Planet Database xkcd.com/3311/

Planets are 3D! Shocking I know but when we measure an exoplanet we collapse the info into an average while assuming the planet is a perfect circle. UNTIL NOW! @lili-alderson.bsky.social presents: A Spatial Map of the Atmospheric Limb of a Hot Jupiter arxiv.org/abs/2610.18806 1/n🔭🧪

Check out the work by the Exoclimatology Theory Group (exoclimatology.com) - we use the Met Office's numerical models to study all sorts of cool processes in exoplanetary atmospheres

Met Office - weather and climate@metoffice.gov.uk · 2w ago

From dust storms on Mars to 1200mph winds on Neptune, our Solar System is home to some extraordinary weather. Explore the Solar System's most extreme weather this #WorldSpaceWeek and discover how Met Office experts forecast space weather from the Sun. ➡️ www.metoffice.gov.uk/blog/2026/wo...

Read about Hannah Wakeford's project which measures exoplanet atmospheres, aiming to better understand how their clouds impact the nature of the planet’s climate. media.leverhulme.ac.uk/feature/hwak... @bristoluni.bsky.social

The curious case of clouds and climate

Using state-of-the-art telescopes, Hannah Wakeford measures exoplanet atmospheres, aiming to better understand how their clouds impact the nature of the planet’s climate

media.leverhulme.ac.uk

How long could volcanic plumes persist in the Venus atmosphere? Detecting active volcanoes on Venus is a long-standing goal in planetary research. Venus is covered in sulfuric acid... https://blog.planetary-research.org/2026/10/05/how-long-could-volcanic-plumes-persist-in-the-venus-atmosphere/

How long could volcanic plumes persist in the Venus atmosphere?

Detecting active volcanoes on Venus is a long-standing goal in planetary research. Venus is covered in sulfuric acid clouds and lava plains which probably originate from volcanic activity, but how many eruptions the planet experiences is unknown. Observing eruptions could help us discover the interior composition of the planet, determine its level of geologic activity,...

blog.planetary-research.org

Potassium and sodium are significant sources of electrons in hot Jupiter atmospheres, and thus they play an important role in the atmospheric coupling to the magnetic field, among other things. I have a paper out that looks that their thermochemical kinetics. #exoplanets arxiv.org/abs/2609.26432

Transport and Thermochemical Kinetics of Alkali Species in Hot Jupiter Atmospheres: Implications for Magnetic Models

Interactions between the planetary magnetic field of a hot Jupiter and the winds within its atmosphere are moderated by the electron and ion abundances. For a solar metallicity atmosphere at pressures...

arxiv.org

Weather and climate models are evolving, so are the skills needed to use them The new LFRic Atmosphere Training course supports the modelling community by building the skills, confidence and shared expertise needed for next-generation weather and climate models. 🔗 More in our blog bit.ly/3T6N5AQ

Learning LFRic: a new modelling system for weather prediction and climate projections

LFRic advances weather and climate modelling through supercomputing innovation, collaboration, and next-generation training programs.

bit.ly

If you want to read more about limb asymmetries, Cathal and collaborators now have a paper on some of things he discussed in his talk accepted to ApJL and up on arXiv. #exoplanets #astronomy arxiv.org/abs/2609.16834

The asymmetric limbs of HD 209458 b observed with JWST NIRCam F322W2/F444W

We present a reanalysis of JWST NIRCam F322W2/F444W transit observations of the hot Jupiter HD 209458 b to extract morning and evening transmission spectra. To determine whether asymmetries in the tra...

arxiv.org

BOWIE+ Seminar Series@bowieseminar.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Cathal Maguire's talk on limb asymmetries in exoplanet atmospheres is now available, just in time to inspire your JWST proposal writing. #exoplanets #astronomy www.youtube.com/watch?v=f47c...

Happy to share two postdoc ads for positions in the APEx department at MPIA - please spread the word! - direct imaging and spectroscopy of wide-separation planets with Wolfgang Brandner aas.org/jobregister/... - forward modeling of exoplanet atmospheres with Elsie Lee aas.org/jobregister/...

This is the next step towards linking our solar system to exoplanets and a way towards the future hopeful success of the Habitable Worlds Observatory. NGRST will potentially find evidence for thousands of worlds microlensing, transits, and direct imaging 🤩🔭🧪

Space Telescope Science Institute@stsci.edu · 2mo ago

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope team has successfully activated the mission’s Coronagraph Instrument, which will block starlight to view planets and dusty disks around nearby stars. #NASARoman 🔭

📢 Calling U.K. astronomers and physicists📢 There is a Westminster Hall debate on “Future of science facilities and laboratories” next Tuesday (1 Sep). Contact your MP and urge them to attend. More details at: ras.ac.uk/news-and-pre...

🔈Save the date! ExoClimes VIII will take place at the Institute of Science Tokyo, from 11–16 July 2027. The conference will bring together the international community studying planetary climates, atmospheres, and habitability🌏 Stay tuned for more updates!  exoclimes.org

Congratulations to Dr Mei Ting (Martha) Mak on the publication of her paper, "Flow-Driven Limb-Asymmetry of Haze Distribution Part I: An Analytical Framework for Predicting the Size Distribution of Photochemical Hazes Across the Two Limbs of hot-Jupiters" Read it here: arxiv.org/abs/2607.14845

Flow-Driven Limb-Asymmetry of Haze Distribution Part I: An Analytical Framework for Predicting the Size Distribution of Photochemical Hazes Across the Two Limbs of hot-Jupiters

Photochemical haze, a common aerosol type expected to form in the atmospheres of hot-Jupiters, can become concentrated to different extents between the morning and evening limbs depending on the balan...

arxiv.org

Time and again I think that THIS is the stat universities should shout, shout & shout again about. New education export data again show HE responsible for nearly three-quarters of a £37bn UK revenue source. Fund our universities! Source: explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statist...

Planetary Research Jobs: A new job announcements platform for planetary science https://blog.planetary-research.org/2026/06/08/planetary-research-jobs-a-new-job-announcements-platform-for-planetary-science/

Planetary Research Jobs: A new job announcements platform for planetary science

A new job announcements platform for planetary science Planetary Research Jobs is a new online platform that centralizes job announcements in the field of planetary science. Any person can browse the website for free, and any person with an ORCID iD (which is almost everyone) can post an announcement at no cost. Job announcements can [...]

blog.planetary-research.org

"Someone, somewhere, has taken the decision to defund astrophysics research in the UK, but no-one seems quite sure who that was, or why." The latest on the impact of the catastrophic funding cuts to UK astrophysics, by me, in @natastron.nature.com 👩‍🔬🧪🔭 ✒️ www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Observations of #exoplanet atmospheres usually produce a combined spectrum of the morning and evening sides. Mukherjee et al. have used JWST to separate the two for a hot jupiter. They find very different spectra: a clear warm wet evening vs a cold cloudy morning. ☄️🔭🧪 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

You thought the UK was leading the quest for life on exoplanets?🌍 Well, in the absence of any action from the government or UKRI leadership, this may no longer be the case. We need to restore the UK research capability in PPAN science.🔭🧪 www.timeshighereducation.com/news/physics...

Physics cuts threaten UK’s science leadership role, says Nobelist

Didier Queloz urges UK funding bodies to rethink funding changes, with scientists also fearing Nottingham’s ‘first-rate’ department is under threat

timeshighereducation.com

If you are part of the UK Exoplanet Research Community and would like to sign our Open Letter about the planned STFC funding cuts, the link is below. uk-exoplanet-openletter.github.io/index.html

Great video about weather on solar system planets from @metoffice.gov.uk www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBes...

Where does it rain diamonds? - UK Weather - Met Office Explains

YouTube video by Met Office - UK Weather

youtube.com

Hey, I wrote a thing about AI in astrophysics ergosphere.blog/posts/the-ma...

The giant planets of the Solar System, by JWST.

See this full thread for all the ways we are showing how bad the STFC cuts to science will be With ways you can help us get the word out and just say no to cutting a generation of science and the foundation of future projects #science🧪 #astronomy🔭

Leigh Fletcher@leighfletcher.bsky.social · 9mo ago

The peculiar construction of #STFC, funding national labs & international projects, alongside blueskies research (read: jobs for postdocs, fellows, students...), means it lacks the flexibility to respond to rising costs & shifting priorities within a flat budget. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Recently published in Fafnir - the Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy: "Climate Models as a Retroactive and Exploratory World-building Tool" fafnir.journal.fi/article/view... Thanks to @johnfocook.bsky.social @climatedann.bsky.social and Alex and Michael Farnsworth.

Why do we do what we do the way we do what we do? I mean, what *is* astrophysics? diagrammonkey.wordpress.com/2026/02/17/w...

Why do we do what we do the way we do what we do?

In a narrow sense, LLMs are superhuman. They operate at computerish speeds and can now churn out text in seconds or minutes, that a human would take hours to write, if they could write it all. Thus…

diagrammonkey.wordpress.com

@steveracemp.bsky.social as your constituent I am asking you to raise this issue in Parliament and help save physics research in the UK.

Lucien Heurtier@lucienheurtier.bsky.social · 8mo ago

📣The open letter from early-career researchers across STFC has now been formally sent to its intended recipients.📨 We need a change in strategy to protect people, projects, and the future of UK fundamental research. 🧪🔭📡🛰️⚗️ Read & share: ecr-openletter-stfc.github.io/index.html #stfc #ukri #saveSTFC

Are you a physics teacher in the UK? We need your help! 🧑‍🔬🧑‍🏫 We've created an open letter for teachers to sign and express their grave concern at the devastating proposed cuts to astronomy, space science and particle and nuclear physics. ✍️ 👉️ ras.ac.uk/news-and-pre... #STFC #UKRI

Open letter on astronomy cuts from UK physics teachers

drupal-media[data-view-mode=half_page_width] { display: inline-block; width: 50%; } The Royal Astronomical Society is encouraging physics teachers in the UK to sign ...

ras.ac.uk

Published in #MNRAS: "Lightning activity on a tidally locked terrestrial exoplanet in storm-resolving simulations for a range of surface pressures", Sergeev et al. This is Fig. 4: to read the paper please visit academic.oup.com/mnras/articl... @oxfordacademic.bsky.social @royalastrosoc.bsky.social

Fresh off the press: lightning activity in high-res simulations for TRAPPIST-1e! Just a nice little study that began as James's and Lottie's undergraduate research project. We find less lightning for higher surface pressures. It's only one model though! academic.oup.com/mnras/articl...

Lightning activity on a tidally locked terrestrial exoplanet in storm-resolving simulations for a range of surface pressures

ABSTRACT. Cloudy atmospheres produce electric discharges, including lightning. Lightning, in turn, provides sufficient energy to break down air molecules i

academic.oup.com

Over 5,000 worlds we’ve seen beyond our sky, Some could host life, some just float by! 🌍🪐 Gas giants, lava lands, icy charms, The universe is full of alien farms! 👽✨ #Exoplanets! s-ink.org/known-exopla... 🔭

Exoplanets

The collection of known Exoplanets represented based on their date of detection and their relative size to scale.

s-ink.org