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Remco de Kok

@planetremco.bsky.social

Academic wanderer, all the atmospheres, dad, husband, runner. He/him.

630 Posts337 Follower706 Folgt
Ryleigh Davis@import-astrory.bsky.social · last wk.

Using #JWST NIRSpec, we obtained the first near infrared spectra of Proteus, Larissa, Galatea, and the rings — extremely difficult targets because Neptune's light overwhelms them. And as a bonus, our IFU images are beautiful! You can actually see Larissa and the rings simultaneously.

Two false-color infrared images of Neptune's moon Larissa acquired by JWST/NIRSpec on December 13 and December 20, 2024, when Larissa was on opposite sides of Neptune. Neptune itself is obscured at center. The bright spots are Larissa. Neptune's rings — Adams, Arago, Le Verrier, and Galle — are clearly visible as glowing arcs, with their calculated positions overlaid in gray.
Don Davis@ddavisspaceart.bsky.social · 2w ago

I will show my Viking related art in a slow trickle over the next few days, as there is a fair amount of it and a new one is coming. This is a pre mission oil painting done for then USGS Astrogeology branch chief Jack McCauley, based on his anticipations of how the landing site could appear.

This mid 70s oil painting attempts to summarize a leading Astrogeologist's idea of what the surface of Mars in the general intended landing zone on a wide flood plain might look like. Jack McCauley familiarized me with his work in the coastal deserts of Peru and photos of the Dry Valleys of Antarctica, places where likely Mars like surface features could most be seen on Earth. Streamlined 'gravel bars' preserve an ancient wash, with blowing dust filling some of the deeper winding channels. Small impact craters continued to form since the climate dried up. The dark sky suggests the anticipated visual appearance at the known atmospheric density, of course not accounting tor the eternal dust pall that actually ended up brightening the daytime sky. The lander was based on photos of models available at the time. #Sciart
Remco de Kok@planetremco.bsky.social · 3w ago

What I also like about this discovery is that it was driven partly by theoretical predictions about the existence of He-planets, which made them look in the first place. Models and observations working together in harmony! #exoplanets

Robin Wordsworth@rdword.bsky.social · 3w ago

Very proud of my student Collin Cherubim for his discovery of an atmosphere on the habitable-zone exoplanet LHS 1140 b! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... www.nytimes.com/2026/07/16/s...

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.
Stuart Chambers@projectourworld.bsky.social · 4w ago

Mat Bell’s eye-catching photograph is one of the shortlisted entries for the Australian Geographic nature photographer of the year 2026 . An Adélie penguin to propel itself from the water to the safety of an iceberg. Photograph: Mat Bell/Australian Geographic

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Sarah Kendrew@sarahkendrew.bsky.social · last mo.

There’s a lot going on right now and in science it’s peak conference season - but this mission is worth following. A successful demonstration of this orbit boosting could be consequential for other missions.

Corey S. Powell@coreyspowell.bsky.social · last mo.

NASA & Katalyst Space are attempting to rescue the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, a powerful gamma-ray telescope that's on a death-spiral toward Earth. A booster spacecraft, called Link, is now on its way. It will attempt to grab Swift & lift it to safety. 🧪🔭 spacenews.com/pegasus-laun...

An illustration of Katalyst Space’s Link spacecraft (left) approaching NASA’s Swift gamma-ray observatory. Credit: Katalyst Space
Remco de Kok@planetremco.bsky.social · last mo.

First detection of reflected light of an exoplanet at high spectral resolution? Borsa+ arxiv.org/abs/2606.30793 Would be cool! I don't really understand what their methods were though (not a problem for the reviewer, apparently). I hope there will be more explanation/replication. 🧪🔭 #exoplanets

High-resolution detection of reflected light from the exo-Neptune LTT-9779 b

While high-resolution spectroscopy is routinely used to probe exoplanetary atmospheres, detecting reflected starlight remains highly challenging due to the extremely low planet-to-star optical flux ra...

arxiv.org

Remco de Kok@planetremco.bsky.social · last mo.

Europe will live in fear of the summer. All the lives lost, the damage done, the aircons to buy, the investments to make... But they say reducing co2 is expensive. Expensive for whom, actually?

Remco de Kok@planetremco.bsky.social · last mo.

Petty rant: if your novel is set in victorian London, you really don't have to name-drop Charles Dickens. The reader already has the association. It's the second book (bestseller) in a row like this.

Emily Hunt@emily.space · last mo.

I am INCREDIBLY lucky to get to be an astronomer as my day job - and if it has taught me anything, it is that 99.99999999999% of our Universe is an inhospitable shithole. This blue speck in a sea of darkness is the only place we have, and we should really start treating it like that.

a pic of the Earth, I think from NASA's DSCOVR satellite literally the only habitable place we know of in the universe