🔭 New paper day! 🪐 This time from Merle Schrader, a PhD student in the brown dwarf group at Trinity College Dublin. Today, they're publishing a fresh look at SIMP-0136, using principal component analysis, identifying the mechanisms driving its atmospheric variability. arxiv.org/abs/2607.26182

The JWST weather report: Unravelling the atmospheric variability of isolated worlds using principal component analysis

Brown dwarf variability directly probes atmospheric dynamics beyond the Solar System, and recent JWST time-resolved spectroscopy has opened a new window into these processes. Principal component analy...

arxiv.org

Very sad to hear this. Ralph was the director of API during the first half of my PhD there and he always took such a kind interest in the professional and personal lives of everyone in the institute - our friendly chats whenever we passed in the corridor always brightened my day. He will be missed.

Prof Anna Watts@profannawatts.bsky.social · 2w ago

The Universe has lost a mighty force. Farewell to a dear friend, wonderful scientist, and excellent co-conspirator. www.astronomie.nl/nieuws/en/in...

A trio of Jupiters for β Pictoris ☄️

The purloined planet: Astronomers find a third planet around the nearby very young star Beta Pictoris… and it was hiding in plain sight for over a decade! [with amazing video of the planet's orbital motion] badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/a-third-pl... 🔭 🧪

A third planet for the nearby star Beta Pictoris!

The gas giant has been hiding in plain sight for over a decade

badastronomy.beehiiv.com

Hide-and-seek champion award goes to the newly discovered beta Pic d! 🏆 Please welcome the newest member of the exoplanet zoo, and be kind, it’s a little shy, it’s been hiding in direct imaging data for over a decade!

ESO@eso.org · 3w ago

Ten years of hide-and-seek! 🫣 Astronomers used our VLT to find a new #exoplanet orbiting the famous star Beta Pictoris — hiding in archival ESO observations spanning over a decade! And it's shyer than any exoplanet we've imaged before. 🔭 🧪 1/3 📷 ESO/B. Sutlieff, M. Bonse et al.

With the press release out, I'm delighted to share our work reporting the discovery of a 3rd planet in the beta Pictoris system! Say hello to beta Pic d - a gas giant with 2.4 times the mass of Jupiter that takes 91 years to orbit its host star, far longer than the 2 known planets in the system 🪐🔭

ESO@eso.org · 3w ago

Ten years of hide-and-seek! 🫣 Astronomers used our VLT to find a new #exoplanet orbiting the famous star Beta Pictoris — hiding in archival ESO observations spanning over a decade! And it's shyer than any exoplanet we've imaged before. 🔭 🧪 1/3 📷 ESO/B. Sutlieff, M. Bonse et al.

In honor of (hopefully) today's launch of NASA's Artemis II mission, the first crewed mission to orbit the Moon in more than 50 years, here is a to-scale graphic of exactly how far away the Moon actually is. (Click image to expand.) You could fit about 30 Earths between the Earth and the Moon!

I am delighted to share that my first paper has now been accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics and is now on the arXiv!! arxiv.org/abs/2603.24663 In this paper I disentangle the drivers of variability in three early L-dwarfs using HST/WFC3. More info below 🧵!!

Disentangling auroral, cloud and magnetic spot driven variability in three early L-dwarfs with HST/WFC3

Variability monitoring provides an unparalleled insight into the atmospheric processes of brown dwarfs and directly imaged exo-planets. Inhomogeneous clouds, aurorae and magnetic spots have all been p...

arxiv.org

TWO recently accepted papers on arxiv today from our group, led by PhD students @maddielam.bsky.social and @astrotoole.bsky.social. If you like brown dwarfs, variability, clouds, aurorae and/or magnetic spots there is something here for you! 👀 arxiv.org/abs/2603.24662 arxiv.org/abs/2603.24663

Proud to announce that my first PhD paper has now been accepted and is live on arXiv!! arxiv.org/abs/2603.24662 In this paper I provide the first analyses of JWST spectra of a sample of young, co-eval L dwarfs, focusing on the silicate absorption and whether there are any equator-to-pole variations.

Clouds with a silicate lining: Using JWST spectra to probe atmospheric diversity in young AB Dor L dwarfs

We present the first full JWST NIRSpec Prism and MIRI LRS 0.6 - 14 $μ$m (R ~ 100) spectra and analysis of five ~ 133 Myr L dwarf members of the AB Doradus moving group and one probable $\sim 500$ Myr ...

arxiv.org

Published in #MNRAS: "Chasing the storm: investigating the application of high-contrast imaging techniques in producing precise exoplanet light curves", Sutlieff et al. This is Fig. 1: for the caption & to read the paper please visit academic.oup.com/mnras/articl... @royalastrosoc.bsky.social

And while I'm at it, a belated promo for my latest first-author paper (out late last year). I've been using APP coronagraphs as a tool to look for changes in brightness in imaged companions (exoplanets & brown dwarfs) due to variations in their atmospheres such as clouds or radiative convection 🪐🔭

Chasing the storm: Investigating the application of high-contrast imaging techniques in producing precise exoplanet light curves

Substellar companions such as exoplanets and brown dwarfs exhibit changes in brightness arising from top-of-atmosphere inhomogeneities, providing insights into their atmospheric structure and dynamics...

arxiv.org

For all the coronagraph fans out there: I'm pleased to share our paper (led by @mattkenworthy.bsky.social) on the design & performance of the Apodizing Phase Plate coronagraph for the ERIS instrument at the Very Large Telescope + our recommendations for using it to study exoplanets & brown dwarfs 🪐🔭

The VLT/ERIS grating vector Apodizing Phase Plate coronagraph

We describe the design, laboratory manufacture, and on-sky testing of the grating vector apodizing phase plate (gvAPP) coronagraph for the Enhanced Resolution Imager and Spectrograph (ERIS) on the Ver...

arxiv.org

My periodic reminder for #astrosci #astrodon #exoplanets Early Career Researchers to please, please, please have a simple web site with your current email address on it - rationale here: kenworthy.space/advice/

Swapped ‘on sky’ in the astronomical sense for ‘on Skye’ in the Scottish sense last week - I’d been meaning to visit this stunningly beautiful place since moving to Edinburgh and it definitely lived up to expectations! So many amazing hikes and things to see (+ we even had surprisingly good weather)

Together with Sebastiaan Haffert our review on “High-Contrast Coronagraphy” is out - writing an ARA&A review has been on my academic bucket list, and I’m very proud of the result. It uses the showyourwork! framework, making it a completely reproducible paper. #FAIR #astrodon #exoplanets

Congratulations to Dr Ben Sutlieff (@bensutlieff.bsky.social) for his pop up talk describing his poster about mapping exoplanet atmospheres with ground based observations 🔭 #ukexom25

Please help us get the word out: our 6 wk astrophysics 🧪🔭summer research program for international MSc students is open for application! Note this is aimed at students from disadvantaged regions or under-represented groups in astro! I will host one position on black holes ⚫️! aspire.science.uva.nl

With astronomy job season approaching, if you’re a PhD or early postdoc, PLEASE make a webpage and put your current contact details on it, so that searching for “< your name > astronomer” finds you first - more explanation how and why here: Unsolicited Advice #astrodon 🔭🪐

Sharks are older than the rings of Saturn. This paper finds that the rings are no older than 400M years. Sharks date back to at least the Late Ordovician Period, 450M years ago.

Lovely to go on the Dirleton Solar Walk and see some of what @bensutlieff.bsky.social has been up to 🪐 Would definitely recommend, and Neptune is near a great garden centre if you need cake motivation.

Ben Sutlieff@bensutlieff.bsky.social · 2y ago

Very excited to be at the opening of the Dirleton Solar Walk today - a scale model of our Solar System in the East Lothian countryside, placed over 1.2km of the John Muir Way walking route! 🪐🔭 This was a really fun project to support and I highly recommend it for those local, esp. for kids/families!

Calling the Lothians - fancy an autumnal planet walk? The beautiful historic village of #Dirleton is proud to announce that dirleton.solar is open! 🥳😎 Take a stroll from the Sun in the village through to Neptune at the Archerfield Walled Gardens. Scan the QR codes for planet-facts en route! 🔭

For those in Scotland, Dan Arnold has just completed the Dirleton Solar Walk - dirleton.solar - a scale model of the solar system, with help from @astroroyalscot.bsky.social , @bensutlieff.bsky.social , @astronomyedinburgh.bsky.social and others listed on the supporters page. #astronomy

Discover the wonders of space and the Solar System with the Dirleton Solar Walk | Dirleton Solar System Scale Model

Discover the solar system, one step at a time through our 1:3.6 billion scale model. Spanning 1.2km between Dirleton Village and Archerfield Walled Gardens, experience the enormity of our solar system...

dirleton.solar

Just found out that some of the talented people at work helped with this project to make a walk that takes you through the solar system in the very lovely heart of East Lothian. Definitely on the list to try out soon. dirleton.solar/flight-plan

Getting there. Plan your journey to the Dirleton Solar Walk | Dirleton Solar System Scale Model

Plan your visit to the Dirleton Solar Walk using our maps, tips and information. Once you are here, explore our great local facilities, making use of our detailed map or what3words location markers. ...

dirleton.solar

Very excited to be at the opening of the Dirleton Solar Walk today - a scale model of our Solar System in the East Lothian countryside, placed over 1.2km of the John Muir Way walking route! 🪐🔭 This was a really fun project to support and I highly recommend it for those local, esp. for kids/families!

In Dundee yesterday for the Scottish Universities Physics Alliance Annual Cormack Astronomy Meeting (longest conference name ever? 🔭) with @agastro.bsky.social, @dirkscholte.bsky.social, and others. A full day of talks, but still managed to sneak in a little bit of sunrise sightseeing!

Reposting this video because I think everyone needs to see it. We’re so used to seeing Martian dust storms in movies, but this is actual footage, this is real! 🔭

Andrea Luck@andrealuck.bsky.social · 2y ago

Dust Storm Conditions over Mars ' North Polar Cap Full size video: flic.kr/p/2qtp1Vt 🔭 Full size 5k image: flic.kr/p/2qto3Uy Credits: Processing: AndreaLuck CC BY Raw Data: ESA/DLR/FUBerlin ESA Mars Express 2006-11-16 All timestamps & additional info are available on Flickr in the links above.

An enormous 5,000 kilometer wide storm in Jupiter’s north polar region. Imaged by NASA’s Juno orbiter on November 24th during Perijove 67 approach.

Check out BU PhD-student @alliemccarthy.bsky.social's paper just accepted to ApJL! JWST spectral light curves of SIMP 0136 show clear pressure-dependence, indicating three variability mechanisms: clouds, hot spots and C chemistry. @johannavos.bsky.social is the JWST PI! arxiv.org/abs/2411.16577

The JWST Weather Report from the Isolated Exoplanet Analog SIMP 0136+0933: Pressure-Dependent Variability Driven by Multiple Mechanisms

Isolated planetary-mass objects share their mass range with planets but do not orbit a star. They lack the necessary mass to support fusion in their cores and thermally radiate their heat from formati...

arxiv.org

Optimist: The cup is half full Pessimist: The cup is half empty Exoplanetary scientist: We've detected water in the cup!

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌@chanda.blacksky.app · 2y ago

Optimist: The cup is half full Pessimist: The cup is half empty Cosmologist: The cup is dusty or full of gravitational waves