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Duncan Christie

@astroduncan.bsky.social
339 followers 121 following 139 posts

Astrophysicist. Postdoctoral researcher at the MPIA. Exoplanet atmospheres. (he/him/his) www.duncanchristie.net

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Duncan Christie
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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Dr Jake Taylor @astrojake.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
“Submitted to X” “to be submitted” etc etc has become the norm on arxiv, does no one care about peer review anymore?
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Reposted by Duncan Christie
Anna Gifty @itsafronomics.blacksky.app · 28/09/2026
Let the history books show that STUDENT reporters brought national attention to unchecked abuse. I hope that their cups and opportunities forever overfloweth.This is courage.
abcnews.com
District attorney reopens case of alleged Cornell University 'gang rape'
Prosecutors in central New York say they are reopening the case of alleged gang rape at a Cornell University fraternity.
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Paul Voosen @voosen.me · 28/09/2026
New Horizons is now *three days away* from shutting off its two heliophysics instruments, simply because NASA has not provided the $2M in funding it had promised to the mission last year or this year. There is no science basis for shutting these off. Our earlier coverage:
science.org
NASA’s New Horizons mission may shut down two instruments over lack of funding
Decision risks “incalculable loss” of data from the edge of the Sun’s influence, scientists say
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Reposted by Duncan Christie
Jens Notroff @jensnotroff.com · 27/09/2026
The world is watching. And shaking their head.
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Duncan Christie @astroduncan.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Potassium and sodium are significant sources of electrons in hot Jupiter atmospheres, and thus they play an important role in the atmospheric coupling to the magnetic field, among other things. I have a paper out that looks that their thermochemical kinetics. #exoplanets arxiv.org/abs/2609.26432
arxiv.org
Transport and Thermochemical Kinetics of Alkali Species in Hot Jupiter Atmospheres: Implications for Magnetic Models
Interactions between the planetary magnetic field of a hot Jupiter and the winds within its atmosphere are moderated by the electron and ion abundances. For a solar metallicity atmosphere at pressures...
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Benjamin Pope @benjaminpope.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
when the AI bubble bursts and frontier labs collapse, open weights models will still be out there on the internet that anyone with a decent computer can run locally. I don't think we're prepared enough for how to deal with this
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Jonathan Fortney @jjfplanet.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
*8* postdoctoral positions in atmospheric physics, from the Earth to Exoplanets: aas.org/jobregister/... This is part of the Multiscale Physics of Clouds Across Planetary Atmospheres collaboration, funded by the Simons Foundation, led by Prof. @astrocaroline.bsky.social!
aas.org
Postdoctoral Researchers — Multiscale Physics of Clouds Across Planetary Atmospheres | American Astronomical Society
The Multiscale Physics of Clouds Across Planetary Atmospheres collaboration, funded by the Simons Foundation, is seeking 8 postdoctoral researchers to develop new approaches to understanding clouds ac...
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Nicolas Hénin @nicolashenin.net · 17/09/2026
Nice campaign by the Norwegian Consumer Council about the declining lifespan of products. Enjoy!
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BOWIE+ Seminar Series @bowieseminar.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
If you want to read more about limb asymmetries, Cathal and collaborators now have a paper on some of things he discussed in his talk accepted to ApJL and up on arXiv. #exoplanets #astronomy arxiv.org/abs/2609.16834
arxiv.org
The asymmetric limbs of HD 209458 b observed with JWST NIRCam F322W2/F444W
We present a reanalysis of JWST NIRCam F322W2/F444W transit observations of the hot Jupiter HD 209458 b to extract morning and evening transmission spectra. To determine whether asymmetries in the tra...
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BOWIE+ Seminar Series @bowieseminar.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
On October 8th, we begin our autumn Early Career Highlight series with two talks on 3D climate modelling by Ruizhi Zhan and Edouard Barrier. Sign up to our mailing list (details in our bio) to receive the Zoom link. #exoplanets #astronomy
A poster advertising two talks.   On the left, pictures of the speakers.  Ruizhi Zhan in a white coat in front of hills, and Edouard Barrier in a blue shirt and backpack in front of a tree.   On the right, the titles of their talks.  A bottom grey stripe identifies the BOWIE+ Seminar series with the seminar logo in the bottom right.
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Duncan Christie @astroduncan.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
It is exhausting to hear people who are the most uncritical in pushing for LLM adoption in every aspect of our work express concern that it is going to cause a disaster. Do I reconcile this by questioning their sincerity or by inferring their compete and total antipathy about any consequences?
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Duncan Christie @astroduncan.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
🤦‍♂️
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Reposted by Duncan Christie
BOWIE+ Seminar Series @bowieseminar.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
What can fractionation during atmospheric escape tell us about the atmospheric composition? Matthäus Schulik has the answers. #exoplanets #astronomy www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2Wx...
youtube.com
From Bulk to Space: Can atmospheric escape be a tool to probe lower atmospheres? - Matthäus Schulik
YouTube video by BOWIE+ Seminars
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Duncan Christie @astroduncan.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
I worry that the nuance in the rules about LLM use by reviewers is going to be overlooked in practice. It'll get reduced to 'AAS allows reviewers to use LLMs' and our submissions will end up in some LLM's training data.
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GPT-Ern Malley @denam.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
My read at least is him going "you dumb motherfuckers are destroying the intellectual commons" in an extremely nice and pleasant fashion
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Laura Kreidberg @lkreidberg.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Fun paper out today from @sophiavaughan.bsky.social - analytic solutions for rotational broadening of reflected light from exoplanets in arbitrary orientations around their host stars. Rare to see an old-school math problem in exoplanet research today- Sophia crushed it! arxiv.org/abs/2609.05619 🔭
arxiv.org
Rotational broadening of exoplanet spectra in arbitrarily oriented systems: Application to reflected light
Exoplanet reflection spectra contain a wealth of information, which we are now beginning to access. At a high spectral resolution, the rotation of both the star and the planet affects the shape of the...
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David Picard @davidpicard.eurosky.social · 08/09/2026
Remember folks, if it leaves your computer, it's no longer "your data"
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Laura Kreidberg @lkreidberg.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Happy to share two postdoc ads for positions in the APEx department at MPIA - please spread the word! - direct imaging and spectroscopy of wide-separation planets with Wolfgang Brandner aas.org/jobregister/... - forward modeling of exoplanet atmospheres with Elsie Lee aas.org/jobregister/...
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BOWIE+ Seminar Series @bowieseminar.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
The BOWIE+ seminar autumn schedule is out! Next week, we will begin with a talk by Matthäus Schulik of Imperial on his work on atmospheric escape. The rest of the autumn will be highlight talks by early career researchers. To get the zoom links, see the details in our bio. #exoplanets #astronomy
Upper left: A picture of Matthäus Schulik in front of ruins.   To the right, the title of his upcoming talk -- From bulk to space -- on September 10th.  Below, a table of other upcoming talks from October until December.
Bottom: text describing the BOWIE+ Collaboration: "We are a UK based collaboration with a focus on studying the atmospheres of exoplanets using the James Webb Space Telescope. We work together to create proposals for JWST GO time, holding both in-person and virtual collaborative meetings. If you are interested in getting involved, please reach out via our email: bowie.collaboration@gmail.com"
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Duncan Christie @astroduncan.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
While I completely understand why PIs like to correct people and say their postdoc works "with them" and not "for them", and there are plenty of reasons why they might want to set the tone for a healthier working relationship at the beginning, I think this should discussion should be more nuanced.
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BOWIE+ Seminar Series @bowieseminar.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Cathal Maguire's talk on limb asymmetries in exoplanet atmospheres is now available, just in time to inspire your JWST proposal writing. #exoplanets #astronomy www.youtube.com/watch?v=f47c...
youtube.com
Limb from Limb: Observing Atmospheric Asymmetries from the Ground and Space - Cathal Maguire
YouTube video by BOWIE+ Seminars
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Reposted by Duncan Christie
Lynda Lopez @lyndab08.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
“The Berkeley International Office announced Wednesday that it will pause international students’ applications for Course Credit Curricular Practical Training “for the foreseeable future.”
dailycal.org
After second ICE threat, UC Berkeley indefinitely suspends international student work authorizations
The Berkeley International Office announced Wednesday that it will pause international students’ applications for Course Credit Curricular Practical Training “for the foreseeable future.”
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Alex Ip 葉清霖 @alexip718.com · 31/08/2026
I can no longer in good faith recommend anyone to study in the US, or stay stateside for work and further education after completing degree programs they had started during the Biden era. US higher ed is unrecognizable even compared to a year ago when ICE was kidnapping students from their homes
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Matthew Kenworthy @mattkenworthy.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
I am shocked, shocked I tell you! Well, okay, not that shocked really.
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Garrett M. Graff @vermontgmg.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
One way you know Dolly Parton lived life the right way: I don’t think anyone’s going to get fired for accurately quoting Dolly Parton today.
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Hannah Sanderson @han-san-planets.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Do you write in Overleaf? Follow these new instructions to make your PDFs screen reader accessible docs.overleaf.com/writing-and-...
docs.overleaf.com
Creating accessible PDFs in LaTeX | Overleaf docs
This page describes LaTeX accessibility in Overleaf and relevant considerations.
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ClimateBook @climatebook.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
The University of Ghent has some complicity in platforming Nathan Cofnas. His current bio on his own page states he is a "postdoc" at Ghent. I hope for the sake of Ghent and its students this is a pretty short term postdoc. nathancofnas.com
nathancofnas.com
About - Nathan Cofnas
I work in the philosophy of biology (very broadly construed) and ethics, and the intersection of these fields. I’m particularly interested in scientific and ethical controversies connected with evolut...
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Bryn Jones @bryn00.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
The Guardian: "University of Cambridge whistleblower who reported alleged bullying wins employment tribunal" "Prof Wyn Evans, who raised concerns over treatment of female staff at Institute of Astronomy, was subject to ‘baseless’ investigation, judge rules" www.theguardian.com/education/20...
theguardian.com
University of Cambridge whistleblower who reported alleged bullying wins employment tribunal
Prof Wyn Evans, who raised concerns over treatment of female staff at Institute of Astronomy, was subject to ‘baseless’ investigation, judge rules
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ClimateBook @climatebook.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Very excellent postdoc opportunity, at U. of Geneva, with collaborations across a very exciting Swiss exoplanet and life network. www.unige.ch/sciences/cvu...
unige.ch
Michel Mayor Fellowships - Centre pour la Vie dans l'Univers - UNIGE
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Leo Hickman @leohickman.carbonbrief.org · 30/07/2026
++BREAKING++ The UK and Spanish governments have issued a joint statement overnight: "[We] agreed that this summer’s wildfires demonstrated that climate change was now a national security emergency facing Europe and threatening our way of life." www.gov.uk/government/n...
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Evert Nasedkin @evertnasedkin.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
🔭 New paper day! 🪐 This time from Merle Schrader, a PhD student in the brown dwarf group at Trinity College Dublin. Today, they're publishing a fresh look at SIMP-0136, using principal component analysis, identifying the mechanisms driving its atmospheric variability. arxiv.org/abs/2607.26182
arxiv.org
The JWST weather report: Unravelling the atmospheric variability of isolated worlds using principal component analysis
Brown dwarf variability directly probes atmospheric dynamics beyond the Solar System, and recent JWST time-resolved spectroscopy has opened a new window into these processes. Principal component analy...
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Harrison Nicholls @nichollsh.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
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.
arxiv.org
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...
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Dr. Genevieve Guenther (she/they) @doctorvive.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
The Prime Minister of Spain: “This climate emergency is exceeding every threshold and scale that scientists have long warned all of Spain and Europe about.” This is the realistic climate discourse the world needs. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/28/w...
"These are difficult hours," Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said
Monday afternoon during a news conference in Castellón, on Spain's eastern coast, where a new fire raged and forced thousands of new evacuations.
In the face of what his government has called the largest fires in the country's history, and after a summer of record-breaking heat waves, he called for a national pact with all Spain's political parties to work together to prevent blazes that he attributed to climate change.
"This climate emergency is exceeding every threshold and scale that scientists have long warned all of Spain and Europe about," he said.
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Reuters @reuters.com · 27/07/2026
EPA says power for data centers can sidestep pollution laws reut.rs/3RzNU4A
reut.rs
EPA says power for data centers can sidestep pollution laws
Power sources providing electricity only to data centers and not the public grid may not be subject to ​federal pollution laws, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said on ‌Monday.
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Duncan Christie @astroduncan.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
I have posted multiple times in the past how Canadian visitor visa processing times when applying from Germany, Austria, and the UK were on the order of 300 days, making conference travel to Canada difficult for some researchers in those countries. They are now all listed as being under 35 days. 🎉
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WIRED @wired.com · 24/07/2026
If you’re tired of sponsored and AI-summarized search results, Kagi gives you a curated—and human-centric—way to find what you’re looking for. www.wired.com/story/kagi-b...
wired.com
Kagi Brings Back Old-School Search, One Human-Made Website at a Time
If you’re tired of sponsored and AI-summarized search results, Kagi gives you a curated—and human-centric—way to find what you’re looking for.
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Andrew Mann @amann.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
As a graduation present, I give my PhD students posters based on their research. I have a few examples shown here (Dr. Pa Chia Thao and Dr. Reilly Milburn). These are done by PhD student and artist Isabel Lopez Murillo: analopezmurillo.github.io 🧪🔭⭐🎨
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Ben Allen @evodynamics.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Congrats we just made it impossible to come here for a PhD www.bostonglobe.com/2026/07/16/m...
bostonglobe.com
Trump administration limits student visas to four years, changing longstanding policy - The Boston Globe
The new rule, which also restricts the international students’ ability to transfer schools or change majors without approval in their first year, will go into effect in mid-September.
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BOWIE+ Seminar Series @bowieseminar.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Hot Jupiters aren't expected form in their current locations. In their BOWIE+ seminar, James Kirk and Evie Ahrer explain how observations of the atmospheric composition might be used to discern between different migration mechanisms. #exoplanets #astronomy www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJTG...
youtube.com
BOWIE-ALIGN: Comparing Orbital Alignments and Atmospheric Compositions - James Kirk and Evie Ahrer
YouTube video by BOWIE+ Seminars
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Duncan Christie @astroduncan.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
The Exoplanets VI conference in Porto was really well organized (credit to the LOC), but the lack of train access was disappointing. Exoplanets VIII, slated to be in Tenerife, will likely have everyone flying as well, as I doubt many will take the 30+ hour ferry ride. #exoplanets
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BOWIE+ Seminar Series @bowieseminar.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
The final BOWIE+ seminar of the summer is this coming Thursday. Elsie Lee will discuss 3D general circulation modelling in the era of JWST. Sign up to our mailing list to receive the Zoom link (details in bio). #exoplanets
Left: A picture of Elsie Lee.  Right: The title of Elsie's talk ("Go with the flow - the state of 3D GCM modelling in the JWST era") as well as the details of talk (Thursday July 16th at 16:00 UK Time).  Bottom: a banner for the BOWIE Seminar Series with the BOWIE+ logo.
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Erin M. May, PhD @astronomay.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
New Paper Day! JHU Grad Student @spschmidt.bsky.social 's paper on the ultra hot Jupiter KELT-7b includes a new method to mitigate charge migration in JWST NIR detectors, and finds a metal rich atmosphere for KELT-7b relative to its metal rich star 🪐⭐ arxiv.org/abs/2607.06708 #Exoplanets 🧪🔭
arxiv.org
Mitigating Charge Migration in JWST NIRISS Reveals That KELT-7 b is a Metal-enriched Ultra-hot Jupiter Orbiting a Young Metal-rich Star
We present the first panchromatic JWST transmission spectrum of an ultra-hot Jupiter, combining NIRISS and NIRSpec observations to constrain KELT-7\,b's atmospheric properties. We show evidence for ch...
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Linn Boldt-Christmas @nplinnspace.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
A very merry yee-haw to all horse girls & cowboys (gender neutral: horse cows?) attending #HoRS3S in Granada this week! I've sadly ended up unable to attend IRL this year, but am sending my best in the form of a poster that'll be up in my absence on #exoplanet WASP-107 b 🔭🤠💖🐎🧪 Have a fun week y'all!
Don’t throw away your rubbish ground-based transit data (yet)! -- A cautionary tale starring warm super-puff WASP-107 b and VLT

The problem: Ground-based transmission spectroscopy observations have seen remarkable success in characterising hot Jupiter exoplanets in the last decade with increasingly high detail, and our hope is to eventually characterise smaller, cooler exoplanets similarly – one day, even Earth-like targets. To get there, we have to explore what shortcomings exist in our current observational capabilities and methodology by exploring an ”in-between” target: the neither-temperate-nor-hot Neptune-sized WASP 107-b (Teq ≈ 740K).

Method: WASP-107 b is already well-studied from space, and thus a good playground for assessing the quality of our ground-based approaches. It is observationally favourable in some ways (e.g. good scale height) but more challenging in others (e.g. cloudy, cooler Teq), making it a good case study for our tried-and-tested techniques like cross-correlation. A number of molecular species had already been detected by JWST, but could we do it from the ground? By using a combination of real and simulated data, we could explore what aspects of traditional methods perform well for these challenging targets, and which need a rethink.

We found that for cooler and cloudier targets like WASP-107 b, the amount of signal that one can reasonably expect is unfortunately very low. Several factors can compound and effectively create scenarios where there is simply not enough signal to reach detections of S/N ≥ 5, even if everything is done ”correctly”. What looks like bad data might not be bad, just… as good as we can get, for now!
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Duncan Christie @astroduncan.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
My poster from #exoplanets6 #exo6 on alkali chemistry in hot Jupiter atmospheres and the implications for magnetic models. The PDF is linked. #exoplanets www.duncanchristie.net/s/exoplanets...
Poster explaining alkali chemistry in hot Jupiters. See linked PDF for text.
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Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
@asuarezmascareno.com shows a video of Proxima, with first-person narration declaring "I am not very bright, and that's okay ❤️. I will outlive the universe." 😂 #Exoplanets6
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Erin M. May, PhD @astronomay.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Low metallicities from small wavelength ranges dragging your mass-metallicity relationship down? Check out #MiTHOS: 0.5-5 microns for ~80 hot Jupiters. Transmission, Emission, and Quadrature. A 3D picture of chemistry 💃 #Exoplanets6 #Exo6
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Duncan Christie @astroduncan.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
A comment is not a question. A rude comment even less so. #exo6 #exoplanets6
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Duncan Christie @astroduncan.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
Aniket Sanghi did a 'cold open' to his #Exoplanets6 talk, showing his title slide and introducing himself after a broad introduction to the science. I don't know if I would want it to become the norm, but it was very well done and was a nice break from the usual talk structure.
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Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Whoa! Simultaneous papers announcing the discovery of a new directly imaged planet - beta Pictoris d!!! arxiv.org/pdf/2606.23801 arxiv.org/pdf/2606.23789 It's just so BIG. I can't believe it's just so ROUND, it's like OUT THERE. 🪐 (Courtesy of my kids who have just discovered Sir Mix-A-Lot)
VLT image of a star with a debris disk and a glowing orange dot in the disk with a white arrow. GUYS WE FOUND ANOTHER ARROW IN SPACE.
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