Brett Morris

Reminder! arXiv is migrating our database to the cloud tomorrow (Wednesday, Oct 28th) starting at 7AM ET. From 7AM - 12PM ET arXiv will be read-only. More on the blog: https://blog.arxiv.org/2026/10/21/scheduled-database-maintenance/

This Wednesday, 11am Eastern, the #JWST User Committee (JSTUC) will be hosting an open forum for observatory users, gathering your ideas and feedback to optimise the science return from JWST. The discussion will inform our next JSTUC meeting in December - pls join us! www.stsci.edu/contents/new...

Public NASA town hall today at 2pm Eastern. 🧪🔭 science.nasa.gov/directorates... Here are the public questions posted before the town hall:

At some point we’re going to have to face the uncomfortable fact that the hypothetical “unaffiliated non-specialist researcher with a publishable result” is a vanishingly small class.

Likely the most important thing I've ever written — if you're an academic and the AI mania unsettles you, here's my best shot at presenting some intellectual tools that might help you articulate why. arxiv.org/abs/2610.27251

4 weeks until #ESAEuclid's "DR1-Foundation" data release of 1900 square degrees in the sky. 12 November 2026. Stay tuned! #ESA #Euclid #DataRelease #DR1F #astronomy #science

Astronomy is all smoke* and mirrors. *we call it dust 🔭

New study led by @bemiles.bsky.social, reporting the detection of variable water clouds(!) in the cold brown dwarf WISE 0855

The IceCube neutrino detector has won the 2026 Nobel Prize in physics. The Trump administration has proposed slashing its budget in half in 2027.

Oh look, US National Science Foundation-supported science won the Nobel Prize in physics.

just found myself rereading the phrase for the joy of it: 🔭 “radiative levitation of heavy elements”

Protect arXiv at all costs. 🧪

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doomsda...

🧪 “The National Science Foundation, one of the biggest sources of federal research funding, withheld $1.4 billion that Congress had intended for research over the course of the past year, according to internal data reviewed by The New York Times.” www.nytimes.com/2026/10/02/u...

Language around genAI is anthropomorphic. It’s not just for marketing, it could be capitalism’s final annihilation of culpability. “I didn’t hack a competitor, an agent did.” “I didn’t teach that child to hurt himself, the model did.” “I didn’t recommending bombing a school, the math did.”

To all observing the holiday this week, good luck. 🔭

Astronomers and software devs: does anyone else think it's time for @asclnet.bsky.social to stop automatically ingesting software without approval by the authors? ASCL was awesome before you could make your own DOI or publish astro software alone. That's not our world anymore! 🔭 #astrocode

It's a good time to apply for fellowships at @stsci.edu. 🔭 1. Brinson Prize Fellowship (observational cosmology) due Nov 5: stsci.slideroom.com#/login/progr... 2. Laskar Fellowship (astro data science) due Oct 29: stsci.slideroom.com#/login/progr...

Some functions get the best names. 🧪

💙🍩🥹

Congrats @emsque.bsky.social!

NASA’s proven track record of exceeding its requirements continues apace. 🔭🧪 Invest in American space sciences, and vote. science.nasa.gov/blogs/roman/...

It's been really exciting to work with @jayke.io, @gradientrider.bsky.social and the rest of this amazing team using JWST's AMI mode to find a fifth candidate planet in the classic HR 8799 system!

Europe will go it alone on Venus mission after NASA yanks radar instrument arstechnica.com/space/2026/0...

We’re on our way towards a post-NASA space science ecosystem. Vote.

New guidelines on the use of LLMs from @publishing.aas.org for referees here : journals.aas.org/referee-llm-... Headlines: Referees are responsible for peer review, and must do their own job, but LLMs can be used where declared where their use is declared and explained. 🔭🧪

happy birthday to everyone born today!!!!!! sorry it’s statistically not that special

🔭 Our new policy blog post shows that the number of astronomical sciences research awards made by NSF has decreased by 57% since last year, corresponding to a 51% reduction in funding. (1/2)

This morning's launch of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope from the Kennedy Space Center was amazing! Roman is now on a million-mile journey to Lagrange point 2, where it will soon reveal the universe’s darkest secrets: https://go.nasa.gov/4qIa69I #NASARoman 🔭 Credit: J. Barrientes/STScI.

Baby photo of our now grown up spacecraft:

I’ve been working at @stsci.edu to give everyone access to data from NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. Our treasure chest is open for anyone, anywhere, anytime. And today, the telescope is IN SPACE. 🧪🔭🚀 #astrocode

The Roman Space Telescope was underfunded and faced termination 3 years in a row. Amazing it's now ready to launch ahead of schedule and under budget.

NASA and SpaceX are targeting #NASARoman’s liftoff for no earlier than 7:26 a.m. EDT Sunday, August 30, from Launch Complex 39A at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. 🎥 Launch coverage begins at 6:20 a.m. 🔭

SUNDAY, bright and early 🔭

We’re #hiring a Senior Full Stack Engineer to join NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory's Education & Public Outreach team! 👩‍💻👨‍💻 You'll build interactive, data-driven web experiences that bring Rubin data and science to the world 🌌 👉 Learn more and apply soon: https://ow.ly/Jajv50ZFUQf 🧪🔭☄️

Go Pandora! 🧪🔭🪐

Go Roman! 🧪🔭 science.nasa.gov/blogs/roman/...

I should note that this (3000-word) piece is slightly less “general public” than most of my writing, since I wrote it for a newsletter intended for researchers. But if you’re interested in dark energy, there’s way more about it in my first book, “The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking)”!

We're just 10 days away from the scheduled launch of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida! As you can see from the banner above our door at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, we're very excited about the science #NASARoman will deliver. 🔭

This and a few further updates are also described in this SPIE paper by me & the whole MIRI team, on the Arxiv today arxiv.org/abs/2608.13873