iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Bruce Macintosh @bmacastro.bsky.social · 13h

This graph represents probably more than a hundred thousand hours of work by our community. Every year when I look at it I think our current proposal model is broken.

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András Gáspár @andrasgaspar.bsky.social · 4h

It worked! We observed a calibrator through the mask, but off the coronagraphic spot, in order to flux calibrate the system. We have transmission! We will get proper behind-the-mask observations in a few months. How exciting! We officially have another optical wavelength coronagraph in space! 🔭🪐

Images of the calibrator source through F070W, F090W, F115W, and F150W filters. These are only level 2 images, single position, not post-processed. This is what I could quickly grab.

The dataset is PUBLIC! Go have at it, if you wish.

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András Gáspár @andrasgaspar.bsky.social · 15h

This was posted on LinkedIn. Looks like a new record, possibly 3500 proposals. Good luck everyone on the JWST roulette. We really should have made two.

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ESA Space Science @science.esa.int · 15h

A crash course on planet-shattering collisions, from Webb 🌏💥 A Mars-sized world called Theia once smashed into Earth, leading to the creation of our Moon. Now, Webb has examined a class of young stellar systems that show signs of similar upheavals 👉 esawebb.org/news/weic2618/ 🔭 🧪

Artist’s concept of a star and its debris disc against the black background of space. The star is in the background, right of center, and depicted as a small, luminous sphere. The debris disc is a large blue ring that encircles the star. The debris disc is angled toward the viewer, so that the portion nearest to the viewer extends beyond the bottom frame of the illustration. Many dark, rocky fragments are scattered throughout the debris disc. In the foreground, toward the left, is a small planetary embryo colliding into the left side of a larger spherical object. The impact site glows bright yellow and orange and has a mottled appearance, as though chunks of both colliding bodies are breaking up and being destroyed. Orange-yellow streams of vapor extend outward from the collision area. Behind the debris disc and its star are many small stars in the background. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, J. Olmsted (STScI)

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Chara @astrochara.bsky.social · 17h

Some four million years ago, two superstars flew past our neighbourhood: Adhara and Mirzam. Both extremely bright and massive stars, to this day they remain one of the brightest stars in each other’s sky. #ACelestialJournal

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socalbookish.bsky.social @socalbookish.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

This👇👇👇👇👇👇

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 30/09/2026

One of the most harrowing things about academia, when you're a grad student, is how vulnerable you are to how you're perceived by more senior researchers. Your career advancement depends on confidential letters of reference & private discussions amongst faculty. You have no information or control.

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Heidi B. Hammel @hbhammel.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

The Cycle 6 JWST 🔭 Call for Proposals deadline has been extended to October 1, at 5 pm Eastern Time (US) due to APT server issues. For updates, please check: “Late Breaking News” at the Call for Proposals jwst-docs.stsci.edu/jwst-opportu...

static.klipy.com

Me Using James Webb Telescope To Find Who Asked

ALT: Me Using James Webb Telescope To Find Who Asked

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András Gáspár @andrasgaspar.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I don't know if anyone else is tracking, I assume Molly is. This is from @mpudoka.bsky.social. Look like we are possibly on track to break another record.

JWST submissions. Definitely at or above Cycle 5.

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Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

On point B, the NASA Exoplanet Archive typically serves ~10-20TB of data per month. In July it jumped to 70TB. In August it jumped to 600TB. So either our user base organically grew *30x* in two months (... unlikely), OR the bots have taken over already.

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Aster ID @aster.id · 30/09/2026

The modern research ecosystem of online tools and communities is controlled by for-profit companies. But we think that researchers should be the priority - not the product. So, we're announcing Aster ID: not-for-profit Atmosphere account hosting for researchers.

blog.aster.place

Announcing Aster - a home for researchers on the open web

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Chara @astrochara.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

As a cold sub-Neptune planet, TOI-6981 b probably has a hydrogen-rich atmosphere which might make its atmosphere resemble our giant planets', so I based its appearance on Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune. bsky.app/profile/astr...

This artwork depicts a possible appearance for TOI-6981 b, which is depicted as a brown/cream-coloured odd combination of Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune, further tinted orangish by the light of its M4V host star. Behind it is the constellation of Orion as seen from TOI-6981, its stars displaced from how they look from Earth.

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Emily Hunt @emily.space · 30/09/2026

I AM SO EXCITED FOR THIS!! 6+ months of work by SO many people is converging on a fantastic thing for researchers online. We want to democratize access to research infrastructure online, for good, and we've put together an amazing team to make it happen. ❤️

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Chara @astrochara.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Today's arXiv day: Meet TOI-6981 b, an *actually* cold (zero-albedo equilibrium temp = 186 K!!) transiting sub-Neptune only 25 pc away, amenable to transmission spectroscopy characterization!!! arxiv.org/abs/2609.37597

arxiv.org

TOI-6981 b: a transiting sub-Neptune at the water ice line

We present TOI-6981 b, a cold (Teq= 170.0 +/-4.5 K, assuming an Earth-like albedo) sub-Neptune (Rb=2.40+/-0.10 R_oplus) on a 60.8 day orbit around around its M4-type host star (R*=0.304 +/- 0.012 R_od...

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Matthew Kenworthy @mattkenworthy.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Good luck to everyone submitting their #JWST proposals today. My first version is in the bag, now to read it and find the O(dozens) of mistakes I made…. Scientific method FTW! #exoplanet #astrodon

The scientific method broken down into six actions, surrounded by a ring with the phrase "Fuck around and find out" which tbh is a pretty concise summary of the Scientific Method.

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ESA Space Science @science.esa.int · 30/09/2026

Inspector Smile is ready for science! 🫡 This is Smile’s first ultraviolet view showing an auroral substorm. With the ultraviolet camera now operational, Smile becomes the first spacecraft since 2008 to capture the full ring of northern lights around the north pole in ultraviolet light. 🔭 🧪 ☀️

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Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

My favourite kind of null result: we did a deep dive around 70 Oph AB with radial velocities and found no giant planets. That means there's both (a) lots of material and (b) lots of dynamically stable real estate for small planets for SHERA to find!!! 😉 news.umich.edu/suns-set-on-...

news.umich.edu

Suns set on hunt for giant planets in nearby binary system

New research led by the University of Michigan is helping set the stage for future observatories to characterize rocky planets outside our solar system, planets that could prove life isn't confined to...

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Emily Hunt @emily.space · 29/09/2026

About to write a reference letter for a student for the first time in my life - exciting! Do you have any general tips on how to write one? Common pitfalls to avoid? I want the student to do well with her applications so I'd like to write a killer letter 🔭☄️

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Chara @astrochara.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Following logic chains are fun in its own way, but I think it’d be really interesting to have different people try out various terms and see where they end up with.

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ねぷ @nepuun.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

海王星発見日🔵

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Chara @astrochara.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Today's arXiv day went almost 6 hours past UTC midnight. I predicted it's going to be a monster. I was right. - Possible mechanism for variable He escape from LHS 1140 b - 2-ary eclipse+phase curve for TOI-2431 b - NEID Earth Twin Survey part 6 - TOI-125 trans. spec - TOI-210 b discovery

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Gaia Sky @gaiasky.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Gaia DR4 is coming on December 2, and we’ve been hard at work designing the catalogs for #GaiaSky. We’ve made some important changes compared to DR3. Wanna learn more? 👇 gaiasky.space/news/2026/ga...

gaiasky.space

Gaia Sky | DR4 star catalogs

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Chara @astrochara.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Altair is a nearby A-type star. It is also one of the hottest nearby stars with X-ray emission, probably arising from corona around its equatorial regions, where convective envelope which sustain them persist on this highly oblate star. #art #astronomy #space #spaceart #star #Altair

This artwork depicts a fictional view of Altair's corona seen with SDO AIA camera's 171 Å channel, accompanied by some information.

At the centre is the star; the photosphere is entirely dark, and the corona can be seen as a faint band ringing the star's equator and intermediate latitudes, while the visible pole is dark. The corona is depicted as slightly heterogenous, with dark patches and bright spots scattered across it.

At top left is basic information about Altair (α Aql): mass of 1.86 ± 0.03 Solar masses, radii of 2.008 ± 0.006 Solar radii (equator) / 1.565 ± 0.014 Solar radii (pole), effective temperature of 6780 K (equator) / 8621 K (pole), and rotation period of 7.79 hours.

Top right contains my summary of Altair's coronal properties obtained from Robrade & Schmitt (2009). The coronal surface flux is comparable to solar background corona, the plasma temperature is similar to low activity stars like the Sun and is dominated by quiescent/weakly active regions and open magnetic fields with weak contributions from moderately active regions, and that the coronal structures are small (few %) relative to the star. Altair's X-ray flux varies, arising from both rotational modulation, as well as intrinsic variabilities, eg. emergence and decay of active regions. Flares are not detected, as expected.

Same as previous image, although Altair's limb and equator are outlined as solid line and dashed line, respectively.

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Dr. Adeene Denton @spacewhalerider.com · 28/09/2026

Working on my Mars slides for class, which means it's time to bring back my favorite slide I've ever made:

The "we're so back/it's so over meme" that has been edited so the x-axis is time from 1960 through 2040. The plot oscillates semi-sinusoidally between positive (we're so back) and negative (it's so over). It's labeled Mars Exploration Timeline.

The start of the timeline is small oscillations close to zero. These are labeled: first Soviet attempts (note: none of the Soviet attempts worked but they sure tried). The steep positive peak next to it, we're back, is labeled Viking landers. Then a massive negative, it's so over, is labeled: everyone crashes in the 90s. Look up Mars exploration to learn more about this. Then an even larger positive spike, we're so back, is for Curiosity and the other Mars rovers. Then a positive/negative combined spike is labeled Mars 2020 (for various reasons). Then a last negative, it's over (real) is labeled Mars Sample Return. This is accurate.

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Circ @tinyicecat.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

This news is important because all the fucks out there actively attempting to wreck the world want you to think that the work is hopeless and just mitigating the worst case scenario. It's not. Fucking keep going.

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眠い人。 @nemutai00.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

#天球観測ログミリしら正解発表ですー！安定に読む気が失せます！性質や創作における性格を追加してるので見る気失せますが宜しければ……笑笑

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John F Wu @jwuphysics.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Built a thing that #aatrosky may enjoy: galaxy-manifold.github.io

The galaxy SFR - stellar mass sequence shown on a phone screen, with galaxy image cutouts as well as lines showing the relation for galaxies based on subselections in Dn4000 break strength. All from the web app.

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Melina Thévenot🏳️‍⚧️ @melina-iras07572.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Two papers on metal-poor brown dwarfs with #JWST: arxiv.org/abs/2609.29365 (Aaron M. Meisner et al.) and arxiv.org/abs/2609.28746 (Chih-Chun Hsu et al.) Includes the first brown dwarf in the Gaia-Enceladus structure (remnant of a large merger galaxy).

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zelario @zelario4f.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Coy et al. (arxiv.org/pdf/2609.26874) newly analyzed the TESS eclipses of K2-141b and found eclipse depth of 80 ±20 ppm for this planet. 3 years ago as an HS student I looked at this data using my own shitty methods and got 86 ±28 ppm (0.3sigma off), so somehow I wasn't completely clueless haha 🪐

arxiv.org

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Chara @astrochara.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

A few days ago I wanted to draw some stars. Today I'm stuck reading a boatload of papers...

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Chara @astrochara.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Apparently there are like, three sets of proposals for HR 8799's fifth planet candidate that aren't consistent with each other?

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Stephen Kane @exocytherean.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Love this new paper regarding albedos of lava worlds. Turns out hot terrestrial planets are shiny, which is the opposite of what we've generally seen for hot giant planets. Go TESS! Go PLATO! arxiv.org/abs/2609.26874

arxiv.org

Revealing the Shiny Nature of Lava Worlds: Small Planet Phase Curves with TESS

Recent thermal emission observations suggest that `lava worlds'--Earth-sized exoplanets hot enough to melt their silicate surfaces--have atmospheres on a population-level. This evidence comes from mea...

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Ko Arimatsu 有松亘 @arimatsu.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Anyone in Europe/US able to download Herschel data from ESA HSA? From Japan, transfers crawl at ~20 kB/s and get cut off after ~5 min, so I can't retrieve even a 65 MB PACS map. Curious if it's just my network path or the archive. 🔭

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惺雨 @sirosui.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

海王星発見日 2026 描いてる途中で何を描きたかったのか分からなくなったけど何故か描ききったので上げる。たぶん髪を下ろした姿を描きたかったんだと思う。 #天体擬人化 #海王星発見日

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Paul Byrne @theplanetaryguy.com · 23/09/2026

I said I'd do a thread about my new Space Science Reviews paper, so here it is! This is part of a collection of papers arising from a meeting at the International Space Science Institute in Bern in 2024: a workshop to better understand rocky extrasolar planets. A 🧵:

Interior structure models of Earth, Venus, Mercury, Mars, the Moon, and Io, all shown to scale and key elements labelled.

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Jason Wright @astrowright.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Back in 2024 I was invited to give a talk at Space Climate 9 in Nagoya, Japan on work by Anna Baum and others at Penn State on Maunder Minimum stars. This is an extension of my thesis work, where I tried to establish whether any other stars were in a state analagous to the Solar Maunder Minimum.🔭🧪

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Eggs @360star.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

quick luna i did for july 20th

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Eggs @360star.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

earth again

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Eggs @360star.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

drew this just to give jupiter a small redesign - striped shirt - symmetrical socks

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Birbbirbbirb1 @birbbirbbirb1.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

A recently discovered planet around β Pictoris, β Pictoris d is the smallest of the 3 giants in the system, being only 2-3 times more massive than Jupiter. Inspired by the following paper arxiv.org/pdf/2609.21125 #Space #Astronomy #SpaceArt #Exoplanet #Planet

Beta Pictoris d, a hazy superjovian with a pale color. A small icy planet, brought from the outer belt casts its shadow on it. It will get ejected at high velocities, like many others before it.

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Eggs @360star.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

I'm back after about 5 months I think ... here are cropped screenshots from stuff i never posted. (I'll be posting some stuff I made during that time too.) Feel free to check alt text!

enceladus chibi, cropped from a larger img. wasn't a fan of the og so i didn't post it

cropped img; original is full body for all of them. again, wasn't a fan of the original so i never posted it. here's an image of all galilean moons together though !!

here's iapetus, one of saturn's moons, and cropped from a larger image. she is holding a walnut !!

i actually liked this one, but i never thought it was worth posting.

fun fact: the majority of my galilean moons art i never posted, simply because i wasn't a fan of how they came out unfortunately ..

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Yvette Cendes @whereisyvette.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

If @science.org is covering it, I guess I should share something here- we have for the first time definitively detected radio emission from a planet around another star! 🔭🧪🎢 What does this mean? Details in thread! (But TL;DR- still not aliens) 🧵 www.sciencenews.org/article/exop...

sciencenews.org

First radio waves seen from an exoplanet hint at otherworldly auroras

The gas giant Beta Pictoris b, about 63 light-years away, has the mass of 10 Jupiters and a magnetic field thousands of times as strong as Earth’s.

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Pep @pepverbsnouns.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

If you're an artist, writer, or any type of creative that values human expression, you need to keep making and sharing things. Because if you stop, this is what will occupy the space you leave behind.

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Dr. Adeene Denton @spacewhalerider.com · 20/09/2026

I need you to take all the rage you get from when someone cites your paper incorrectly and put it towards helping other people in this field. I believe solidarity and group action are always, always possible. I know we can do it. I'm just really mad that we're... not.

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