Mike Brown

@plutokiller.com

21116 Followers 156 Following

Astronomer, planet hunter, Pluto killer, bear whisperer, finger-wrapped dad. Dangerous secularist. Foot soldier in the War on Cars. He/him. mikebrown.caltech.edu

Two tiny bob cats sit on a rock by a bowl looking about as adorable as should be allowed
the whooshing sounds of the wind, high up an alpine meadow. A young woman steps into the frame and, as the music builds, starting whirling with her arms outstretched. She is overcome by the hills being alive with the sound of music. Much laughing ensues.
two people sitting int the grass staring across at some amazing dolomite peaks.
A small blond child in a bunny robe.
A black bear standing in the middle of a fire road with trees and a mountain in the background
An orange cloud split by a rainbow with a tiny dot of a heron and a distant dot of a moon
Black bears (who are brown): Mom naps in a green yard while two cubs box over the top of her body.
A sign at a Mobil station where all of the gas is apparently free. This, I believe, is below market rate, but I haven’t bought gas this year so I don’t really know for sure. Maybe I am wrong though and this is what Trump meant when he said that gas was cheap. What do I know?
A quick brown fox looking alert in a back yard. Looking for a lazy dog over which to jump, no doubt.
Patch the bear is sprawled out for an evening nap
It’s Patch, the black bear who is brown. He is somewhat spherical.
A pair of mallards in my pool.
A dude (me, I am the dude) wearing a t shirt saying “I had a marvelous time ruining everything.” And, well, I did.
Me in a tux
190 books laid out on 3 tables all turned to the same page
A pair of bobcats. one walks slowly toward the camera, which pulls back to reveal.... FRANK! Frank is inside with his paw on the window trying to intereact with one of tha bobcats who comes right up to the window too.
Socks with the NASA logo and a crew member holding a flag on the moon
Street scene in downtown LA with a Planet Fitness. People seem confused once again about what is and is not a planet so I am providing this public service to try to help people remember.
Frank, looking a little dazed, inside his cat carrier. He gets to go home now!
Frank, a brown stripy cat approaching chonk size, is exploring the top of his red carrier.
Three plots, one showing emission lines of water, one of CO2, and one of methane (which also has a single nickel line in there). The models sit on top of the data and, friends, the models are nearly perfect (thanks PSG).
The same bear, sitting in the pool and shaking like a dog
A black bear (who is brown colored) swimming across a blue pool. He is headed for the floating blue pool ball we bought for him. He is also closer to my pool hoses than I am happy with, but you can (and we do) always buy new pool hoses. Can’t buy a new pool bear.
Me sitting in my office in front of a bookshelf and an e-bike (Aventon Level 2, in fact). If you look carefully you can see the biggest piece of feldspar I have ever seen sitting on the self.
A night vision camera shot of a rolly poly bear who is 100% Patch. He saunters by on his way to check the water bowl. It was warm today so I guess he thought dip in the pool sounded nice.
A very dark night vision image of a yard with an instinct shape which is a bear (trust me) and that bear is Patch (trust me). The video shows him walking well. It’s possible he thinks he is a reindeer. Unclear why he is here just after midnight on Christmas otherwise. I haven’t checked yet to see if he has left us presents but I kinda hope not.
A man (me) apparently standing inside of a snow globe shaking hands with a bear except that he’s not really in a snow globe he’s just standing in front of a painted board but it really does look like he’s inside doesnt it?
A partially deconstructed bathroom counter with a small unfinished crack on the wall that would allow something, maybe like a baby rattlesnake for example, to crawl in.
A heating pad inside of a sideways trash bin in a bathroom. A red arrow points to a corner where there is a small gap enabling the snake to hide.
A bathroom door with towels stuff underneath is. Dragons lie beyond
Patch, the official pool bear of Bluesky, sitting in his favorite pool chewing on his favorite hose. He is ignoring the floating blue ball in the background that we got for him to chew on instead. He stayed a long while, giving his injured back paw a rest.
Famous mural on a remaining section of the Berlin Wall of Brezhnev and Honecker kissing
A tombstone: THOMAS EDWARDS BROWN Jan 16, 1939 Mar 16, 1999
The same bear, snoozing while floating in the pool
A brown colored black bear chilling in the pool on a hot day. He has the bare necessities. He might like some fancy ants though.
Patch has an itchy back so he is scratching himself on the fence
The official pool bear of Bluesky makes his summer 2025 debut. Standing pensively by the pool
The sun setting through a canopy of oaks and olive trees at the precise moment of the solstice
A smallish California black bear (who is brown colored, almost golden on his shoulder, even; quite a cutie) walking by a black fence through a patch of small red and orange flowers
A view from the 110 Freeway in downtown LA of the invasion. But the invasion is actually just cars. Every single day.
An explosion of California poppies in a front yard hiding the burnt remnant of a house.
Huge bear climbing out of the pool
A brown colored black bear lounging in a pool
A hand (mine) reaching out to grab a marble sized thing hanging in an exhibit with a bunch of planets in the background. Marbles, obviously, are not planets.
Photo of a cover of a book called "Pluto" with a big low res image of a blue and white and black vaguely planet looking disk.
A sign that reads: danger manifestation taurine, with a picture of an angry bull
Book store aign reads: America isn't just MAGA with a selection of diverse American books
A very heavy hand sized chunk of the Canyon Diablo iron meteorite. It is dark and scalloped and could be an effective implement to use against tyrants trying to destroy science and the rest of society.
A rectangular slice of a meteorite a little bigger than a thumb. The meteorite is shiny metal (iron) but with a few big crystals (olivine) dominating the surface. It is labeled Fukang (Pallasite). It's the best Fukang Pallasite I know.
A crescent moon and Venus in a bright sky