Ilaria Pascucci
@pascucci.bsky.social
Astrophysicist and Planetary Scientist. Professor at the University of Arizona. Fellow, American Astronomical Society. Outdoor enthusiast with a love for hiking, biking, and dogs.
Interesting and surprising result: Giant-planet occurrence around low-mass stars keeps rising out to 3 au! Check Gonglewski+ Looking forward to Gaia and Roman to put this to the test. #Astronomy #Exoplanets @uarizonalpl.bsky.social @gaiamission.bsky.social @nancyromansci.bsky.social
Looks like the nasa AGs are no more science.nasa.gov/planetary-sc...
Letter from the NASA Planetary Science Director: the Future of the Planetary Science Analysis and Assessment Groups (AGs) - NASA Science
A Letter from the NASA Planetary Science Director, Dr. Louise M. Prockter: the Future of the Planetary Science Analysis and Assessment Groups (AGs)
science.nasa.gov
Amazing view of the SpaceX COSMO-SkyMed launch from my backyard! 🚀
In 2020, Google’s AI lab released a tool called Alphafold that could predict how amino acids would fold into proteins under many different scenarios. Here’s where it—and its Nobel-winning team—are five years later.
How Alphafold Has Changed Biology Research, 5 Years On
Google's tool for predicting how proteins “fold” turns 5 this year. How is it fitting into biological research—and where is it going?
buff.ly
We need a reimagined LPSC flavored meeting and the locale should be Tucson in March, after the gem show. Plenty of hotel choices along the free tram line that goes to the convention center. Visit Tucson is onboard to support this. If anyone has the bandwidth to invent the meeting we've got the city.
Paul Byrne@theplanetaryguy.com · 9mo agoAbstracts submitted to LPSC 2026 are required to comply with White House (non-legally binding) executive orders forbidding mention of topics related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. At least USRA/LPI isn't hiding it. But is this what our community wants? Or deserves? I don't think so.
Question for the #exoplanets crowd: Does any one know where to find an updated version of this plot? I'm looking for the "standard" exoplanet mass vs. semi-major axis plot, but with an overlay of which planets have a spectroscopic measurement of their atmosphere wasp-planets.net/2020/09/29/w...
Which exoplanets do we have atmospheric spectra for?
Here’s an interesting plot created by Zafar Rustamkulov (@exoZafar), a PhD student at Johns Hopkins University. He has added up all the exoplanets for which we have either transmission spectr…
wasp-planets.net
Glad to have toured the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) at the Pima Air & Space Museum. Amazing to see the aircraft that carried infrared astronomy above the clouds, I almost got the chance to fly on it. #spacescience #astronomy #NASA #DLR
‘An Overview of Exocomets’ is a very comprehensive review led by Daniela Iglesias started at an @issibern.ch meeting. I worked on Figure 1 detailing comets around the Sun, Beta Pic and a white dwarf - I’m very proud of it, and it is available on @github.com: Exocomet systems #astrodon #exoplanet ☄
Seeing some beautiful photos of aurorae tonight, so here's a reminder that other planets get them, too! This is Saturn, with aurorae visible at both poles in this UV image from Hubble's Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph, taken in October 1997 when the planet was 1.3 billion km away.
🔭🧪🎢 PhD Project focus: Understanding protoplanetary disc evolution We're advertising this project with Prof Richard Alexander, making simulations of accretion of planet-forming discs onto their star. For details of all our PhD projects look here: le.ac.uk/study/resear... 🔭🧪🎢
🧵 Here is the Nebra sky disk, considered by some the oldest known illustration of the night sky. The artifact was discovered near Nebra alongside several Bronze Age weapons and is linked to the Unetice culture, which thrived in parts of Europe... ➡️ apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap18031... 🔭 🧪 #histsci 1/4
This weekend I read that the entire Breaking Bad franchise is estimated to have had $385M in economic impact for the state of NM and this is celebrated by a statue at the ABQ convention center. Meanwhile University of Arizona space science has an economic impact of $560M on our state every year.
Enjoyed giving a UofA Origins talk on how protoplanetary disks evolve – featuring new results from ALMA and JWST. The recording is available here 👇 youtu.be/mdgGgnjVbb0 @uarizonalpl.bsky.social @stewardobservatory.bsky.social
Protoplanetary Disk Evolution in the ALMA–JWST Era (Ilaria Pascucci, UArizona/LPL)
YouTube video by Origins Seminars
youtu.be
Congrats to my student Dingshan Deng on a new paper! 🎉 A self-consistent thermochemical model to measure disk masses, fully consistent with dynamical estimates – no need for ×100 CO depletion! Enables reliable disk-mass estimates for many more stars. #ALMA #Astronomy @uarizonalpl.bsky.social
UArizona is eligible for the 51 Pegasi b Fellowship in Planetary Astronomy 🚀 Covering solar system & exoplanets. Apply to join us: heisingsimons.app.box.com/s/y8jg5tbsbd...
51 Pegasi b Guidelines and Application.pdf | Powered by Box
heisingsimons.app.box.com
This is devastating, and part of a larger move to entirely push science out of NASA's mission. It is horrific betrayal of so much work, not to mention the fact that it violates NASA's charter.
Jennifer Ouellette@jenlucpiquant.bsky.social · 12mo agoNASA’s acting chief calls for the end of Earth science at the space agency arstechnica.com/space/2025/0...
🚀 Join us Tue Aug 19 for #ExoPAG32 — NASA’s Exoplanet Exploration Program Analysis Group meeting! ✅ Free & virtual 🗳️ Vote on a community finding 🌌 Mission updates 👩🔬 Early career talks 🛰️ NASA program updates from the Astrophysics Division Director Register: go.nasa.gov/45r07LV
Exoplanet Program: Registration
NASA’s Exoplanet Exploration Program, the search for planets and life beyond our solar system.
go.nasa.gov
2019: "NASA is one of the most recognised, revered and iconic brands in the world" (davidsonbranding.com.au/nasa-modern-...). 2025: >1000 NASA mission-support staff (and 2800 other NASA employees) have left under the current administration.
It’s depressing how much faster it is to break a thing than it is to build it
Heidi B. Hammel@hbhammel.bsky.social · 12mo ago2019: "NASA is one of the most recognised, revered and iconic brands in the world" (davidsonbranding.com.au/nasa-modern-...). 2025: >1000 NASA mission-support staff (and 2800 other NASA employees) have left under the current administration.
@caltechipac.bsky.social is featuring me in their "Meet the Scientists" profiles! Check it out to learn more about how I became an astronomer, what I work on, and how I ended up at IPAC! www.ipac.caltech.edu/meet-the-sta... #exoplanets 🔭🧪
Kevin Hardegree-Ullman
In this profile, we feature Kevin Hardegree−Ullman, who supports the NASA Exoplanet Archive at IPAC.
ipac.caltech.edu
Parting shot of this rock star from last week… Costa’s Hummingbird on cholla skeleton 🪶☀️🌵 (sunrise reflection in bird’s eye)
Thank you Mitchell Anderson for your Letter to the Editor in today's Daily Star.
Call it millennial cynicism if you like, but I truly believe nothing will turn the Republican base or leadership against Trump. Our only hope is getting young voters to turn out for elections, and every march/petition is useful only if it serves that goal.
NPR@npr.org · last yr.The Republican megabill cuts trillions in taxes, while scaling back spending on Medicaid and other federal programs. It now heads to the House, where some GOP lawmakers are signaling major objections.
DEMAND CISCOMANI MUST DO THE RIGHT THING. Tomorrow - July 2
Great result led by Kate Su at the University of Arizona: discovery of gas released by a giant impact around a 150 Myr-old star – glad to have contributed! #JWST #DebrisDisks #Exoplanets @jwstfeed.bsky.social @uarizonalpl.bsky.social @nasaexoplanets.extwitter.link
