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Dr. Jessie Christiansen

@aussiastronomer.bsky.social
19K followers 1.4K following 6.9K posts

Caltech/IPAC Planet Hunter | Chief Scientist, NASA Exoplanet Science Institute | @TEDFellow | Science consultant | SHERA PI | My views are not the views of NASA | She/her

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Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · 2h
Younger siblings everywhere, unite!!! Help one of your own!
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Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · 5h
Hey! If you have a second, vote for my sister to get a chance to host her own podcast. (She's a younger sister and I already got to host one, so she needs to do one too, obviously. 😂) tophost.org/2026/chloe-c...
tophost.org
Is Chloe Christiansen the Top Host?
Will Chloe Christiansen be a guest on an episode of On Air with Ryan Seacrest, win $25,000, and lead a podcast produced by iHeartRadio?
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Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · 7h
Hello from wine country! Yes, the rumours are true, I am ON VACATION this week. ✨🍷☺️
static.klipy.com
Conan O'Brien's Awesome Giant Wine Tasting
Alt: Conan O'Brien's Awesome Giant Wine Tasting
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Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · 20h
“Oh, no, no, no, you’re a smart guy, clearly picked up some flashy tricks, but you made one crucial mistake. You forgot about the essence of the game. It’s about the cones.”
Photos of a game table in the early-mid game stages of a game of Talisman.
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Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Cat, Interrupted.
Photo of half of a grey cat’s face peering around a wall. He looks naughty. He is.
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Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Sometimes we show the kids classic movies and we have to stop occasionally and explain that the language and/or behaviour is not acceptable anymore. Tonight we watched Bad News Bears and YIKES. I think the explanations were longer than the actual movie. 👀😭☠️
static.klipy.com
Man's Cringe Fake Smile
Alt: Ted Lasso cringes.
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Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
I was watching a very illuminating talk about how AI alignment (how to align AI 'values' with our values) is increasingly in tension with reinforcement learning from verifiable rewards (how the AI can teach itself by trial and error) and my takeaway is that we're deliberately creating psychopaths.
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Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
I love the idea that you tell AI stories of AI being a good robot to encourage AI to be a good robot. uknowledge.uky.edu/cs_etds/139/
uknowledge.uky.edu
Practical AI Value Alignment Using Stories
As more machine learning agents interact with humans, it is increasingly a prospect that an agent trained to perform a task optimally - using only a measure of task performance as feedback--can violat...
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Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Calling it early this week because I know the JWST deadline has everyone knocked flat. It's Friday night. I did enough this week. YOU did enough this week.
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Reposted by Dr. Jessie Christiansen
ClimateBook @climatebook.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Calling all Exoplanets folk! MIT has an opening for a new tenure track assistant professorship in planetary sciences. This is a unique opportunity to help build a new future of exoplanet research at MIT. Applications close Oct 15. academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/32450
academicjobsonline.org
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Earth, Atmospheric & Planetary Sciences
Job #AJO32450, Faculty Position in Planetary Science, Earth, Atmospheric & Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, US
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Reposted by Dr. Jessie Christiansen
Razzball @razzball.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Announcing the merger with Titanic footage is an incredible bit
David Ellison • @ellisonskyd... 2h
What once was the peak, is now just the beginning.
Paramount and Warner Bros. shaped over a century of culture. By combining them, we aren't rewriting history — we're equipping these iconic studios with a more powerful engine. Together, we are Skydance: a creative-first ho Show
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Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Hello software developers! Come work with our Keck Observatory Archive team at the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute at @caltechipac.bsky.social!! We have a great team, a hybrid work schedule, and you get to live in fabulous SoCal! phf.tbe.taleo.net/phf03/ats/ca...
phf.tbe.taleo.net
Hiring Application Developer, IPAC - Pasadena, CA
View job details and apply now
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Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
I’ve lost it, I just made up a whole song to the tune of ‘Kiss the Girl’ from the Little Mermaid but it was ‘Pick SHERA’.
static.klipy.com
Ariel, Prince Eric & Flounder in The Little Mermaid
Alt: Ariel, Prince Eric & Flounder in The Little Mermaid
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Reposted by Dr. Jessie Christiansen
SETI Institute @setiinstitute.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
We know planets are common. But we still haven't found another planet quite like Earth. On Oct. 7, @aussiastronomer.bsky.social explores the past, present, and future of our hunt for Earth 2.0 at the next Silicon Valley Astronomy Lecture. 🧪 🔭 👩‍🔬 #bayarea www.seti.org/events/the-s...
seti.org
The Search for Earth 2.0: Why We Think It Exists, and How We’re Going to Find it
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Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
INCREDIBLE.
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Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Oh, YIKES - just got an ad targeted at sports mums (guilty!) for A/V recording sunglasses the kid can wear while they play the sport, so you get the POV. Given that *everyone else* being recorded by the glasses will be *literal children*, seems DICEY, guys. DICEY.
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Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
The cackle I just cackled.
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Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Truly it's already broken. We can't find people to review things. No-one has any bandwidth for anything. It's already burning down.
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Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Astronomers gonna astronomer.
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Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Red Sox offense.
static.klipy.com
Mockjup Demands Action from a Potato
Alt: Mockjup Demands Action from a Potato
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Reposted by Dr. Jessie Christiansen
Sarah E Moran @offallingstars.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
#JWSTC6 APT has crashed with ~8 minutes before the deadline tonight. Chatter says the deadline will be extended but we don't know until when...
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Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
He might be TOO powerful. 👀
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Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Ummm until yesterday there were actual deadlines listed here 👀 (Maybe this is just the previously discussed move to rolling deadlines, but it seems ominous when bundled with all the rest of the new "The Astro-Core program is anticipated to be especially competitive in Fiscal Year 2027" guidelines.)
Screenshot of the NSF MPS Astro core program solicitation page, which has, under 'Full Proposal Deadlines', the highlighted text 'Proposals Accepted Anytime'.
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Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
A few times a day I go to the hot corner that shows me all the windows of a given application I have open so that I can see how many draft emails I started and got distracted before I could send them.
static.klipy.com
Amy Santiago Distracted in Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Alt: Amy Santiago says "I am definitely distracted" in Brooklyn Nine-Nine
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Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Truly it's hard for Australians/Americans to grasp both the size of European countries AND their amazing train systems. I was nervous about having to transfer to Leiden, given that I have to fly into Amsterdam. What a hassle! The train from Amsterdam airport to Leiden is 20 minutes.
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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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Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
If you* overlay the old Chen & Kipping (2017) planet mass-radius relationship with the new Dransfield et al. (2026) relationship, you can really see the impact of removing the inflated planets! *ChatGPT.
A plot showing two mass-radius relationships; the new one is below (predicts smaller radii) the old one significantly, especially around Saturn-mass objects.
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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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Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I came home, was irritated and snappy at everyone, and took myself to bed at 8pm. 🙄🫠☠️
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Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
No hyperbole, I have just logged on to my 10th meeting of today.
static.klipy.com
Exhausted Stewie Griffin in Bed
Alt: Exhausted Stewie Griffin in Bed
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Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Last week we picked up Max Scherzer for our fantasy team championship round on the basis of his double start. His first game was delayed so I thought that was it, and then Mad Max demanded one final start, on short rest. And then this happened. And WE WON! 👑 www.reddit.com/r/baseball/c...
reddit.com
From the baseball community on Reddit
Explore this post and more from the baseball community
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Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
My sister (millennial) and I (xennial) were discussing Garfield in Paradise (1986) the other day. Trying to recall the plot was like trying to piece together a fever dream. Garfield and John go to… Hawaii? John hits that with an islander? The Fonz’s ghost drives a sports car into a volcano?!
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Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Hey isn’t that a scene from a movie series where the AI he builds goes rogue and nearly destroys everyone?
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Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
That face when you have the audacity to volunteer at one event, race over to watch the kid play a baseball game, come home and get everything ready for the kid’s soccer game, volunteer at a second event, and then finally lie down on the couch at 4:30pm without having played with the dog all day.
Photo of a goldendoodle giving puppy dog eyes.
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Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
when you look up ‘regulatory capture’ in the dictionary:
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Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
It’s Friday night! I’ve done enough this week. You’ve done enough this week.
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Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
It was a bail bonds truck.
Photo of a pink truck with a closed bed that says LIPSTICK on the side with Bail Bonds underneath.
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Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
It’s SUCH an important framing to change from ‘here is the solution I want’ to ‘here is the problem I have’. I see it all the time in teams of scientists and engineers (software AND hardware!).
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Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Like watching grown men pretend to enjoy whiskey.
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Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Please keep guessing. 😂
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Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
We just passed a VIVIDLY pink truck with the word LIPSTICK in huge white letters on the side and some kiss emojis. Never in a hundred years will you guess what industry the truck was associated with.
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Reposted by Dr. Jessie Christiansen
Red Sox @redsox.com · 25/09/2026
Summer Fridays. 🗒️ bit.ly/4rtPYZi
Final score from September 25, 2026:
Cubs 3, Red Sox 4

IMAGE: Roman Anthony stands on 2nd base and reacts toward the Red Sox dugout. He is seen wearing the Red Sox City Connect Fenway Green uniforms
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Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
static.klipy.com
Tom Delonge Blink182 Wtf Meme
Alt: Tom Delonge Blink182 Wtf Meme
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Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Cool, great, lucky we're not in the middle of multiple proposal calls at the moment. 🫠
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Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
How To Mildly Threaten Your Co-Authors If They Don't Send You Their Biographies ASAP.
Screenshot of an email that reads:

I will make something up for anyone who doesn’t reply by Wednesday next week. It will involve circus animals.

Cheers,
Jessie
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Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Sydney! I'm coming your way! lnkd.in/p/gdEYRxx3
lnkd.in
From Sydney to NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and back to Sydney for AIP Congress 2026. Dr Jessie Christiansen has spent much of her career searching for worlds beyond our… | Th...
From Sydney to NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and back to Sydney for AIP Congress 2026. Dr Jessie Christiansen has spent much of her career searching for worlds beyond our Solar...
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Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Sigh ROBIN Hobb.
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Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Starting my nth re-read of Eobin Hobb’s Assassin’s Apprentice (Nosy! 😭) in paperback form and listening to @howtoadhd.bsky.social’s How To ADHD in audiobook form.
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Reposted by Dr. Jessie Christiansen
Mike Boylan-Kolchin @mbkplus.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Girl dinner
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Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
In 2016 I took my 18-month-old daughter door-knocking for Hilary and it was a great experience. In 2020 the world was too contagious for door-knocking, so I did phone-banking. In 2024 I became a citizen and felt political despair. I think it's time for canvassing again!
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