Coverage in The Guardian for Harrison's Nature Astronomy paper on L 98-59d. This paper involved a number of other current and former members of the Oxford PCD group. www.theguardian.com/science/2026...

‘A molten, mushy state’: scientists may have found a new type of liquid planet

Latest observations of L98-59d, about 35 light years from Earth, suggest it could be different to anything seen before

theguardian.com

really exciting work lead by Catriona Murray! TOI-3884 b is a planet on a polar orbit around an M dwarf. The transit has a persistent starspot crossing event. Using JWST, we measured the properties of the starspot and the Prot of the star 👀 arxiv.org/abs/2603.15414 🔭 #astronomy 🌟 #stellarastro

Yuk was new faculty when I was an undergraduate studying planetary. It always felt like he was unchanging and ageless. He made so many contributions while remaining positive and joyful. Truly will be missed.

Peter Gao@planetarygao.bsky.social · 5mo ago

My PhD advisor, Professor Yuk Yung, has passed away. The suddenness of this - I had only become aware of his illness a week ago - is shocking and it’s surreal that he’s gone. www.caltech.edu/about/news/c...

I feel like releasing JWST #cycle5 results on Friday is like firing employees on Fridays

I am hiring a postdoc in exoplanet atmospheres! (ASIAA, 4yrs, funded through 2030) Job ad here. Feel free to reach out if there are any questions! aas.org/jobregister/... PS. There’s also another postdoc position in cosmology with an awesome colleague

Excited to share some great postdoctoral opportunities available at ASIAA, Taiwan. — especially the Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellowship, which is an independent 2+2 year position. Link to the ad: aas.org/jobregister/...

Double rainbow in Bristol

So excited to host my first visitor, Prof. Xinting Yu @joneskuma.bsky.social, who gave a wonderful colloquium taking us from organic particles on Titan to protoplatary disks. Can interstellar organics promote grain growth in a disk? So much to explore in the lab!

I wrote a research note about the recent publication of the MIRI/LRS spectrum of K2-18b. The authors had claimed the detection of potential signs of life. I find the data to be consistent with a flat line 🔭🧪

arXiv bot (astro-ph)@krxiv-astro-ph.bsky.social · last yr.

Are there Spectral Features in the MIRI/LRS Transmission Spectrum of K2-18b? https://arxiv.org/pdf/2504.15916 Jake Taylor.

For our #JWSTCycle4 proposal on atmospheric characterization (unrelated to habitability nor astrobiology), the 1st weakness is "not clear enough what implications would it have for other classes of space creatures" - by reviewer 1 not reviewer 2

Bizarre mineral clouds on a hot giant planet. In 2023, JWST found quartz (SiO2) clouds in the hot Jupiter WASP-17b. WASP-17b will be revisited with JWST to discover the specific crystal structure of these quartz clouds. We'll understand these exotic exo-clouds like never before!