Mike Brown

I know I said this before but…. I really am posting the new ones when this term ends. Promise.

damnit. now I have to make a new problem set for the asteroid hazard part of my planetary science class next term.

liquid gab. yum.

one and done, surprisingly

well no that was post-procedure, so he was extra sedated, but, yeah, he got his 5am happy medicine this morning.

(that was the pre-sedation look; Frank does not enjoy car rides)

Frank, looking a little dazed, inside his cat carrier. He gets to go home now!

Frank is a little sleepy post irradiation, but otherwise seems in good kitty spirits.

I always assumed it must be true but good to hear!

Just a tiny trickle of data so far, but the flood should start soon

Frank, a brown stripy cat approaching chonk size, is exploring the top of his red carrier.

Frank is posing on the fireplace mantle that he is strictly forbidden from visiting. He looks elegant next to an orchid and a print of an octopus.

Frank trolls for food in the kitchen with the other two cats, Rosie (the riveter) and Hedy (Lamar). Rosie and Hedy are litter mates who look nothing alike (and don’t like each other). Can litter mates have separate fathers? I am guessing yes. Rosie is about to reach down and swat Frank because it is import that everyone remembers that she is in charge.

This is Frank (Franklin C. Roosevelt, where C is for cat [obvs D was for dog]). He’s going on a trip today. He’s about to get radiation therapy for his just-discovered nasal lymphoma. Wish Frank luck and sweet anesthetized dreams. Wish me the ability to keep it together. Frank is a good boy.

Franzi Schimmer captured this Grizzly bear in Brooks Falls, Alaska just floating along, tippy-tapping down the river, browsing the salmon.

Prior to hibernation, up to 40% of a bear's body mass is fat, which is less dense than water (~0.9 g/cm^2), so the murder-monster is also a floaty-boaty.

Bears vs. Trail cameras

sad to hear that. My 2021 Level had similar issues. So far the Level 2 (circa 2024) is doing better.

Want to Reach Nirvana? Try a Colonoscopy.

(this story, clearly written by a colonoscopy, was published the very day I had a colonoscopy last week)

It’s implied

I guess he's not totally random. he's been visiting for 3 years so now he just seems like a neighbor.

just a random bear

just saw this. fun to see and hear you and it is fabulous.

A few lynx photographs to mull over while you peruse today's @bsky.app content.

Forgot to actual tag Matt here:
@matt-belyakov.bsky.social

Three plots, one showing emission lines of water, one of CO2, and one of methane (which also has a single nickel line in there). The models sit on top of the data and, friends, the models are nearly perfect (thanks PSG).

New paper just out from my soon-to-graduate Ph.D. student Matthew Belyakov. He got JWST to look at 3I/Atlas in the mid-infrared. And there is water! and CO2! and CH4! and Ni! It's just a beautiful spectrum (and I love a beautiful spectrum). arxiv.org/abs/2601.22034 🔭

One of these days…..

see? my assumption seems right.

they don't hibernate in southern california or they'd miss out on the good pool weather.

My wife and I had a conversation this morning where we sort of kind of realized that perhaps it is not particularly common to have a bear who comes to swim in your back yard pool sometimes weekly. I mean for the rest of you it only happens like once or twice a year, right?

Portrait of Mike Brown. His discovery of Eris forced a reckoning: if Pluto was a planet, the definition had to change. Now he’s chasing another disruption, Planet 9, a world inferred by gravity at the solar system’s edge.
explorers.com/mike-brown-t...
@plutokiller.com @nationalacademies.org #sciart

Ummmmmmm wtf?

there are always leaves and twigs left behind but nothing else. so far.

it's a distraction, so he doesn't chew the hoses.

No need in Southern California where you can swim all winter…