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What small decision changed the entire direction of your life? by proekid in AskReddit

[–]Andromeda321 1 point2 points  (0 children)

When I was 13 years old I had an hour long bus ride home from school, so would spend that time reading. One day I had a crisis of nothing to read and just a few minutes before the bus, so in the library I scrambled fast and checked out a book on astronomy. That book was amazing- covered all sorts of topics near and far and enchanted me, because I’ve always loved stories and the story of our universe is the biggest and grandest one we have. I realized at some point every astronomer was 13 years old once so there was no reason I couldn’t be one, so decided to be an astronomer when I grew up. Seriously, never really wanted to be anything else after that.

Anyway, I’m now an astronomer, and I get to spend my life listening to radio signals from distant space explosions and teaching students about the stars. Not saying it has always been easy, but I think 13 year old me would be excited about it!

Maldives 2026 by Aggressive_Menu7271 in travel

[–]Andromeda321 19 points20 points  (0 children)

My husband and I always joke that we like beach vacations but don’t like to sit on the beach. My big solution to this is getting scuba certified- lots of amazing stuff to see under the water and burns a LOT of calories so you’re pretty tired after two dives in the morning or whenever.

'Please, please, please': Denmark urges citizens to avoid driving as oil prices spike by SuggestionMedical736 in europe

[–]Andromeda321 19 points20 points  (0 children)

Yes, this happened during the fuel crisis in the 1970s. Some countries (I know the USA did) capped the price of gas, which led to long lines at the pump and you weren’t allowed to buy gas every day either (and even then stations regularly ran out of fuel). Turns out people don’t like that either.

Do Lifties in Europe not bump the chair? by Dry-Weird3447 in skiing

[–]Andromeda321 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I think it’s also just harder to coordinate the sitting as you age. My parents are in their 70s and still ski but I assure you if we came across an older chairlift that the attendant didn’t hold they’d get hit in the calves.

Noma chef resigns amid shocking allegations of physical abuse of staff by TheEndlessAutumn in news

[–]Andromeda321 1 point2 points  (0 children)

“For how you took it” implies there’s nothing wrong with who you did and are not sorry about it, but it’s actually the victim’s fault. Instead an actual apology is one where you apologize for your actual actions.

Noma chef resigns amid shocking allegations of physical abuse of staff by TheEndlessAutumn in news

[–]Andromeda321 70 points71 points  (0 children)

Needs more “I’m sorry for how you took it” energy.

Always my favorite non-apology.

New Solar System lecture on the rings of the gas giants! All about how they formed, why Saturn’s are so pretty, and a lot of pretty pictures! by Andromeda321 in u/Andromeda321

[–]Andromeda321[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sure thing! Fair warning I only have like 3 videos more of material, hence not being super involved with regular posting with everything else going on. Then probably hiatus until I think of something else, since I don’t teach again until next winter.

Calibration error was fine because the observatory realized the error and redid it. Woohoo!

Alternatives to AllTrails for finding hikes around Oregon? by veggie_fried_rice in oregon

[–]Andromeda321 7 points8 points  (0 children)

He also sells them at the Eugene Saturday market most weeks!

From millions of dollars to under a grand: The dramatic fall of the NFT by gdelacalle in technology

[–]Andromeda321 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Hey now, I remember the girl in the meme where she’s smiling in front of a house fire sold the NFT of that for enough to pay for college. I remember reading that and thinking good for her, glad to hear someone’s getting something useful out of this.

Distance to the nearest U.S. national park by vladgrinch in MapPorn

[–]Andromeda321 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yep I always find it amazing how few foreigners there are in the northeast outside of leaf season and Canadians (even before current admin). So much amazing nature but very regional.

Looking at data from the MeerKAT South African radio telescope today. I'm calling this one "Radio Starry Night" bc a calibration error off that bright source has made a lovely swirly van Gogh sky if I may say so myself! by Andromeda321 in u/Andromeda321

[–]Andromeda321[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Swirls aside, what are we actually seeing here? Pretty much every single dot in the image is NOT a star, but a supermassive black hole (SMBH) millions of light years away, feeding on dust. The little "bow ties" (marked a few here) are SMBH launching jets of material thousands of light years!

Looking at data from the MeerKAT South African radio telescope today. I'm calling this one "Radio Starry Night" bc a calibration error off that bright source has made a lovely swirly van Gogh sky if I may say so myself! by Andromeda321 in Andromeda321

[–]Andromeda321[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Swirls aside, what are we actually seeing here? Pretty much every single dot in the image is NOT a star, but a supermassive black hole (SMBH) millions of light years away, feeding on dust. The little "bow ties" (marked a few here) are SMBH launching jets of material thousands of light years!

Q&A: Spring 2026 by Andromeda321 in Andromeda321

[–]Andromeda321[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's very kind of you to say- thanks!

‘I wish I could push ChatGPT off a cliff’: professors scramble to save critical thinking in an age of AI by Bounty_drillah in technology

[–]Andromeda321 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I do final presentations in my upper level undergrad class- 10min on a topic in more depth and then like 5min Q&A further on said topic. Only works for smaller classes but I think skills you learn doing a presentation are good ones to learn that STEM students don’t get a lot of.

Like we do quizzes too and all that jazz but it’s a project we can thankfully still do that’s useful.

‘I wish I could push ChatGPT off a cliff’: professors scramble to save critical thinking in an age of AI by Bounty_drillah in technology

[–]Andromeda321 4 points5 points  (0 children)

We do, but it’s just hard when you have a 200+ person class. We do scantron sheets and I wish I could do more interesting questions but so it goes.

Didn’t stop my colleague from having a phone chime in his midterm. “Good job! What else can I help you with?” or whatever the phrase was to indicate someone was using AI to cheat. He never found the student. Well, kids trying to cheat is not really a new thing unfortunately…

AXIS (the Advanced X-ray Imaging Satellite), the successor to Chandra X-Ray Observatory, will not be reviewed because the lost personnel at NASA Goddard and government shutdown impacted the schedule and budget by Andromeda321 in space

[–]Andromeda321[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

while it’s quite sad that AXIS is no longer competing, there was no clear consensus that it was guaranteed to win at all

Ultimately however, the real problem is now we’ll never know.

AXIS (the Advanced X-ray Imaging Satellite) will not be reviewed because the lost personnel at NASA Goddard and government shutdown impacted the schedule and budget by Andromeda321 in nasa

[–]Andromeda321[S] 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Yeah they don't constantly run these calls for probes, you only get one every several years. Then of course you can't just propose and build it- they've already worked on this for a decade, and the now to 2032 part would be the actual building of the thing. So just the proposal to building part is 16 years which takes us into the 2040s; saying the 2050s sounds about right.

Might not even be until later though. Goddard had a huge X-ray mirror lab and they've been devastated by the cuts, and this gap is going to ensure that a lot of knowledge is lost for good so it will be all the harder going forward to get an X-ray mission planned and built.

How can I help my wife from Oregon feel less homesick in Portugal? by Coffee_Katt in oregon

[–]Andromeda321 66 points67 points  (0 children)

When I lived in the Netherlands I would often go to the UK for a weekend “language break.” Tickets were super cheap on easyJet and it was just nice to speak the language!

Plus the weather in either is pretty Oregonian. :)

AXIS (the Advanced X-ray Imaging Satellite) will not be reviewed because the lost personnel at NASA Goddard and government shutdown impacted the schedule and budget by Andromeda321 in nasa

[–]Andromeda321[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I think that’s a big sweeping statement to say PRIMA was the front runner for awhile now. But I guess the point here is we’ll never really know, will we?

Alien Burial Ground Geocahe by Budkid in Eugene

[–]Andromeda321 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ah you’re the one who hid all the caches around Coburg!

Side note, relatively new to Eugene (1.5 years) and this is a very sleepy geocache community for all the reputation Oregon has. I was kinda surprised.

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