iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Romain Meyer

Taylor Smith @taylorjsmith.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I’ve known about this for a couple of weeks, but now I can share: as of today, arXiv is rate-limiting submissions to two per month. And as a mod, I have to admit this is a necessary move (at least temporarily). blog.arxiv.org/2026/10/01/u...

blog.arxiv.org

Fair Moderation, Equitable Access, and AI: arXiv’s Updated Rate Limit Policy

arXiv, and the scientific community at large, are facing a watershed moment. Scholarly publishing is currently changing at a rapid pace, and we are seeing a…

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Space Telescope Science Institute @stsci.edu · 15/09/2026

#NASARoman activated the Wide Field Instrument—a 300-megapixel infrared camera that will allow it to explore wide swaths of the cosmos quickly. This test image captures the very first photons of starlight to reach the instrument—taken as an initial performance assessment: go.nasa.gov/4rg4qEc

$At the top, a grid of 21 panels shows a series of blue images with tiny neon green and yellow circles. A larger image highlights a section of the grid with circular patterns, and an inset presents a detailed star-like diffraction pattern. The colors consist of blue, green, and yellow.$

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ESO @eso.org · 04/09/2026

Heard the news? The new VLT instrument MOONS, built by a consortium led by the UK Astronomy Technology Centre, has made its first observations 🙌 Get the gist with this video by the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council: www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlAdjG7exug 🔭 🧪 #instrumentation 1/2

youtube.com

MOONS captures its first light, no telescope has ever seen this before

MOONS has captured its first light, almost one thousand objects in ...

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Romain Meyer @astrorameyer.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

I am delighted to say that I have been awarded an #ERC Starting Grant!! For the next 5 years I will lead a group as Asst Prof at the Dept of Astronomy at the University of Geneva #UNIGE. We will use JWST&VLT observations to provide a 3D view of reionisation and its sources, and prepare for SKA/ELT!

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Romain Meyer @astrorameyer.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

I have to review ALMA proposals and clearly one is LLM-generated. I cannot flag it or fail it just because of that, but it's unsurprisingly very bad. I'm very annoyed that someone is fine generating crap and wasting the time of *10* peer reviewers (prohibited to use LLMs for this). Stop it!!

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Romain Meyer @astrorameyer.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

The new ALMA online observing tool for submitting proposals is functioning as expected: crashing under lots of requests before the deadline (and it's only 2 days away!!). I guess there was no way to expect this high number of requests, right...? 🤦‍♂️

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Romain Meyer @astrorameyer.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

Chances are that I will break my personal redshift record (z~9) tonight as 5 targets from my #JWST programme 7208 are observed.. Nothing too crazy but potentially z~12 so that would be nice! Exciting 😃

Screenshot of scheduled targets for JWST programme 7208. 5 targets are scheduled in the evening of April 2, with 3 more on April 3-5.

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Romain Meyer @astrorameyer.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

Last Friday I learned that my #JWSTCycle5 proposal was approved: 107 hours to do the first tomographic map of the IGM at the end of Reionisation - quite ambitious! 🥳 We will also collect >2000 PRISM spectra as fillers in COSMOS for legacy science. #extragalactic www.stsci.edu/jwst/science...

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Romain Meyer @astrorameyer.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

So... #JWST Cycle 5 results will be announced this week, right? ... Right? I can't take another week of waiting.

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Reposted by Romain Meyer

Ava Polzin @avapolzin.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

Happy International Women's Day! Perfect time for me to (re)share our white paper on increasing the retention of women in professional astrophysics (really full of suggestions that broaden participation in academic science in general). arxiv.org/abs/2512.24465 🧪🔭☄️👩‍🔬

Cover of "Picture an Astronomer: Best Practices for Retaining Talent in Astrophysics", which features an illustration of a 19-year-old Vera Rubin looking through a telescope over a backdrop of a first light image of spiral galaxies from the Rubin Observatory.

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Romain Meyer @astrorameyer.bsky.social · 20/02/2026

it seems plausible that today we might get invitations to interviews (or not) for ERC Starting grants in the PE panels and I have rarely been so stressed..

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Mike Boylan-Kolchin @mbkplus.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

David Hogg has written a white paper on doing astrophysics in the age of LLMs. It looks to be thought-provoking. My initial reaction is that either LLMs will destroy the field or they will force a reckoning with and re-imagining of the current system that often prioritizes output over quality. 🧪

arxiv.org

Why do we do astrophysics?

At time of writing, large language models (LLMs) are beginning to obtain the ability to design, execute, write up, and referee scientific projects on the data-science side of astrophysics. What implic...

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Romain Meyer @astrorameyer.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

Yesterday I got news that my 84 hours proposal on VLT/FORS2 was approved! I've been on a high since then. 🤩 Beating the 11.5 oversubscription on UT1 is very satisfying..

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Bibiana Prinoth @handle.invalid · 17/12/2025

The application for the ESO Summer Research Programme 2026 has just opened! It‘s a six week programme in Garching close to Munich where pre-Ph.D students can work on a hands-on project. Working at @eso.org is a fabulous experience, so please help me spread the word ✨ 🔗 eso.org/sci/meetings...

eso.org

ESO - SummerResearch2026

ESO is the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere. It operates the La Silla Paranal Observatory in Chile and has its headquarters in Garching, near Munich, Germany.

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Reposted by Romain Meyer

Jorryt Matthee @jorryt.bsky.social · 04/12/2025

Happy to share my introductory review article "JWST provides a new view of cosmic dawn: latest developments in studies of early galaxies" has now been published in Contemporary Physics! www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... arxiv.org/abs/2511.04843

tandfonline.com

JWST provides a new view of cosmic dawn: latest developments in studies of early galaxies

Studies of the distant Universe are providing key insights into our understanding of the formation of galaxies. The advent of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has significantly enhanced our ob...

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Romain Meyer @astrorameyer.bsky.social · 04/12/2025

Finding referees seems to be increasingly difficult for journals, but people in my field submit *multiple* papers per year. Hot take: I propose a token currency where submitting a paper costs a token, and one review earns you one. You cannot submit yet another paper if your deficit is >N. #academia

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Romain Meyer @astrorameyer.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

A delayed announcement - the 2nd chapter of the Saas-Fee 2025 Lectures is now out on arXiv. Marta Volonteri did a fantastic job reviewing how we model the formation and growth of early massive black holes, and how JWST results are helping: arxiv.org/abs/2510.04599 (another 2 chapters will follow)

arxiv.org

Theoretical Modelling of Early Massive Black Holes

These notes review theoretical models of massive black hole formation, growth and observables. They start with a brief summary of basic properties of massive black hole properties. The current view on...

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Cédric Brun @cedricbrun.bsky.social · 31/10/2025

Quand notre ministre de tutelle nous insulte devant la représentation nationale. "Bande de nuls" "complètement à la ramasse". Nous reprocher des taux de réussite faible à Horizon Europe et ERC, quand manquent les moyens pour assurer nos missions de service public. Surtout changez rien!👌

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Paul Byrne @theplanetaryguy.com · 28/10/2025

Another STUNNING image from JWST, this time of the Red Spider Nebula—the vast, wispy, gaseous remains of a now-dead star, the white dwarf core still glowing in the centre.

A series of wispy, blue strands emanate from the centre of the image, which is glowing orangey–red with a little pink. The background is FESTOONED with stars, all set against a black backdrop.

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Romain Meyer @astrorameyer.bsky.social · 17/10/2025

You probably missed it because of some deadline but on Tuesday we published the results of an [OIII] emitters search in the COMOS(-3D) field using slitlless spectroscopy. That's *237* 6.7<z<9 uniformly-selected spec-z galaxies over 0.3 degrees square. See the piled 2D plots below, that's a lot!

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Sarah Kendrew @sarahkendrew.bsky.social · 27/08/2025

On astro-ph today, a nice set of lecture notes from Richard Ellis (UCL) on Galaxies and Black Holes in the first Billion years - with special focus on new results from JWST. It also illustrates why MIRI is essential for accurately estimating galaxies' stellar masses ✨ arxiv.org/abs/2508.16948 🔭

arxiv.org

Galaxies and Black Holes in the First Billion Years

I present written notes from three lectures given at the 54th Saas-Fee Advanced Course of the Swiss Society of Astrophysics and Astronomy in January 2025 entitled "Galaxies and Black Holes in the Firs...

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Romain Meyer @astrorameyer.bsky.social · 26/08/2025

In January we held the very successful Saas-Fee Lectures on the revolution JWST is unleashing in high-redshift studies, covering BH and galaxies, observations and theory. The first set of lecture notes by Richard Ellis is now available on arXiv (3 more will follow): arxiv.org/abs/2508.16948 .

arxiv.org

Galaxies and Black Holes in the First Billion Years

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Cosmic Dawn Center @cosmicdawncenter.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

We are excited to make the first official announcement for the 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗖𝗼𝘀𝗺𝗶𝗰 𝗗𝗮𝘄𝗻 conference in Copenhagen in 12–17 April next year 🤩 cosmicdawn.dk/meetings-and...

cosmicdawn.dk

Charting Cosmic Dawn in Copenhagen 2026 - Cosmic Dawn Center

An overview of the 2026 workshop "Charting Cosmic Dawn in Copenhagen."

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Rychard Bouwens @introspectrych.bsky.social · 07/08/2025

Extremely excited to share that the PHOENIX team, led by PhD student Sander Schouws in Leiden, has been awarded 113 hours of ALMA time in Cycle 12—along with JWST MIRI spectroscopy! We’ll be targeting [OIII]88 and the dust continuum in 15 of the brightest spectroscopically confirmed galaxies 1/n

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John F Wu @jwuphysics.bsky.social · 16/07/2025

Whoa. Three Little Red Dots have now been found in SDSS! arxiv.org/abs/2507.10659 But due to their compact morphology and bizarre colors, they are originally selected as *quasar candidates*, not galaxies! In any event, LRDs are not unique to the high-z universe. #astrosci

arxiv.org

The Discovery of Little Red Dots in the Local Universe: Signatures of Cool Gas Envelopes

JWST observations have revealed a population of high-redshift "little red dots" (LRDs) that challenge conventional AGN models. We report the discovery of three local LRDs at $z = 0.1-0.2$, initially s...

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Romain Meyer @astrorameyer.bsky.social · 08/07/2025

and once again, the JWST call for proposal is in exact sync with the ERC StG deadline.. 🥲

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Jorryt Matthee @jorryt.bsky.social · 19/05/2025

We found the most distant confirmed galaxy (some Sergej Boebka vibes 😅) arxiv.org/abs/2505.11263

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Romain Meyer @astrorameyer.bsky.social · 04/04/2025

🧵 Today is paper day for me! Usually I don’t post about papers but I have a special soft spot for this one: the detection of the Gunn-Peterson trough in high-redshift *galaxies* !! arxiv.org/abs/2504.02683 #astrosci #extragalactic #cosmology

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🏔Léa Bello @leabello.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

For a video explainer, I'm looking for scientists working in the US, or in collaboration with US scientists, or with US data's, whose work is impacted by the new Trump administration. 🙏If you are willing to be interviewed (video interview in a French newspaper) DM me !

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Alexandre Adler @bachpropagate.bsky.social · 12/02/2025

These are woke 🔭 things according to Ted "gave Craig Mazin the general vibe for Chernobyl" Cruz: Studying reionization (and making vague promises to train students from underrepresented groups doing so, like NSF requested)

usaspending.gov

USAspending.gov

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aaccomazzi.bsky.social @aaccomazzi.bsky.social · 11/02/2025

We are experiencing technical problems which are part of some growing pains (more content, more users, same infrastructure). At the moment there are no funding or programmatic threats to ADS. Thank you for your patience while we sort things out.

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Peter Coles 🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️ 🇮🇪 @telescoper.bsky.social · 11/02/2025

I'm getting increasingly worried about NASA/ADS, which has not been working for some time... bsky.app/profile/tele...

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Romain Meyer @astrorameyer.bsky.social · 11/02/2025

NASA ADS is really struggling today and I really hope this is not due to some Musk interference.. 🫣 #astronomy

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Romain Meyer @astrorameyer.bsky.social · 14/01/2025

For the first time in my astronomer's life, I submitted TWO full days in advance for a major grant deadline - what am I supposed to do now?

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Romain Meyer @astrorameyer.bsky.social · 10/01/2025

Perks of working in Switzerland: nothing can beat the office window view

A snowy forest view from an office window

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European Space Agency @esa.int · 09/01/2025

Hello @bsky.app, here's to looking into more #bluesky and beyond... 😉

Image of the Moon, on a background of the blackness of space, and foreground at right of Earth's atmosphere in shades of blue, taken by ESA astronaut André Kuipers from the ISS in 2012.

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Sarah Kendrew @sarahkendrew.bsky.social · 12/11/2024

Further to this: please share my joy at this bonkers JWST image of star cluster Westerlund 1, released in Oct. Read more about this amazing cluster and the image: esawebb.org/images/potm2... Image credit:ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb), M. G. Guarcello (INAF-OAPA) and the EWOCS team 🔭

$A dense cluster of bright stars, each with six large and two small diffraction spikes, due to the telescope’s optics. They have a variety of sizes depending on their brightness and distance from us in the cluster, and different colours reflecting different types of star. Patches of billowing red gas can be seen in and around the cluster, lit up by the stars. Small stars in the cluster blend into a background of distant stars and galaxies on black.$

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Romain Meyer @astrorameyer.bsky.social · 06/09/2024

Are you an ECR? Do you like #JWST ? High-z galaxies/SMBHs? Skiing/curling/ice-skating/eating fondue in the Swiss Alps? 🔭 Applications are now open for the 54th Saas-Fee Course on "Galaxies and Black Holes in the 1 Gyr as seen with the JWST" - Jan 27-31, 2025 - more info: astro.unige.ch/saasfee2025/

Poster for the 54th Saas-Fee Advanced Course, 27-31 January, 2025. More information at https://www.astro.unige.ch/saasfee2025/.

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Romain Meyer @astrorameyer.bsky.social · 09/07/2024

Do never complain again about JWST/ALMA being oversubscribed: "The number of hours requested by proposals in period 114 on UT4 amounted to 28.7 the available time" 🤯😱😂

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Romain Meyer @astrorameyer.bsky.social · 07/06/2024

This rarely happens but: the referee pointed out some inconsistency, which sent me down a rabbit hole and ultimately transformed my view of my own work. All the pieces of the puzzle are coming together. Whoever you are, dear referee, thank you so much!

media.tenor.com

Mind Blow Galaxy GIF

ALT: Mind Blow Galaxy GIF

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Romain Meyer @astrorameyer.bsky.social · 24/05/2024

One day I'll get these tags right 🧪🔭 #astro

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Romain Meyer @astrorameyer.bsky.social · 22/05/2024

Two weeks ago I posted the result of an unbiased (slitless spectroscopy!) search for [OIII] emitters in the GOODS fields using FRESCO data. Found 137 6.8<z<9.0 [OIII] emitters with well-characterised selection function. More here: arxiv.org/abs/2405.05111 +public catalogue: github.com/rameyer/fresco

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Maxime Trebitsch @maximetrebitsch.bsky.social · 28/02/2024

I should have done it earlier, but quick advertisement for a new paper (arxiv.org/abs/2402.17635) written by my former student (now doing a PhD in Geneva), Emma Giovinazzo! Emma used the Obelisk simulation to connect Lya and LyC photons at z=6, and… "it's complicated". For details, read the paper!

$Figure from https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.17635 showing the LyC escape fraction as a function of Lyman-alpha peak separation, taken from the Obelisk simulation and compared to data from Izotov+18, GP galaxies, and the LzLCS.$

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Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · 22/02/2024

I recently made a comic complaining that NASA refuses to listen to my good ideas for improving the Solar System (xkcd.com/2750). To my delight, NASA’s Science Mission Directorate has sent me an actual expert panel evaluation of my “flatten the planets” proposal! Sadly, they decided not to fund it.

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Arthur Loureiro @cosmonist.bsky.social · 25/01/2024

Please help me by reading and sharing this Appeal for Dialogue to University College London. I am suffering severe retaliation after reporting being bullied, harassed and intimidated at UCL. UCL acknowledges the retaliation but refuses to talk to me to find a solution.

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