Thomas Beatty
@tgbeatty.bsky.social
Astronomer/Exoplanetary Scientist/Professor at the University of Wisconsin
WiCOR seeks a #postdoctoral fellow to participate in Center #research in any discipline related to our two main research questions: 1. How do habitable planets form? 🪐 2. How does life emerge on habitable planets? 🧬 Full information at: wicor.wisc.edu/postdoc/ Apply by Nov 15 🔭 🧪 #postdoc #hiring
Fishing! All the kids involved managed to catch something (thankfully!).
arxiv.org/abs/2507.21402 Yeah, not possible.
Intercepting 3I/ATLAS at Closest Approach to Jupiter with the Juno spacecraft
The interstellar object 3I/ATLAS is expected to arrive at a distance of $53.56(\pm 0.45)$ million ${\rm km}$ ($0.358\pm 0.003$~au) from Jupiter on March 16, 2026. We show that applying a total thrust ...
arxiv.org
This July 4, remember that the US is the only country whose national anthem ends in a question.
Congratulations Dr. Matthew Murphy! Matthew is off to Michigan State next year to work on a great JWST atmospheres project with @afeinstein20.bsky.social.
Jim Lattis and I will be on Madison's local NPR affiliate tomorrow afternoon from noon - 1pm, as a part of the Larry Meiller Show. We'll talk about exoplanets, the search for life, and the new WiCOR center at UW. Locals can listen on FM 88.7, or online www.wpr.org/shows/larry-...
The Larry Meiller Show
Join us every weekday from 11:00 to 1:00 when we discuss the environment, consumer issues, nature, books, gardening, home improvement and so much more. Our expert guests share their knowledge and take...
wpr.org
nasawatch.com/ask-the-admi... "We will close NASA’s Office of Technology, Policy, and Strategy, the Office of the Chief Scientist, and the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility branch in the Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunity, along with reducing their workforce."
The NASA RIF Has Begun
This was just sent to the NASA workforce:
nasawatch.com
The budget bill passed last night allocated about $43 billion next year for Function 250, which covers NASA, NSF, and DOE Science. That's only about $1 billion less than the previous FY25 budget from last summer.
Hello from the Wisconsin Center for Origins Research! 👋🧪🔭 WiCOR’s Mission is to advance our understanding of the #OriginsOfLife in the #Universe through interdisciplinary #research and #education. Follow us to stay updated on all things WiCOR! linktr.ee/wicenterforo...
So through the night rode Paul Revere; And so through the night went his cry of alarm To every Middlesex village and farm, — A cry of defiance and not of fear, A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door, And a word that shall echo forevermore!
Ice skating! I like that Madison's parks clear off big sections of the ponds and run skate rental booths.
I'm pleased (?) to report that my school-based stress dream has now switched from "arrive on the last day of class for the final exam and realize you haven't attended all semester" to the alternate version of "arrive on the first day of class and realize you haven't prepared anything."
Check out grad student Max Kroft's new paper on TOI-6054: two dynamically interacting sub-Neptunes (both ~ 10 M_E) around a bright (K=6.7) sub-giant. The star has started evolving - so the inner planet has gone from a life of leisure to strong mass-loss in the last few Myr. arxiv.org/abs/2501.09095
A Pair of Dynamically Interacting Sub-Neptunes Around TOI-6054
We confirm the planetary nature of a pair of transiting sub-Neptune exoplanets orbiting the bright F-type sub-giant star TOI-6054 ($V=8.02$, $K=6.673$) as a part of the OrCAS radial velocity survey us...
arxiv.org
I recommend everyone stop by the ExEP desk at the NASA portion of the exhibit hall. They have "smell an exoplanet" that is pretty entertaining. It includes WASP-107b from our MANATEE work! #AAS245
Matthew Murphy: new panchromatic limb-asymmetry obs. of WASP-107b show lots of morning/evening differences and evidence for nightside formation of KCl clouds. For once both 1D and GCM models agree! #AAS245
Good morning #AAS245! Want to learn about how JWST is giving us our first insights into weather on exoplanets? Come to Matthew Murphy's dissertation talk at 11:10am in Potomac 3-4. He is doing the first direct measurements of East/West differences in transmission spectra and sees some cool stuff!
Fun fact for those watching the AAS plenary talk on DART and planetary defense: the asteroid Apophis was named after the main villain in the first few seasons of Stargate: SG1. #AAS245
There is a bird flying around the plenary hall. According to the speaker this is the "AAS bird" and if it lands on your head you give the plenary next year. #AAS245 #aviocracy
Rezi Ashtari showing results from a big survey of WFC3 observations to try and see trends in clouds. They find a "clear sky corridor" around 1000K, but with an intriguingly strong mass dependence. #AAS245
Jacob Lustig-Yaeger now showing the same sort of thing in similar obs. of the similar planet TOI-5205b. Very odd. Jacob suggests that since both host stars have significant spots, maybe we need to improve our spot modeling. #AAS245
Kevin Stevenson just showed JWST transmission spectra of the warm Jupiter TOI-3714b, which showed some methane, ammonia, carbon dioxide, but no water (???). That means a super high C/O to this observer. #AAS245
Hot stuff from Yao Tang, who modeled the interior structure of sub-Neptunes using higher fidelity models. A good explanation for super puffs? #AAS245
Rory Barnes on atmosphere loss on the short period Earth sized planet GJ 1132b: an initial hydrogen atmosphere would step quickly. But if there were a lot of water the planet might still have a magma ocean with an extremely thick CO2-dominated atmosphere. #AAS245
Love a good flow chart. Listening to the SAG 24 report on starshade development. They've gotten everything to TRL 5 and tested to contrasts of 10^-10. Apropos of the previous report on imaging with segmented mirrors, starshade might be the only option if we can't get "standard" imaging working.
