow to counting black holes at the dawn of time, there's lots of science to be excited about for #NASA's Flagship X-ray astrophysics mission!
20 MB PDF: https://cxc.cfa.harvard.edu/target_lists/cycle27/DiscoveryAwaits_Cyc27.pdf(And this is a thing that I, personally, have been working on for a spell, so I'm super excited to see the document released).
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Discovery Awaits! Highlights of the upcoming #ChandraXRay Cycle 27 Science Program. From what makes Jupiter's aurorae glow to counting black holes at the dawn of time, there's lots of science to be excited about for #NASA's Flagship X-ray astrophysics mission!
20 MB PDF: https://cxc.cfa.harvard.edu/target_lists/cycle27/DiscoveryAwaits_Cyc27.pdf(And this is a thing that I, personally, have been working on for a spell, so I'm super excited to see the document released).
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Today's reminiscence
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Today's reminiscence
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The second-hardest thing was being reminded about how my hair is thinning.
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The second-hardest thing was being reminded about how my hair is thinning.
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Just come back from a week of teaching people how to analyze Chandra data with CIAO.
The hardest part was coming up with fun questions for the post-lunch kahoot quiz!
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Just come back from a week of teaching people how to analyze Chandra data with CIAO.
The hardest part was coming up with fun questions for the post-lunch kahoot quiz!
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Katie Cranmer and Nicholas Lee talking about Chandra documentation and its help desk system.
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Katie Cranmer and Nicholas Lee talking about Chandra documentation and its help desk system.
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Today's meeting "What is CIAO?" being held at UMass Lowell.
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Today's meeting "What is CIAO?" being held at UMass Lowell.
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A blast from the past.
Check out this X-ray image of the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant, taken by NASA's Einstein Observatory in 1980.
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This workshop is made possible by a generous donation from the Heising-Simons Foundation.
I also have failed to mention the title ends in ML....
"A Journey Into X-ray Astronomy
and Data Science" -
This workshop is made possible by a generous donation from the Heising-Simons Foundation.
I also have failed to mention the title ends in ML....
"A Journey Into X-ray Astronomy
and Data Science" -
We are running our patented ̶g̶e̶t̶-̶r̶i̶c̶h̶ ̶q̶u̶i̶c̶k̶l̶y̶ Introduction to X-ray Astronomy with Chandra workshops in person, at UMass Lowell, May 19-23 2025.
If you are an undergrad, grad student, postdoc, or other Astronomer and interested to know about the joys and tribulations of X-ray Astronomy, and what it can do for you [*], then please look at https://cxc.harvard.edu/ciao/workshop/may25/index.html
#XraysAreTheBestRays
#AstroDon
#astronomy[*] past performance is not indicative of future results
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We are running our patented ̶g̶e̶t̶-̶r̶i̶c̶h̶ ̶q̶u̶i̶c̶k̶l̶y̶ Introduction to X-ray Astronomy with Chandra workshops in person, at UMass Lowell, May 19-23 2025.
If you are an undergrad, grad student, postdoc, or other Astronomer and interested to know about the joys and tribulations of X-ray Astronomy, and what it can do for you [*], then please look at https://cxc.harvard.edu/ciao/workshop/may25/index.html
#XraysAreTheBestRays
#AstroDon
#astronomy[*] past performance is not indicative of future results
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Just look at the fancy flyer
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Just look at the fancy flyer
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Chandra/CIAO Workshop for UG/Grad students
UMass Lowell
19-23 May 2025https://cxc.harvard.edu/ciao/workshop/may25/index.html
Be there, or miss out on all the fun.
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Chandra/CIAO Workshop for UG/Grad students
UMass Lowell
19-23 May 2025https://cxc.harvard.edu/ciao/workshop/may25/index.html
Be there, or miss out on all the fun.
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"I understand that if I fail to complete my reviews, the proposals I am associated with may be removed from consideration."
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"I understand that if I fail to complete my reviews, the proposals I am associated with may be removed from consideration."
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There is no greater way of finding the typo in your document than hitting send.
A shower thought brought to you the day after the Chandra deadline, as our helpdesk sees a flurry of "can I fix this little error in my proposal" tickets.
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There is no greater way of finding the typo in your document than hitting send.
A shower thought brought to you the day after the Chandra deadline, as our helpdesk sees a flurry of "can I fix this little error in my proposal" tickets.
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The latest Chandra User's Committee report has just come out, and can be found at https://cxc.cfa.harvard.edu/cdo/cuc/
Please read, as these folks do a lot to help us better serve the community, and have been **very** helpful in trying to navigate the current funding uncertainties.