I’m in Belfast this week, giving an Astrophysics Research Centre Seminar at #QUB on Wednesday 26th March titled “Scattered: Wide separation directly imaged exoplanets and shattered exomoons” (also soliciting pub recommendations!) #astrodon #exoplanets 🔭🪐 🌗🎆
I keep forgetting when and where telescope observing cycles/periods are, so I spent a part of this morning making this spreadsheet which you can view. I will attempt to keep it updated (and yes, P116 is 7 months, not six!) #astrodon #exoplanets 🔭🪐
Congratulations to Crawford+ for eliciting an audible groan from me with their paper title: “Peaky Finders: Characterizing Double-Peaked Type IIb Supernovae in Large-Scale Live-Stream Photometric Surveys” but the big question is if they have a Nick Cave song to go with it… #GolfClap
A seriously impressive paper by Thompson+ on the “Revised Mass and Orbit of ε Eridani b: A 1 Jupiter-Mass Planet on a Near-Circular Orbit”. They’ve combined RV, direct imaging and absolute astrometry to revise the planet to ~1 M_Jup and e~0 - close to being a Solar System analogue. 🔭🪐 #astrodon
Clear sky last night allowed me to see the Moon and Venus (pictured), Mars and Jupiter but no joy with Saturn or Mercury which were both buried in twilight. Lovely Earthshine, though. 🔭🪐 #astrodon
I enjoy teaching, but after teaching/managing three courses last semester and now having a semester free of teaching for the first time in five years, I am burning through those residual research TODOs for several papers… wheee! #AcademicChatter
Sometimes several feelings can be conveyed in only a couple dozen words…
A direct imaging claim by Lagrange+ [https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.15081](“Evidence for a sub-jovian planet in the young TWA7 disk”) - a very clear point source but only one epoch… but it’s in the gap in the disk around the star. Will be exciting to see follow up. 🔭🪐 #astrodon
The giant ring transit ASASSN-21js is following the model prediction we made in our paper last year - the latest ASASSN data shows a slower rise than expected, but still consistent with a ringed disk. We still predict it finishing somewhere in 2026. 🔭🪐 #astrodon
I was asked what the most critical component of successful astronomy research was. My immediate response: “Colleagues who do what they agreed to do, in the time frame they said they would do it in. Treasure them dearly and reciprocate.” beat Them: “…that’s it?” Me: “Pretty much!” 🔭🪐 #astrodon
“Life in the Slow Lane: A Search for Long Term Variability in ASAS-SN” - Petz and Kochanek show the power of all sky surveys over many years - some absolutely fascinating behaviour in these light curves, from dust generation to curious eclipsing systems. 🔭🪐 #astrodon
Not all those who wander are lost: Bhaskar and Perets on “Properties of Free Floating Planets Ejected through Planet-Planet Scattering” showing that 40-80% of planets are ejected (with small velocities), and that 5-10 planets per star can match the free floating planet population 🔭🪐 #astrodon
A summary of the DASCH project culminating in the DR7: Williams on “DASCH: Bringing 100+ Years of Photographic Data into the 21st Century and Beyond” - this project has brought online photographic plate photometry spanning over 100 years. Astounding, brilliant and tough work. 🔭🪐 #astrodon
Astonishing - intensity interferometry in your backyard! Mozdzen+ on “Intensity Interferometer Results on Sirius with 0.25 m Telescopes” with consumer Single Photon Avalanche Detectors. I’m genuinely amazed at what can be done - precision timing to hundreds of picoseconds(!) 🔭🪐 #astrodon
An unexpected rainbow after six weeks of almost unbroken cloud cover here in the Netherlands.
Hon, Rappaport et al. on “A Disintegrating Rocky Planet with Prominent Comet-like Tails Around a Bright Star” with an orbital period of 1.27 days, this is a fascinating fourth example of this type of object. The eclipses vary from one orbit to another. 🔭🪐 #astrodon
Is there another massive exoplanet in the Beta Pic system? Lacquement+ on “Dynamics of the Beta Pictoris planetary system and possibility of an additional planet” show that the two known planets cannot sculpt the current circumstellar disk, but an additional one (or two) planets can! #astrodon 🔭🪐
Happy Perihelion Day! The Earth’s orbit is slightly elliptical, and today is when the Earth is closest to the Sun. I also had a clear shot of the Dutch/NATO communications bunker near our house, which earned a 500kt nuclear device on Russian bombing maps in case of World War III :) 🔭🪐 #astrodon
Happy Arbitrary Time Change Day! May you have good times with friends and family in the next 31 and a half million seconds :)
I do love a good Cornu spiral! DeForest+ on “A Simplified Theory of External Occulters for Solar Coronagraphs” might work for exoplanet imaging - occulters are simple in concept, but typical numerical approximations we commonly use in astronomy don’t work: this paper looks at new ones. 🔭🪐 #astrodon
After spending a week in England under a permanent fog layer, flying back yesterday and seeing the sun as we broke through the cloud deck was “Trinity seeing the Sun for the first time” levels of epic.
50% gray - Boxing Day, South coast of England
One of the graduate students I work with had access to my office whilst I was away, and I have been discovering photos of me hidden around my office. Apparently I haven’t even found half of them yet… they have been very creative in the hiding spots!
The tilt of the bulge is the thing: Poon et al. on “A potential exomoon from the predicted planet obliquity of β Pictoris b” showing that if upcoming JWST observations confirm a suspected obliquity then there may be a massive exomoon to detect! Keep calm and carry on observing…. 🔭🪐 #astrodon
End of this teaching semester vibe.
