Lyndie Chiou
@lyndie
Science writer | Scientific American | New Scientist | NYTimes | Quanta Magazine | #Black Stories on physics, math, astronomy! Also plays trombone.
I've never posted a cat photo. Let this be my first! Here's the Cat's Eye galaxy. An intermediate spiral galaxy currently being sculpted, hence the ghostly outer region. Image credit: ~8hrs on my tiny smart telescope #science #astronomy 👩🔬🔭 #catsky #caturday
The law breaker: NGC 7374. So far 8 measurements average together to say it's around 215 million light years away. Hubble's Law says it should be 344 million light years away. No one is panicking yet.
On the right is Stephan's Quintet of galaxies. On the left is NGC 7331. And flagged for violating Hubble's Law is NGC 7343, the bright dot at the bottom center. 8 measurements have shown the galaxy to be much closer than expected. Image credit: 19 hrs on my tiny telescope 👩🔬🔭
"Truth alone will endure, all the rest will be swept away before the tide of time." — Mahatma Gandhi The double-cluster in Perseus. Image credit: my tiny telescope, about 2.5 hours imaging #astronomy #astrophotography
The Antennae Galaxies! Two colliding galaxies have unfurled sweeping tidal waves of stars that extend into deep space. About 72 million light years away from us. Image credit: 14 hrs on my tiny telescope. #astronomy #astrophotography 👩🔬🔭
Tiny ducklings waddling together in a great sea of stars -- also known as M11 or the "Wild Duck Cluster". Image credit: my tiny telescope (about 2.5 hours) #astronomy #science 🔭👩🏾🔬
Watching the moon set on a hot, muggy evening. Image credit: my tiny telescope.
Google photos auto-created an album of "photos of me" over the years.... and included this particular one 😂 Fortunately, my Lego doppelganger is incapable of implicating me in any real-world mischief!
The ancient remains of Abell 31, a planetary nebula that is dissolving back into the Milky Way as its central star nears the white dwarf stage. Image credit: 15 hrs on my tiny telescope #science #astronomy 🔭👩🏾🔬
The Flaming Star Nebula, IC 405: the lucky accident of a wandering star lighting up a gas cloud as it passes through. Image credit: my tiny telescope #science #astronomy 🔭👩🏾🔬
After weeks of rain -- the Owl Nebula soars high above the Surfboard Galaxy, which surfs enormous interstellar tides. Image credit: my tiny telescope #astronomy #science 🔭👩🏾🔬
I just realized that today is Chinese New Year, the 1st day of Ramadan, AND Fat Tuesday. That means the Chinese new moon lined up with the Ramadan crescent and also fell exactly the right amount of time before the Easter full moon. An extremely rare lineup of 3 major moon-based traditions!
Just like the snake-haired Medusa of Greek mythology, this nebula's head writhes with tangled thick filaments, leading to its name, the Medusa Nebula. The result of a star cooling into a white dwarf. Image credit: my tiny telescope #science #astronomy 🔭👩🏾🔬
The beautiful Markarian chain, a drooping string of distant galaxies. And the loner who refuses to join the party, M87 on the lower left, hiding a supermassive black hole inside its heart. Image credit: my tiny telescope #science #astronomy 🔭👩🏾🔬
The Perseus Galaxy Cluster. A thousand galaxies trapped inside a cosmic web of filaments containing hundreds of thousands more. Image credit: my tiny telescope #science #astronomy 👩🏾🔬🔭
History forms when order breaks. In this case, NGC 660 is wearing its history at an angle. Long ago, a collision yanked its outer arms away from the core, leaving a warped galaxy, which still manages to hold itself together. Image credit: my tiny telescope (about 15 hrs) #science #astronomy 👩🏾🔬🔭
What wisdom will the Soul Nebula whisper for 2026? Astronomers know how to listen. [1/2] Image credit: my tiny telescope #science #astronomy 👩🏾🔬🔭
Four giant stories in one frame! Each of these nebulae exists in different evolutionary stages and at different distances from us. Details in alt text. Image credit: my tiny 2" telescope (and lots of patience) #astronomy #science 👩🏾🔬🔭
I happened to be up in San Francisco during the massive power outage tonight. The dark skyscrapers imparted a weird, Dickensian feel.
This looks fake, but I took this photo in the middle of one of many aimless walks that my kids have led me on.
The Iris Nebula. The unusual thing about this nebula is the vast filament structures that persist all the way down to tiny scales. Right now, astronomers want to know why. Turbulence, magnetic fields, radiation pressure, or...? Image credit: my tiny telescope #science #astronomy 👩🏾🔬🔭
...taken in 1966 when astrophotography was still done on far less sensitive glass plates. You only get a little bit of the nebula this way and now you can clearly see the "helix"! 2/2 Image credit: Mt. Palomar's 48" telescope in 1966 Source: "The Structure of the Universe" by Schatzman, p. 63
The Helix Nebula! I know, that name confused me too. So I found the first known photo of this nebula... 1/2 (thread) Image credit: my tiny 2" telescope #science #astronomy 🔭👩🏾🔬