Forming Worlds Lab
@formingworlds.space
Forming Worlds Lab at the Kapteyn Institute, University of Groningen. We study how rocky planets form and evolve, and the conditions that make worlds habitable, connecting the origins of planets and life. formingworlds.space
New paper from Lorenzo Cesario 🔭 His third first-author paper, and he only finished his MSc this year. "Characterizing the oxidation state of rocky exoplanets with the Large Interferometer for Exoplanets (LIFE)" Read the paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.28121 #Exoplanets #PlanetaryScience
Harrison worked closely with our group all through his PhD, and still does. His new paper asks what you can learn about an exoplanet by fitting its whole life instead of a snapshot of today. 🔭 https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.25845 #Exoplanets #PlanetaryScience
Harrison Nicholls@nichollsh.bsky.social · last wk.New paper on arXiv today! On the efficacy of using novel Bayesian machine learning to dispatch 'expensive' forward models of planetary evolution. This connects with #PLATO ageing and can help solve degeneracies in current static-retrieval approaches which treat #exoplanets as snapshots.
New paper led by Joe Williams (@exeter.ac.uk), with our group among the co-authors ❄️ "Planetesimal Formation Across the Stellar Mass Spectrum and its Influence on Exoplanet-Inherited Volatile Budgets" Read the paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.20271 #Exoplanets #PlanetaryScience
Last week was our annual Exoplanet Summer BBQ, in Quentin Changeat's garden in Groningen: our group and his exoplanet group together for the afternoon. Lots to catch up on, the latest from Exoplanets 6 in Porto, holiday plans, and celebrating our recent BSc and MSc graduates. 🌞
New paper led by Ioannis Panagiotou, his first as lead author, on arXiv ten days after he defended his MSc with us 🌋 "Sulfur photochemistry observationally traces mantle redox states of rocky planets" Read the paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.15204 #Exoplanets #PlanetaryScience
New paper led by Emma Postolec, her first as lead author, PhD student at @kapteynastro.bsky.social 🌋 "Atmospheric evolution through outgassing and escape on young molten rocky exoplanets" Read the paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.15011 #Exoplanets #PlanetaryScience
New paper led by Lorenzo Cesario, his second first-author paper from his MSc 🌍 Some close-in super-Earths puff their atmospheres back up late in life instead of only shrinking. We call it reflation. Read the paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.13793 #Exoplanets #PlanetaryScience
🎓 Congratulations to three bachelor's graduates in the Forming Worlds Lab: Malina Ovesen, Ioana Balint and Viesturs Streľčs, who defended their BSc theses last week at @kapteynastro.bsky.social. All from one group project on how planets lose their air to space. 🔭 #Exoplanets #PlanetaryScience
Big congratulations to Harrison Nicholls (@nichollsh.bsky.social) 🎓 Two prizes for his PhD on the climates of rocky worlds: the Second Thesis Prize 2026 from the @iop.org Computational Physics Group, and Highly Commended for the UK Planetary Forum Early Career Medal.
Two Forming Worlds researchers are at Origins 2026 in Paris this week, the ISSOL astrobiology conference. Emeline Decocq and Anna Grace Ulses brought posters: one on the earliest Earth, one on false alarms for life on other worlds. With @kapteynastro.bsky.social 🔭 #PlanetaryScience #Astrobiology
1/ Two new master's graduates in the Forming Worlds Lab! 🎓 Congratulations to Lorenzo Cesario and Ioannis Panagiotou, who both defended their MSc theses today at @kapteynastro.bsky.social with excellent work. What they did 👇 🔭 #Exoplanets #PlanetaryScience
That's a wrap on #Exoplanets6 in Porto 🇵🇹 The Forming Worlds Lab brought four posters, all using our open PROTEUS model to link a rocky world's interior (magma ocean, redox, outgassing, escape) to what JWST can observe. Featuring @marianasastre.bsky.social, @nichollsh.bsky.social & team 👇
Hello, and welcome! 👋 We're the Forming Worlds Lab at @kapteynastro.bsky.social, @rug.nl. We study how rocky planets form and evolve, and what makes a world habitable, from magma oceans 🌋 to the skies of distant exoplanets 🪐, and we build the open-source PROTEUS framework our science runs on. 🔭
