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Matthew Kenworthy

@mattkenworthy.bsky.social

Professor of astronomy working at Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands on the direct imaging of extrasolar planets and transits of giant ring systems || Opinions my own || Will tell Dad jokes for cash. https://kenworthy.space/

605 Posts4515 Follower253 Folgt
Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot.bsky.social · last wk.

Think of all the awesome science-ing we could do with an extra £20M......🧪

Kirsty Grainger @kirstygrainger.bsky.social · last wk.

Earlier this year UKRI launched a funding call to invest £40M in ONE AI lab. www.ukri.org/opportunity/... For some unknown reason they decided to fund TWO AI labs at the cost of £60M. An extra £20M. Just found. That's the equivalent of 7 more years of Jodrell Bank. www.ukri.org/news/ukri-la...

Emily Hunt@emily.space · last wk.

A great post on how AI at most solves ~10% of what we do in research, and many other issues - like grant writing, lead time to do experiments, or peer review - remain as unoptimized bottlenecks in the current research system.

Ran Blekhman@blekhman.bsky.social · last wk.

Everyone says AI will accelerate science. I don't think it will -- at least not in biology, and at least not soon. New post where I explain why, and how the productivity paradox can be resolved: blekhman.substack.com/p/why-ai-wil...

Emily Hunt@emily.space · last wk.

Anecdotally, it is amazing how much more productive I've been in the last 12 months! Why? Not because of AI - because I have a stable postdoc for the first time, and I'm not consuming massive amounts of time on writing job applications 😅

Matthew Kenworthy@mattkenworthy.bsky.social · 3w ago

It is the Year of our Lord 2026, and today I am assembling an email list by cutting and pasting into a spreadsheet before cutting and pasting *that* into Apple Mail. Why am I doing such a straightforward task in such a roundabout way? Gosh, I'm glad you asked. /1

Matthew Kenworthy@mattkenworthy.bsky.social · 3w ago

*smash cut* to every direct imaging exoplanet astronomer stopping what they were doing, turning and staring at each other, and then sprinting to the Keck/Gemini/Subaru/HST image archives...

ESO@eso.org · 3w ago

ICYMI Faintest #exoplanet ever imaged from Earth discovered after more than 10 years of hide-and-seek! Spotted using our VLT, the planet was later found to have been hiding in archival ESO observations spanning more than a decade.  Video summary👇 🔭 🧪 1/2

Matthew Kenworthy@mattkenworthy.bsky.social · 3w ago

I’ve used linux/unix systems for O(30 years) but occasionally something appears and makes me go “wait, what, when did that happen?” case in point: you can have graphics in terminal windows now. I just discovered the kew music player with album covers displayed - very pretty! #TUInotGUI

A mac osx terminal window with the image of the Lemon Jelly album "64-95" in the upper middle part of the window, with coloured text labels underneath it.
Matthew Kenworthy@mattkenworthy.bsky.social · 3w ago

There’s a phrase in task management (I’m a Getting Things Done with org-mode kind of a person) called “Eat the frog” which is to do the most unpleasant task first thing in the day so it’s out of the way and you don’t procrastinate. Today I have a large frog and ho boy I am NOT keen. #GTD #org-mode

Jayne Birkby@jaynebirkby.bsky.social · 3w ago

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.

Image of a star system. The central star is hidden behind a coronagraph, marked by a white star symbol at the centre. A bright companion appears to the left, while a much fainter companion, indicated by a white arrow, is visible to the right against a reddish-orange background.
Matthew Kenworthy@mattkenworthy.bsky.social · last mo.

I never leave the music player on my computer in ‘pause’ mode because the mechanical tension applied to the tape in your audio cassette tape player could stretch or snap(!) your favourite album. I believe it gives the audio file on the computer time to rest, too. Old habits die hard. #audio

An audio cassette. A rectangular semitransparent case with two toothed wheels with black audio tape wound around each of them. On the tape is the trapped soul of many small screaming demons that shout into a small microphone as the tape is passed from one reel to another.
Ethan Siegel@startswithabang.bsky.social · last mo.

I got contacted by a journalist to comment on Avi Loeb's appointment to lead US research into UFOs. I told the unfiltered, inconvenient truth about what it means to the best of my knowledge. Scroll past Avi's bloviating and see if you agree: www.alternet.org/trump-ufos-m...

'Like a kid in a candy story': Trump appoints polarizing UFO scientist to top committee

On Tuesday President Donald Trump appointed a famous and controversial Harvard theoretical physicist, cosmologist and astronomer to lead a group of scientists to investigate UFOs and whether they pose...

alternet.org

Ludmila Carone@exotides.bsky.social · last mo.

Sulphur chemistry and nucleation of dust species out of gasphase to kickstart cloud formation in hot Jupiters. Cloud formation NEEDS solid cloud condensation nuclei. On rocky planets it's easy. For very cold worlds in the outer system it's easier. But for hot Jupiters, it is REALLY difficult.

Ludmila Carone@exotides.bsky.social · last mo.

FINALLY the field has not only realized that planets are 3D (cite us, we predicted quite some stuff that you see), small planets are very diverse including bare rocks. This Solar System educated geoscientists is basically "d'oh!" all the time. #exoplanets6