“Hidden Figures” author @margotshetterly wrote this short bio of Johnson for @nasa a few years ago.

https://www.nasa.gov/content/katherine-johnson-biography

When John Glenn became the first American to orbit Earth, he wouldn't trust the computer controlled trajectory until Katherine Johnson checked it by hand. Glenn circled the Earth three times in the Friendship 7 capsule.

Images: NASA

Katherine Johnson calculated the trajectory followed by Alan Shepard’s Freedom 7 capsule, launched atop a Redstone missile, when he became the first American in space in 1961.

The flight lasted 15 minutes and took him 101 miles above the Earth.

Image: NASA

Mathematician Katherine Johnson was born #OTD in 1918.

Her orbital mechanics computations played a vital role in many early NASA missions. Astronaut John Glenn trusted her calculations more than those of his onboard flight computer.

Image: NASA

@glasspusher Ah, I'm so sorry.

Anyway, if NASA ever does decide to send another probe to Neptune, I hope they'll let me know. I saved the note, which I'd be happy to send to them, to place onboard.

When my daughter was 6yo, she figured out that thing where you sneakily stick a note on someone’s back.

But she didn’t know the notes should say things like “kick me.” Instead, she would put space facts on them. She was really into outer space at the time.

One time I felt something on my back, then heard her run off giggling. I reached around, peeled off the little post-it, and found this:

Voyager 2 continued to collect Neptune data for another month or so after sailing off. But this was the last stop on its Grand Tour. After that, it left the ecliptic and headed off towards interstellar space.

We haven't been back since.

However, if NASA *does* decide to send another probe, there's a little bit of cargo I'd like to add.

Three days after its flyby, Voyager 2 looked back for this gorgeous image of a crescent Neptune and Triton. Triton, much smaller than Neptune, is in the foreground.

Image: NASA/JPL

A remarkable video of the Triton fly-by, made in 2014 with restored/processed Voyager 2 images.

Credit: P. Schenk, LPI / NASA / JPL

https://youtu.be/N1Fl1QKkEok?si=5Gzct_dJNkuiT-oz

Images of Neptune’s moon Triton and its surface captured by Voyager 2 as it sailed past.

Of all the large objects in the solar system, Triton has the most circular orbit. The eccentricity is only about 0.00002.

Images: NASA / JPL

Voyager 2 captured this image of Neptune's Great Dark Spot on its approach to the planet a few days earlier.

But when Hubble looked just five years later, the Earth-sized storm with 1300 mph winds was gone.

Image: NASA/JPL

Depending on your time zone, Voyager 2's closest approach to Neptune was either yesterday (the 24th) or #OTD in 1989. It took place around 4am UTC.

Here's a short thread with some great images captured by the probe, and some proposed cargo for a future mission. #ReturnToNeptune

(Definitely read this one to the end.)

Our long national nightmare of not enough papers by me in JHEP is finally over.

With my co-author Céline Zwikel, a talented physicist who is currently a post-doc at the Perimeter Institute.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/JHEP08(2023)154

Mathematician Karen Keskulla Uhlenbeck was born #OTD in 1942.

She is known for her work on PDEs, calculus of variations, topology, and gauge theory, and was the second woman (after Emmy Noether!) to give the plenary lecture to the International Congress of Mathematicians.

A reminder, also to myself: if someone does not feel right, block. Block early. Block before you spend emotional energy.

It's not a public forum (except if you want it to be). It's your space. Your little corner. (Your salon if you run it like I do mine.)

Just finished an unplanned re-read of Peter Watts’s marvelous “Blindsight.” Third or fourth time. Accidentally read the first page on my way to another book, and that was that.

One of my favorites. HTML, epub, and pdf all available here: https://rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm

@zeroforks Lol, what is up with all these locusts?

Getting an earthquake during a hurricane is the sort of story you get when your writers are all on strike.

@sudaksis This is very cool – putting it on my list.