Leila Belkora PhD, astrophysics

@leilabelkora.bsky.social

2732 Followers 2026 Following

Science writer. Roots in US (NE/CO), Morocco, Switzerland. She/her. Current project: poet Robert Frost as amateur astronomer, to come from Clemson @cupress.bsky.social Agent Henry Thayer at Brandt & Hochman.

Distant view of mountains, shrouded by haze and wildfire smoke, with planted fields in the foreground.
Venus discernible in a twilight sky above palm trees and street lights.
Cover page of book by Gerard de Vaucouleurs
Close-up view of a praying mantis seemingly looking at the camera with cocked head. The praying mantis is bright green, the wall a more sage green.
Boardwalk and beach, with a large number of parasols, many of them blue, on the beach.
Young raptor with dark eyes, black and white stripes on the back, and rufous stripes above the legs. The bird is on a tree branch and surrounded by leaves.
The reader will observe a little circle in the map, and near it the figures 1604. This indicates the spot where one of the most famous temporary stars on record appeared in the year 1604. At first it was far brighter than any other star in the heavens; but it quickly faded, and in a little over a year disappeared. It is particularly interesting, because Kepler—the quaintest, and not far from the greatest, figure in astronomical history—wrote a curious book about it. Some of the philosophers of the day argued that the sudden outburst of the wonderful star was caused by the chance meeting of atoms. Kepler’s reply was characteristic, as well as amusing: I will tell those disputants, my opponents, not my own opinion, but my wife’s. Yesterday, when I was weary with writing, my mind being quite dusty with considering these atoms, I was called to supper, and a salad I had asked for was set before me. “It seems, then, said I, aloud, “that if pewter dishes, leaves of lettuce, grains of salt, drops of water, vinegar, and oil, and slices of egg, had been flying about in the air from all eternity, it might happen at last by chance that there would come a salad.” “Yes,” says my wife, “but not so nice and well-dressed as this of mine is.”
Two men on a metal white-painted catwalk, with the tops of green hills in the distance.
Cover of CD album “Details” showing Driss El Maloumi playing an oud.
Person in blue apron painting an area of a wall white, next to areas painted in shades of light green, brown, and blue green. About half the wall height is tiled.
At the very top of the photo, a small crescent moon. Below, blue sky with one small cloud and some silhouettes of trees.
Trees and a bit of roofline against a dusky and hazy blue sky. Venus is a point of light on the left, just above some trees.
Heart shaped rock about 4 centimeters wide. White and greenish-gray with dark red veins and some small pits all over. Photograph with a bit of a ruler showing.
Recipe for Spanakopita, no time to copy it all out right now.
White ceramic baking dish with spanakopita and a plastic fork inside. Spanakopita consists of a layer of spinach and herb and feta cheese mixture between multiple sheets of buttered filo dough above and below. The filo gets crackly and crumbly when cooked while the feta cheese melts deliciously into the spinach and herb mixture. In the photo, from 2024, one row of squares has been eaten prior to bringing to the potluck, for quality control reasons. This year’s cooking is about to begin.
A minuscule-looking telescope dwarfed by one end of the Palomar telescope. The inside of the Palomar dome is visible in the background.
Two coral-colored roses among dark green leaves.
Dusky Sky with tree in foreground and more trees in the distance. Venus is brighter and higher in the sky and to the left of the tree.
Crescent moon at upper left, with Venus and Jupiter on a diagonal line to lower right, all framed by trees.
Crescent moon at lower right, lined up more or less with Jupiter and then Venus at upper left. Some trees branches in the frame.
Venus lined up vertically above Jupiter in a dusky sky with pink clouds.
Venus above and a little to the right of Jupiter, framed by trees and a roofline. A couple of stars can faintly be seen.
A Zoom-in of this picture shows Venus and Jupiter around the time of sunset.
Two points of light in the sky, barely visible amid clouds.
Venus to the right and Jupiter to the left, close together, in a darkening sky framed by trees and roof.
First page of article by John Tebbutt about observations from Australia.
Two points of light in a darkening sky, framed by trees and roof.
Jupiter and Venus are difficult to see and are circled in this image.
Jupiter and Venus seen as two bright lights, framed by trees and a roof in the darkening sky.
Two points of light in a darkening sky, framed by trees and a roofline. The light on the lower right side, Venus, is a little brighter.
A mourning dove peeks out from the branches of a carrot wood tree.
Two points of light, framed by trees, in a darkening sky.
Title page of “Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!” with Feynman’s signature below.
Bird with red head and yellow body and black wings, perched in a tree.
Distant mountains and lush greenery in the middle ground. Sky partly cloudy.
Cable tower, building, and red-painted stairway at the peak.
The Sandias as viewed from Interstate 25 in Albuquerque. Blue skies.
Pink hydrangea flowers and dark green leaves against a wood fence.
Crescent moon with Jupiter to upper left and Venus to lower right, both quite hard to pick out from sky at dusk.
Very thin crescent moon to the right of Venus, in a darkening sky. Wide leaves of bird of paradise below.
Exterior peristyle of the Getty Villa museum with reflecting pool, covered walkways, and sculptures amid flowers and trees.
Cover of Heartwood by Amity Gaige showing trees in a forest in the shape of a woman in silhouette.
A few inches of snow on a balcony railing. The fir tree behind has big blobs of snow on the branches.
Ninety-eight percent full moon at dusk, with some wispy pink clouds over trees and houses.
I thank the three anonymous reviewers of the book proposal for this second edition. In particular, I am grateful for the supplementary comments I requested on the final chapter from Reviewer A (you know who you are).
Jacaranda tree with purple flowers at the corner of a park in a residential neighborhood.
Coral-pink roses blooming in profusion on a tall green bush.
Thin crescent moon high in a dusk sky, with Venus just visible, and some tree tops below.
Unpainted wood ceiling, with a few painted beams supporting it.
Pond, with high rise buildings just visible in the distance. Blue sky with puffy clouds. One small yellow flower in the foreground greenery to the left.
Snow-capped mountains under blue skies.
Under a cloudy sky, distant mountains and a shrunken pond. Lots of dry brown reeds in the foreground and a tree just leafing out on the left.
A navigator’s traverse board from the early 19th century, used to record speed and direction data that would later be copied into a log book.