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Érika Le Bourdais

@astroerika.bsky.social
296 followers 167 following 95 posts

Sometimes I think about geriatric stars that eat dead planets | PhD Student at UMontreal and Trottier Institute for Research on Exoplanets 🇨🇦

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Reposted by Érika Le Bourdais
Kevin Hardegree-Ullman @kevinkhu.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
In recent years, Astronomy on Tap events have grown, hopefully reaching audiences that wouldn't normally go to public talks. However, as an astronomer who doesn't drink and has exactly zero interest in doing outreach at bars, are there other creative outlets you've seen for non-standard outreach? 🔭
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Galaxy Map @galaxymap.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
Here we go! Gaia DR4 now has an official release date: 2 December 2026. If you have been following the Gaia Mission closely, you will know that DR4 has had a sliding release date, from the end of 2025, to mid 2026 to "end of 2026". But now the date is locked. www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/dat...
cosmos.esa.int
Data Release 4 - Gaia - Cosmos
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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 23/04/2026
When Einstein developed general relativity the closest thing to a practical application that could even be imagined at the time was a slightly more precise description of where to look for the planet Mercury in the sky, and yet now we’d all be literally lost without it. Anyway: fund basic research.
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Érika Le Bourdais @astroerika.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
I went to bed crying last night because I was so proud of seeing women leading science and so many women at Mission Control! This motivates me a lot for my future as an astrophysicist! 🥹 #Artemis 🌑
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Érika Le Bourdais @astroerika.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
Really proud to announce that my #JWSTCycle5 program as PI to observe a really unique dead planetary system has been accepted!! 🔭🪐
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Érika Le Bourdais @astroerika.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
Couldn’t resist the urge to open a poll: www.menti.com/alci2gt3qrsm #JWSTCycle5
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Érika Le Bourdais @astroerika.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
This is so impressive!!
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Matt Bothwell @mattbothwell.com · 25/02/2026
This is so cool! You can see that at solar maximum (around 2002, 2013, and 2024 ish) HST drops more rapidly, because the increased solar activity puffs up the atmosphere, increasing drag on orbiting satellites 🧪🔭
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Érika Le Bourdais @astroerika.bsky.social · 13/01/2026
:(
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Santiago Mayer @santiagomayer.com · 31/12/2025
Timezones are so weird. Australia is in 2026, Canada is in 2025, and the United States is in 1939.
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Érika Le Bourdais @astroerika.bsky.social · 30/12/2025
Rumor has it that (me) discovering a super old, super massive and super active zombie planetary system made the list of the most exciting exoplanet (yes, exoplanet!!) discoveries of 2025! Yay white dwarfs! 🥹🔭
space.com
The most exciting exoplanet discoveries of 2025
New discoveries and fresh looks at familiar worlds show how far exoplanet science has come — and how much remains unknown.
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Érika Le Bourdais @astroerika.bsky.social · 18/12/2025
The search for planets around stellar remnants is a really interesting quest!! Glad to offer some tiny help to @mustaric.bsky.social and @johndebes.bsky.social on this project! 🔭🪐
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Érika Le Bourdais @astroerika.bsky.social · 04/12/2025
Really important thread! Most importantly: stop comparing yourself to others and focus on yourself!
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Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · 22/11/2025
It’s Friday night. I’ve done enough this week. You’ve done enough this week.
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Andrew Mann @amann.bsky.social · 12/11/2025
One day the universe will contain only dark energy and JWST proposals.
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Érika Le Bourdais @astroerika.bsky.social · 07/11/2025
Super interesting project I’ve been working on lately where we try do detect exoplanets orbiting white dwarf stars! My colleague John explains here one of our recent results! 🔭
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Reposted by Érika Le Bourdais
Marc Kuchner | Author @marckuchner.bsky.social · 28/10/2025
Congrats to NASA Citizen Scientist @melina-iras07572.bsky.social! In 2019, Melina discovered the oldest white dwarf with a debris disk. Now this white dwarf is in the news again. @astroerika.bsky.social et al. suggest it may have recently engulfed a rocky planet. iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3...
iopscience.iop.org
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Space Telescope Science Institute @stsci.edu · 23/10/2025
A dead star has been spotted ripping a planet apart! “Something clearly disturbed this system long after the star’s death,” said co-investigator John Debes of the Space Telescope Science Institute. (1/4) 🔭 🧪 🧵
At image center is a small, white star against a gray background. It is surrounded by a large translucent disk with rings and gaps that extends from upper left to lower right. In the foreground, irregular chunky rocks are floating in space along the bottom of the frame. A stream of material extends from lower right toward the central star. The words, artist’s concept are at lower left.
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Gordon Hundley @drgoon.bsky.social · 23/10/2025
This is very cool - LSPM J0207+3331 was discovered by citizen scientist Melina Thévenot while searching ESA's GAIA catalog for brown dwarfs. blog.backyardworlds.org/2019/02/19/t... Here's the paper that STScI quotes: iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3...
blog.backyardworlds.org
The Crystal Ball White Dwarf
Today is a big day at Backyard Worlds: Planet 9!  We’re celebrating our 2nd anniversary, our reboot, and announcing our second paper, published in the Astrophysical Journal letters.   (You ca…
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Corey S. Powell @coreyspowell.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
Astronomers have determined that an elderly white dwarf star, 3 billion years into its final stage of life, is still busily crushing and devouring its planets. Scientific data on the left. Artist's interpretation on the right. 🧪🔭 keckobservatory.org/white-dwarf/
Stellar spectrum showing pollution by heavy elements from a destroyed planet or asteroid. "Saturn Devouring His Son" by Francisco Goya
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Érika Le Bourdais @astroerika.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
Want to know more about my recent paper about this cool geriatric white dwarf eating its planets? 🤩 It’s all detailed in this news article by @stsci.edu ! 🔭
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Érika Le Bourdais @astroerika.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
#JWSTCy5
media.tenor.com
a woman is covering her mouth with her hand in a field .
ALT: a woman is covering her mouth with her hand in a field .
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Érika Le Bourdais @astroerika.bsky.social · 14/10/2025
My latest paper is finally out! 🎊 Turns out that that odd white dwarf discovered by @melina-iras07572.bsky.social is accreting a MASSIVE rocky planetary object, hinting that planetary systems can stay active billions of years after the death of their star! 🌟 🪨🪐 For more: arxiv.org/abs/2510.08676
arxiv.org
Tracing Planetary Accretion in a 3 Gyr-old Hydrogen-Rich White Dwarf: The Extremely Polluted Atmosphere of LSPM J0207+3331
We report the detection of 13 heavy elements (Na, Mg, Al, Si, Ca, Ti, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, and Sr) in the photosphere of LSPM J0207+3331, a ~3 Gyr old hydrogen-rich white dwarf with an effective te...
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Érika Le Bourdais @astroerika.bsky.social · 04/10/2025
Thank god, one of the rare cool things in this world is not a carb.
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Érika Le Bourdais @astroerika.bsky.social · 22/09/2025
Did you know that white dwarfs were the coolest stars? I’m totally unbiased here 😌
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Érika Le Bourdais @astroerika.bsky.social · 06/09/2025
Important message!
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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 01/09/2025
Americans Astronomers watching watching US politics Betelgeuse 🤝 “It could happen at any time”
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Érika Le Bourdais @astroerika.bsky.social · 31/07/2025
I love studying these systems as we keep finding new things! 🪨🪐 The paper I just submitted has one of these super exciting discoveries for a super duper old white dwarf and I can’t wait to tell everyone about it! 😁 Hint: Planetary systems can hang around a LONG time after their death 🙊
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Érika Le Bourdais @astroerika.bsky.social · 15/07/2025
The replies made this insecure #WomanInSTEM smile. I love unsolicited mentions of women pioneers ❤️ Also, the main post says a lot about the state of journalism these days.
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ExoClimesVII @exoclimes.bsky.social · 07/07/2025
Exoclimes VII has officially begun!! 👽🧑‍🚀👩‍🚀🚀🚀 Things have kicked off with some welcoming words from our fearless leaders Lisa Dang @astrolisadang.bsky.social & Romain Allart! And now off to our first review talk from Nicolas Cowan about Exoplanet atmospheric Dynamics 🪐☄️
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ExoClimesVII @exoclimes.bsky.social · 05/07/2025
ExoSLAM is done!!! 🔭🪐☄️The summer school has been a great success and we learned so much! Special thank you to the organizers, lecturers and of course participants for making it such a great time!! Onto ExoClimes! 💫🤩
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Érika Le Bourdais @astroerika.bsky.social · 17/04/2025
👇🏻
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Érika Le Bourdais @astroerika.bsky.social · 29/03/2025
This white dwarf astrophysicist (me) loves it when the field gets media attention 🥰 I always tell this story to my exoplaneteers colleagues: The first trace of exoplanets were found INSIDE a white dwarf!! ☄️
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ExoClimesVII @exoclimes.bsky.social · 21/03/2025
FOR ADMITTED PARTICIPANTS: Registration is going to open next week!!! 🚀 For all Applicants, results were sent a couple of weeks ago. If you haven't heard anything and its not in your junk mail please reach out to our gmail! (find the email address and details here: exoclimes.org/index.html)
exoclimes.org
Exoclimes VII
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Érika Le Bourdais @astroerika.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
Had an absolute blast last week observing at @keckobservatory.bsky.social for the MEAD Collaboration led by the amazing @johndebes.bsky.social!! Super interesting results about white dwarf planetary systems to come, stay tuned! 🔭
Picture of me at the summit of Mauna Kea during sunset. In the background, you find from left to right the Subaru Telescope, W. M. Keck Observatory and NASA Infrared Telescope Facility. Even further in the background are pretty clouds.
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Dr Sho Jacobs 🍁 @shoshanahjacobs.ca · 06/02/2025
USA #HigherEd colleagues, What can Canadian academics do to help you sustain your research programs? Let's find the loopholes! 🌎🧪🧑‍🔬
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Érika Le Bourdais @astroerika.bsky.social · 08/01/2025
📣 Reminder that pre-registration for #ExoClimesVII is open until January 24, 2025 11:59 PM EST! This year’s edition is held in Montreal on July 7–11, 2025. The #ExoSLAM summer school on low- and high- resolution data analysis will be on July 3–5. 🔭 If you have questions and/or comments, DM me!
forms.gle
Exoclimes Application Form
We are now opening application for the 7th edition of the Exoclimes conference series, organized by the Trottier Institute for Research on Exoplanets, will take place in Montreal, Canada, on July 7–11...
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Érika Le Bourdais @astroerika.bsky.social · 13/12/2024
Pre-registration for #ExoclimesVII is now open! 🪐 This edition will be held in the world’s bagel hot spot, Montreal (Canada), from July 7 to 11, 2025. There will also be a joint summer school for early career researchers (ExoSLAM) on July 3–5. Pre-registration ends on January 24, 2025 11:59PM EST.
docs.google.com
Exoclimes Application Form
We are now opening application for the 7th edition of the Exoclimes conference series, organized by the Trottier Institute for Research on Exoplanets, will take place in Montreal, Canada, on July 7–11...
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Dr Zoë Ayres @zjayres.bsky.social · 04/12/2024
It's been an honour to work on this project. Please do check out the posters.
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Érika Le Bourdais @astroerika.bsky.social · 27/11/2024
Ngl, this is what many conference talks feel like to me, lol. They are not even hiding that they don’t care about others’ work.
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Érika Le Bourdais @astroerika.bsky.social · 26/11/2024
I’ve seen so few detailed images of galaxies that are not the Milky Way that I need time to process what we’re seeing here lol
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Érika Le Bourdais @astroerika.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
Petition to name the astronomy community #NightSky. I mean, it’s right there.
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Érika Le Bourdais @astroerika.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
I think one of my favourite fun fact about astronomy is that the Cosmic Microwave Background, direct proof of the Big Bang, was discovered by mistake by two scientists trying to tune a radio antenna. 📡
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Érika Le Bourdais @astroerika.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
Hello new friends! 👋🏻 I’m Érika, a PhD at Université de Montréal studying polluted/dusty white dwarfs and what they can tell us about exoplanet interiors! 🪨 ☄️ I’m currently working on solving many detected unknowns in the UV spectra of polluted white dwarfs. Hopefully, I’ll soon have answers!
Photo of me on top of a mountain during sunset.
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Érika Le Bourdais @astroerika.bsky.social · 15/11/2024
Thought I’d ride the algorithm’s obsession with cats by showing you this 17 years old diva! ✨🐈
A gray and white tabby cat sleeping a bit upside down. Her front paws are stretched on her belly.
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Érika Le Bourdais @astroerika.bsky.social · 13/11/2024
I totally forgot what it felt like to be on an app without ads and bots.
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