ExoHugh

ExoHugh, 13 days ago to random

I've seen some UK news saying "There's a #SolarStorm coming! Maybe there will be #aurora!" Now I can 100% guarantee that Brits venturing out tonight in clear skies will see a glow to the North... but it almost certainly won't be aurora! It's mid May after all! So, for much of the country, the glow of twilight is visible all "night" (some parts of the UK actually have no astronomical night until August). So, unless it's a once in a lifetime display, twilight will make aurora-spotting impossible

ExoHugh, 18 days ago to random

I've seen a bunch of articles titled "Some astronomers now say #exoplanet might not have a biosignature after all" which is just wrong. ALL astronomers have been saying that. Since forever. Even the paper which published the dimethyl sulphide on K2-18b (which isn't a good biosignature btw) showed that DMS was only found in A SINGLE MODEL at a level FAR BELOW SIGNIFICANCE... ffs. One professor with an ego makes a stupid PR and the rest of us have to spend years correcting it. See also: Oumuamua.

ExoHugh, 23 days ago to random

I feel like 75% of #exoplanet astronomers get confused by planets in binary systems for some reason...
The simplest configuration is planets orbiting stars which also have a stellar companion. A large fraction of star systems are wide binaries so this is very common, and honestly not that interesting. Imagine if the Sun had an M-dwarf instead of #Planet9. Both stars could even host planets (unless the stellar companion is particularly close/large). Examples: Kepler-444, HD80606, Proxima Cen, etc

ExoHugh, 2 months ago to random

It's #JWST rejection day!
If you want to feel better about yours, my two PI proposals, which me and a team spent weeks of work on, were both rejected without even getting given a quintile because of bureaucratic reasons...

ExoHugh, 4 months ago to random

Given articles about "upcoming detection of life in an exoplanet atmosphere" let me state, as an #exoplanet astronomer: #JWST is incapable of detecting biosignatures.
That's not to say it isn't an incredible telescope capable of doing amazing exoplanet observations. But there are very few unambiguous biosignatures, and the clearest ones require measuring earth-like planets at ppm precision... Even if it observed every visible transit of key targets like TRAPPIST-1g, JWST cant't quite get there.

mattkenworthy, 4 months ago to Astro

Collaborator Ernst de Mooij brought a 3D printout of the data we are analyzing in our latest research paper, a fantastic and very tactile gift! Any guesses as to what the data represents, and which star we're looking at? 🔭🪐Hint: it's not pulsar data! #astrodon #3dprinting

3d printout of astronomical data - a long ridge with small mountains mostly on the right hand side, and a few appearing on the left at the back.

AlexSanterne, 5 months ago to home

Today, I find myself #smiling while going back #home after a long day at #work. It’s not because I solved some important and long-lasting #astrophysics problem, nor that I got a prize for my #academic work… but it seems all my #ClimateActions have a significant impact within my community (laboratory and institutions).

I know it’s not solving all the #climate problems on the large scale, and we are still burning more and more #fossilfuels, but at least, I am not wasting my time.

#ClimateChange

mattkenworthy, 5 months ago to Astro

The population of free-floating binary #exoplanets 🔭🪐 in the Trapezium is explained by Portegies-Zwart and Hochart in: https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.04645 by showing that capture or exchange is unlikely; it's in-situ formation of a high binary fraction and subsequent evaporation! So, older star forming regions should have fewer exoplanet binaries, which seems to be the case with discoveries of free floating planets in other surveys. Expect people to be looking with #JWST in the near future... #astrodon

ExoHugh, 5 months ago to random

I deleted my twitter, but if anyone wanted to nominate my #HD110067 plot containing ALL OF THE PHOTOMETRY as plot of the week on plotastro@twitter.com, that would be lovely.

ExoHugh, 5 months ago to random

Using TESS & CHEOPS we found six sub-Neptune #exoplanets orbiting HD110067. This system is so interesting:

1. All 6 planets are in perfect chain of first-order resonance.
2. TESS only spotted 2 periodic planets & 4 with ambiguous periods. We used the resonance chain to predict the orbits of outer planets.
3. The star is the brightest host of a system of 4+ transiting planets, and one of the most characterisable with JWST
   The paper can be found at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06692-3 (on arXiv tomorrow)

ExoHugh, 6 months ago to random

Whenever I visit ESTEC (ESA's Dutch HQ) I'm always happy to say hi to the most famous feline in #astrophysics: Micky the Space Cat.

ExoHugh, 6 months ago to Astronomy

Here are all #planets and #exoplanets discovered by humans between the 18th century and the end of 2023, as a function of orbital period & planet mass. (I finally got around to updating it. More versions at http://www.hughosborn.co.uk/2023/11/13/updated-exoplanet-growth-animations/ ) #astronomy #dataviz

Planet & exoplanet discovery from 1790 until 2023. x-axis shows orbital period and y-axis shows masses (both relative to Earth).

ExoHugh, 8 months ago to random

Ah, the infamous #K218b. Hyped to hell after a paper called "Water vapour in the atmosphere of the habitable- zone planet K2-18 b" in 2019... now a far more precise spectrum from #JWST reveals... actually there was no H2O after all.
The JWST spectrum is quite nice though (if a bit noisy), and reveals an unusual methane-dominated H2 atmosphere suggestive of a very low atmospheric C/O ratio and metallicity in the atmosphere - not what I would have expected! https://arxiv.org/abs/2309.05566

ExoHugh, 10 months ago to philosophy

At the most recent science working team meeting, we officially chose the first #ESA #PLATO field... And we will be looking South! Shame for those people who immediately wanted the #Kepler field reobserved, but a boost for those with access to Chilean high-resolution spectrographs!
https://platomission.com/2023/07/11/first-plato-long-duration-observation-phase-lop-field-selected/

ExoHugh, 11 months ago to random

How #email should work: Send a colleague a downloadable csv file.
How my email now works since switching to #MicrosoftExchange:

• Colleague sends email with file
• Mail is send to quarantine
• 2hrs later I'm told "we stopped this spam"
• I release email from quarantine
• I click on .csv file link
• This opens Microsoft secure log-in portal
• I wait for log-in code sent via email
• Excel opens in browser
• Excel downloads file as .xlsx
• I manually open file on PC
• I re-export file as csv