Retired physicist, teacher, meteor scientist. 3M teaching fellow. Father, grandfather. Mt A, Western alum. Textbook author. Views those of invisible rabbit.

Joined January 2011
619 Photos and videos
Robert Hawkes retweeted
Back from a mission to the moon 🌕, astronauts from Artemis II visited UN Headquarters in New York. They shared an important message for humanity about our shared purpose on Earth. 🌎 Watch and see what the #Artemis explorers had to say.
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Robert Hawkes retweeted
May 4
Start your week with some new photos from Artemis II! Though our journey around the Moon has ended, we're still retrieving plenty of new images. Keep an eye on our Artemis II multimedia gallery for image highlights from the mission: go.nasa.gov/4usiN8W
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I have not been on this account much. I came back to tell you that Harvey (no not the one many followers know!) is now worth $11 billion. I am told more than more than Spirit Airlines, Nordstrom, and Macy's combined x.com/biconnections/status/2…

Three AI companies raised over $30 billion in a single weekend. Legal AI company Harvey is now worth $11 billion — more than Spirit Airlines, Nordstrom, and Macy's combined. The dot-com boom was a bake sale compared to this. Source: ins7ghts.com
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Robert Hawkes retweeted
That's an interstellar comet, imaged by a satellite orbiting Mars. You live in the future! esa.int/Science_Exploration/… @esa
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Robert Hawkes retweeted
14 Aug 2025
Birthday submission count: 2,807,463. 🎂
Replying to @arxiv
How many articles do you have on arXiv?
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I realize did not quite achieve their goal, but congratulations to all involved in the launch. Great to see Canada active in space launch, and by a university student group particularly impressive. theglobeandmail.com/business…
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Robert Hawkes retweeted
Infinite gratitude to the amazing sponsors and exhibitors powering #AstroRob 2025 and every edition before. You make it a first-class networking event every time — thank you for being a part of it! 🌌✨
Sponsors and exhibitors also make #AstroRob conferences possible! Want to be part of this awesome community for the next one in Almería (6-10 Oct)? Check out how to join and support: astrorob.com/sponsors-exhibi…
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Robert Hawkes retweeted
What physics breakthrough do you think will happen in the next decade? ✍️
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Robert Hawkes retweeted
Physics. Mathematics. Reality. Universe. Stephen Wolfram's "Theory of Everything" is free on line, as a 448-page PDF. Here is a sample figure, to intrigue you. Source: arxiv.org/abs/2004.08210
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Robert Hawkes retweeted
This has never happened before. Every living former NASA Science Chief united to sign a joint letter to Congress, urging them to reject a devastating 47% cut to NASA’s science budget. Led by our board member and former NASA Associate Administrator of Science John Grunsfeld, we helped bring this letter to life. Read the full letter here ⬇️ planetary.org/press-releases…
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Robert Hawkes retweeted
3 Jul 2025
A view of lightning that's nothing like what we see on the ground: crew observations and instruments on the @Space_Station can help us better understand the behaviors of storms.
Just. Wow. As we went over Mexico and the U.S. this morning, I caught this sprite. Sprites are TLEs or Transient Luminous Events, that happen above the clouds and are triggered by intense electrical activity in the thunderstorms below. We have a great view above the clouds, so scientists can use these types of pictures to better understand the formation, characteristics, and relationship of TLEs to thunderstorms.
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Robert Hawkes retweeted
ESA's astronomers are actively tracking 3I/ATLAS, which is now the third confirmed interstellar comet to pass through our Solar System! More info at: esa.int/Space_Safety/Planeta…

ALT Greyscale GIF showing interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS as a small white dot that remains in the centre of the image amidst a moving background of white stars

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ICYMI, this preprint from Western U group takes comprehensive look at interstellar meteoroid rate for mm size objects. arxiv.org/pdf/2503.19042 #meteoroid #hyperbolic #interstellar
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Robert Hawkes retweeted
2 Jul 2025
There's a new interstellar comet in the neighborhood! Known as 3I/ATLAS, this comet poses no threat to Earth – but it does provide a rare opportunity to study an object that originated outside of our solar system: science.nasa.gov/blogs/plane…
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Robert Hawkes retweeted
7 Feb 2025
Replying to @b612foundation
@b612foundation has taken the orbit and uncertainty of asteroid 2024YR4, sampled 10K trajectories from the current uncertainty, and propagated them forward. 2.3% of those hit the Earth on Dec.22, 2032. Here is where they hit.
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Robert Hawkes retweeted
10 Feb 2025
Here are 70 clones of #asteroid 2024 YR4 that do hit Earth, highlighting the impact risk corridor. There are some big cities along that line: #Bogota, #Lagos, #Mumbai.
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Robert Hawkes retweeted
☄️ Excited to share our new paper in JGR: Planets @jgrplanets: "Inferring Fireball Velocity Profiles and Characteristic Parameters of Meteoroids From Incomplete Data Sets" by myself and @GritsevichMaria ▶️ doi.org/10.1029/2024JE008382 #PlanetaryScience #Meteoroids #Fireballs
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