New paper from Lorenzo Cesario 🔭 His third first-author paper, and he only finished his MSc this year. "Characterizing the oxidation state of rocky exoplanets with the Large Interferometer for Exoplanets (LIFE)" Read the paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.28121 #Exoplanets #PlanetaryScience

I really enjoyed this collaboration: it goes to show that especially in the sciences, where data remains costly, Bayesian approaches like BO, BAL, and BED can make a difference. Also, I guess this is officially my first astrophysics paper, very exciting! 🔭🪐🌌

Forming Worlds Lab@formingworlds.space · last wk.

Harrison worked closely with our group all through his PhD, and still does. His new paper asks what you can learn about an exoplanet by fitting its whole life instead of a snapshot of today. 🔭 https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.25845 #Exoplanets #PlanetaryScience

New paper on arXiv today! On the efficacy of using novel Bayesian machine learning to dispatch 'expensive' forward models of planetary evolution. This connects with #PLATO ageing and can help solve degeneracies in current static-retrieval approaches which treat #exoplanets as snapshots.

Constraining the lives and times of exoplanets through evolutionary Bayesian retrievals

Static retrieval frameworks are leading tools for interpreting exoplanet observations, yet time-independent modelling leaves them prone to degeneracy and unable to resolve exoplanets' histories. The c...

arxiv.org

Harrison worked closely with our group all through his PhD, and still does. His new paper asks what you can learn about an exoplanet by fitting its whole life instead of a snapshot of today. 🔭 https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.25845 #Exoplanets #PlanetaryScience

Harrison Nicholls@nichollsh.bsky.social · last wk.

New paper on arXiv today! On the efficacy of using novel Bayesian machine learning to dispatch 'expensive' forward models of planetary evolution. This connects with #PLATO ageing and can help solve degeneracies in current static-retrieval approaches which treat #exoplanets as snapshots.

New paper led by Joe Williams (@exeter.ac.uk), with our group among the co-authors ❄️ "Planetesimal Formation Across the Stellar Mass Spectrum and its Influence on Exoplanet-Inherited Volatile Budgets" Read the paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.20271 #Exoplanets #PlanetaryScience

Our latest paper has been accepted for publication! 🎉 We demonstrated that a single late infall event perturbing the outer disk can trigger the formation of multiple giant planets and ringed disk structures resembling those observed around young stars. Paper: arxiv.org/abs/2607.18370

New paper with @formingworlds.space colleagues. With planetary evolution models, we demonstrate that the combined physics of redox-sensitive degassing and escape can generate transient episodes of atmospheric re-inflation on super-Earths. "Reflation" is an observational marker of reducing interiors.

Forming Worlds Lab@formingworlds.space · 3w ago

New paper led by Lorenzo Cesario, his second first-author paper from his MSc 🌍 Some close-in super-Earths puff their atmospheres back up late in life instead of only shrinking. We call it reflation. Read the paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.13793 #Exoplanets #PlanetaryScience

When are #exoplanets in equilibrium? Sulfur photochemistry has the answer to this, and to inform about planets' deep interior redox conditions directly from #JWST data. Ioannis' paper is based on his MSc project, jointly supervised by @timlichtenberg.bsky.social, @exoshami.bsky.social, and myself.

Forming Worlds Lab@formingworlds.space · 3w ago

New paper led by Ioannis Panagiotou, his first as lead author, on arXiv ten days after he defended his MSc with us 🌋 "Sulfur photochemistry observationally traces mantle redox states of rocky planets" Read the paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.15204 #Exoplanets #PlanetaryScience

New paper led by Ioannis Panagiotou, his first as lead author, on arXiv ten days after he defended his MSc with us 🌋 "Sulfur photochemistry observationally traces mantle redox states of rocky planets" Read the paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.15204 #Exoplanets #PlanetaryScience

New paper led by Emma Postolec, her first as lead author, PhD student at @kapteynastro.bsky.social 🌋 "Atmospheric evolution through outgassing and escape on young molten rocky exoplanets" Read the paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.15011 #Exoplanets #PlanetaryScience

A great example of the power #Opensource #Researchsoftware by the @formingworlds.space lab See also: proteus-framework.org

Forming Worlds Lab@formingworlds.space · 3w ago

New paper led by Lorenzo Cesario, his second first-author paper from his MSc 🌍 Some close-in super-Earths puff their atmospheres back up late in life instead of only shrinking. We call it reflation. Read the paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.13793 #Exoplanets #PlanetaryScience

New paper led by Lorenzo Cesario, his second first-author paper from his MSc 🌍 Some close-in super-Earths puff their atmospheres back up late in life instead of only shrinking. We call it reflation. Read the paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.13793 #Exoplanets #PlanetaryScience

🎓 Congratulations to three bachelor's graduates in the Forming Worlds Lab: Malina Ovesen, Ioana Balint and Viesturs Streľčs, who defended their BSc theses last week at @kapteynastro.bsky.social. All from one group project on how planets lose their air to space. 🔭 #Exoplanets #PlanetaryScience

Big congratulations to Harrison Nicholls (@nichollsh.bsky.social) 🎓 Two prizes for his PhD on the climates of rocky worlds: the Second Thesis Prize 2026 from the @iop.org Computational Physics Group, and Highly Commended for the UK Planetary Forum Early Career Medal.

Planetary evolution simulations resolving coupled interior-atmosphere interactions, from the earliest magma ocean stages onwards, enable a robust understanding of rocky worlds. Which planets stay molten, which keep atmospheres, and which become habitable? Work continues: proteus-framework.org

Well done Harrison, so much deserved, outstanding work! ⭐🔭🚀😃

Harrison Nicholls@nichollsh.bsky.social · 4w ago

Delighted to share that I've been awarded two and complementary prizes for my PhD on magma ocean evolution and climate modelling. Firstly, Second Prize for computational physics by the Institute of Physics; secondly, part of the Early Career Medal by the UK Planetary Forum. Explainer below...

Two Forming Worlds researchers are at Origins 2026 in Paris this week, the ISSOL astrobiology conference. Emeline Decocq and Anna Grace Ulses brought posters: one on the earliest Earth, one on false alarms for life on other worlds. With @kapteynastro.bsky.social 🔭 #PlanetaryScience #Astrobiology

1/ Two new master's graduates in the Forming Worlds Lab! 🎓 Congratulations to Lorenzo Cesario and Ioannis Panagiotou, who both defended their MSc theses today at @kapteynastro.bsky.social with excellent work. What they did 👇 🔭 #Exoplanets #PlanetaryScience

That's a wrap on #Exoplanets6 in Porto 🇵🇹 The Forming Worlds Lab brought four posters, all using our open PROTEUS model to link a rocky world's interior (magma ocean, redox, outgassing, escape) to what JWST can observe. Featuring @marianasastre.bsky.social, @nichollsh.bsky.social & team 👇

Hello, and welcome! 👋 We're the Forming Worlds Lab at @kapteynastro.bsky.social, @rug.nl. We study how rocky planets form and evolve, and what makes a world habitable, from magma oceans 🌋 to the skies of distant exoplanets 🪐, and we build the open-source PROTEUS framework our science runs on. 🔭

Check out @marianasastre.bsky.social's first first-author paper on magma ocean lifetimes and atmospheric diversity on rocky exoplanets. 🙂 Congrats Mariana! 🎉🚀🔭

Mariana Sastre@marianasastre.bsky.social · 2mo ago

My first✨ first-author ✨paper is accepted and on arXiv 🎉🪐 We show a hierarchy of controls on magma oceans: volatile inventory is the primary regulator, while redox-dependent melting curves matter mainly in volatile-poor planets, affecting interior+atmosphere. 🔗Link: arxiv.org/abs/2606.20249

Famous #exoplanet K2-18 b: is it a super-Earth, a sub-Neptune, or something else entirely? 🌍🌔☁️🪐 The secret of its interior lies in its exterior... the atmosphere! Hear more from Shang-Min (Shami) Tsai's #RockyWorldsDiscussion on Thu 7 May @ 13:00 UTC! More: www.rockyworlds.org/event-detail... 🧪🔭

🔭 The amazing Claire Marie Guimond @xoplanets.bsky.social is so good at explaining all things (exo)geoscience! 🌋🌍 I learned so much in this A+ interview about… night-side volcanism?! Where energy dissipates through tidally-locked #exoplanets from molten dayside ➡️ volcanoes form on the other side! 🤯

SETI Institute@setiinstitute.bsky.social · 3mo ago

ICYMI, this week's SETI Live focused on a rocky, tidally locked world with possible lava oceans. Designated K2-141 b, researchers used models to determine how heat moves through the planet’s interior. Watch the full interview: youtube.com/live/nYX2sNg... 🧪 🔭 👩‍🔬

Harrison Nicholls and colleagues suggest that exoplanet L 98-59 d could be entirely composed of molten lava: a magma ocean covering a mushy core. http://dlvr.it/TRWtfm ☄️@nichollsh.bsky.social

Volatile-rich evolution of molten super-Earth L 98-59 d - Nature Astronomy

Planet-evolution models explain JWST data for L 98-59 d through a new scenario: while cooling and escape shrank this planet, a permanent magma ocean supplies sulfur to its atmosphere, in which SO2 is produced by photochemistry.

dlvr.it

The menagerie of planets continues to amaze. Now some scientists think they have identified a world with a permanent magma ocean and a molten core. Amazing! 🧪 #planetaryscience www.theguardian.com/science/2026...

‘A molten, mushy state’: scientists may have found a new type of liquid planet

Latest observations of L98-59d, about 35 light years from Earth, suggest it could be different to anything seen before

theguardian.com

Had a great time at #RockyWorlds4 this week - presenting my PhD work on magnetic field generation in planetesimals 🧲 and learning lots about magma oceans 🔥ready for my post doc project. Thanks to everyone for such great discussions and @rockyworlds.bsky.social for organising a fantastic meeting!

Poster discussions at #RockyWorlds4 has been amazing! Coffee breaks are on 🔥🔥🔥Super creative posters with incredible science, I think we are improving as a community to communicate our research to other colleagues 🧐 Looking forward for the poster competition ✨ @rockyworlds.bsky.social

My 25th (!) newsletter post shares my main takeaway from the #RockyWorlds4 conference: Hot rocks are what's cool in rocky exoplanet research right now. Lava planets, especially look like they're about to teach us a *ton* about how rocky planets work. So come on in, the lava's fine! 🧪🔭

Hot rocks are what's cool in rocky exoplanet research

Habitable zone? Pfft. For exciting planetary science discoveries, keep your eye on lava worlds and hot rocks.

reviewertoo.com

Looks like Planet Earth is a fan of #RockyWorlds4 as it gifted us with a gorgeous conference souvenir last night! 🤩🔭🧪

Mariana Sastre@marianasastre.bsky.social · 7mo ago

✨Auroras✨ over Groningen,NL during the first after-conference day of @rockyworlds.bsky.social This planet is just so incredible! Looking forward for the talks, sessions and activities the rest of the week🌌

Another cool result shared at #RockyWorlds4: Nearly all sub-Neptunes, if they are gas dwarfs (as opposed to water worlds), should have magma oceans beneath their hydrogen atmospheres. That includes the notorious K2-18b — if it is indeed a gas dwarf and not an ocean planet. Preprint:

Most Rocky Sub-Neptunes are Molten: Mapping the Solidification Shoreline for Gas Dwarf Exoplanets

Sub-Neptunes are the most common type of detected exoplanet, yet their observed masses and radii are degenerate with several interior structures. One possibility is that sub-Neptunes have silicate/iro...

arxiv.org