Sign in

Bibiana Prinoth

@bibianaprinoth.ch
3.2K followers 816 following 335 posts

🇨🇭 • ESO fellow @eso.org exploring exoplanet atmospheres 🪐 🔭 🇩🇪 • PhD from Lund Observatory 🇸🇪 & ESO 🇨🇱 • passionate about all things outreach and science communication ✨

PostsRepliesMedia
Bibiana Prinoth @bibianaprinoth.ch · 15/09/2026
In case you have missed it, we are hosting a super cool workshop on #exoplanets studies in Garching, Vitacura and Nice (YES, 3 places at the same time!!!) in November. Bridging Horizons: Harnessing ESO's current facilities for the dawn of exoplanet population studies Dates: **2-6 November 2026**
11710
Reposted by Bibiana Prinoth
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
083
Reposted by Bibiana Prinoth
Linn Boldt-Christmas @nplinnspace.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
…and here, ”recently” = ”within 1 million years” 😅 but that’s like, *SO* recent in planet terms!! ”…models [showed] liquid can be transported […] through small conduits, similar to lava or geyser tubes, driven by buoyancy or pressure from below.” Such neat combo of several cool physics topics! 🔭🧪🪐🌋
28625
Bibiana Prinoth @bibianaprinoth.ch · 26/07/2026
Gonna do something a bit scary on Monday 🙃 I‘ll be talking about magnetic fields on #exoplanets in German 🥺
0153
Reposted by Bibiana Prinoth
Forming Worlds Lab @formingworlds.space · 23/07/2026
New paper led by Joe Williams (@exeter.ac.uk), with our group among the co-authors ❄️ "Planetesimal Formation Across the Stellar Mass Spectrum and its Influence on Exoplanet-Inherited Volatile Budgets" Read the paper: arxiv.org/abs/2607.20271 #Exoplanets #PlanetaryScience
Two-panel schematic comparing how a protoplanetary disc evolves around a very low mass star and around a heavier one. The top panel, labelled 0.1 solar masses, follows a disc fed briefly by material falling in from the collapsing cloud: the disc expands, dust coagulates into icy pebbles, the pebbles drift inward and deliver their ice to the water snowline where a single generation of planetesimals forms, and the dust is then depleted, leaving grey dehydrated planetesimals. The bottom panel, labelled 0.3 solar masses and above, shows the same sequence but with a first generation of planetesimals already forming during the infall phase and a second generation later at the snowline, leaving a mix of blue water-rich and grey dehydrated bodies. A colour key marks rocky pebbles, the water sublimation front, water ice, dehydrated planetesimals and water-rich planetesimals, and an arrow along the bottom marks time running left to right.Portrait of Joe Williams.
1238
Reposted by Bibiana Prinoth
ESO @eso.org · 22/07/2026
That's no moon. It's a...hang on, what should we call it? 🤔 Our VLT has revealed evidence for a moon-like object in the CD-35 2722 system. Yet this new ‘exomoon’ detection is challenging cosmic labels! 🔭 🧪 #exoplanets 1/4
The artist's impression features a small star (left) and two gaseous bodies (centre and right), set against the blackness of space. Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser.
511037
Reposted by Bibiana Prinoth
ESO @eso.org · 15/07/2026
Ten years of hide-and-seek! 🫣 Astronomers used our VLT to find a new #exoplanet orbiting the famous star Beta Pictoris — hiding in archival ESO observations spanning over a decade! And it's shyer than any exoplanet we've imaged before. 🔭 🧪 1/3 📷 ESO/B. Sutlieff, M. Bonse et al.
Image of a star system. The central star is hidden behind a coronagraph, marked by a white star symbol at the centre. A bright companion appears to the left, while a much fainter companion, indicated by a white arrow, is visible to the right against a reddish-orange background.
18227
Reposted by Bibiana Prinoth
Sarah Kendrew @sarahkendrew.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
A major take-home from #SPIEAstro is that the level of scientific ambition in the European ground-based astronomy community is sky-high following the successes of VLT/VLTI, ALMA and the progress on ELT. @eso.org is *the* global leader in this area. This event sounds fab.
0133
Bibiana Prinoth @bibianaprinoth.ch · 14/07/2026
Hi #exoplanets folks, I’m attending the Expanding Horizons conference @eso.org this week (thinking about the facility post-ELT… terrifying, I know 😅). One thing that came up is that relatively few early-career astronomers submitted (co-authored) white papers for the process. next.eso.org 1/3
next.eso.org
Expanding Horizons
1138
Reposted by Bibiana Prinoth
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!
2183
Reposted by Bibiana Prinoth
Andrew Mann @amann.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
Last is the SOYSAUCE survey, PI Madyson Barber. Work on studying the alignment between planets and their host stars, focusing on <200 Myr systems (fast misalignment or primordial misalignments). So far, things look aligned. This was done as a twilight zone reference 🧪🔭⭐ #exoplanets
1194
Bibiana Prinoth @bibianaprinoth.ch · 01/07/2026
Pushing this into #exoplanets
031
Bibiana Prinoth @bibianaprinoth.ch · 30/06/2026
I am giving a keynote at the HoRS3S conference next week (my first keynote so consider me very excited 🥹) & seriously it‘s so much fun prepping those slides 🤭 Shoot me a message if you‘re coming to HoRS3S next week. I might find a way to give you a shoutout 😋 #exoplanets
2150
Bibiana Prinoth @bibianaprinoth.ch · 29/06/2026
Anyone doing some live-posting from #Exo6 #Exoplanets6? Not seeing anything on #exoplanets but maybe I am blind? FOMO is kicking in (but I really needed the break 😬)
180
Reposted by Bibiana Prinoth
Duncan Christie @astroduncan.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
MPIA PhD student Angelique Kahle has a very cool paper out today looking at everyone's favourite ultra-hot Jupiter, WASP-121b. Angelique is giving a talk on the results next Monday at Exoplanets VI, as well. #exoplanets arxiv.org/abs/2606.21855
arxiv.org
The panchromatic JWST dayside spectrum of WASP-121 b reveals a refractory-rich formation
One path to understand how planets form is to link their present-day atmospheric composition to predictions from planet formation models. For the hottest planets, the abundances of refractory species ...
0258
Bibiana Prinoth @bibianaprinoth.ch · 26/06/2026
Last week, I uploaded my first first-author paper as Dr. Prinoth to arXiv, and I finally have time to tell you about it. This one has been a long time coming, and I'm incredibly happy and proud that it's finally out in the #exoplanets world! 🔗 arxiv.org/abs/2606.14490 1/n
arxiv.org
A population view of transiting hot giant exoplanets: Tracing Fe and Ti chemistry with ESPRESSO and MAROON-X
Hot and ultra-hot Jupiters offer a unique laboratory to study atmospheric chemistry at the population level using ground-based high-resolution spectroscopy. Fe and Ti are key tracers of thermal and ch...
1276
Bibiana Prinoth @bibianaprinoth.ch · 25/06/2026
Very happy to share that I got awarded the IAU PhD Prize of Division F for my thesis on “Transmission spectroscopy of hot gas giant #exoplanets ” 🪐 I’m incredibly proud and happy, but also immensely grateful for all the support from supervisors, collaborators, friends and family through all this! ❤️
8415
Bibiana Prinoth @bibianaprinoth.ch · 12/06/2026
I got to talk (and write) about my favourite objects: #exoplanets 🪐 Tack så mycket @popularastronomi.se 🫶
181
Bibiana Prinoth @bibianaprinoth.ch · 02/06/2026
Magnetic fields tend to be the running joke at #exoplanets conferences. You can be sure someone asks „what about magnetic fields?“. This is the answer ⬇️
3247
Bibiana Prinoth @bibianaprinoth.ch · 31/05/2026
I also finally submitted my own abstract 😌 Don’t forget yours!
040
Bibiana Prinoth @bibianaprinoth.ch · 26/05/2026
Hi #exoplanets people! Just popping by to remind you of the upcoming abstract deadline (31 May) for "Bridging Horizons: Harnessing ESO's current facilities for the dawn of exoplanet populations studies" happening in November! 🪐🔭 www.eso.org/sci/meetings...
eso.org
ESO - Bridging Horizons
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.
092
Reposted by Bibiana Prinoth
Linn Boldt-Christmas @nplinnspace.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
🪐🔭 Our paper on everyone's favourite popcorn #exoplanet, WASP-107 b, has now been accepted for publication in A&A! Here is the updated arXiv version: arxiv.org/abs/2508.18964 The main science results are covered in the original thread below ⬇️ but since we added a bunch of cool new things... 🧪🧵
1188
Bibiana Prinoth @bibianaprinoth.ch · 20/03/2026
#exoplanets 🪐
0102
Reposted by Bibiana Prinoth
Andrew Mann @amann.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
I'm super excited to share a HUGE paper out from Young Worlds Lab team member Andy Boyle. I present for you, ~900,000 rotation periods from TESS! 🤯🔭🧪⭐ #exoplanets #stellarrotation arxiv.org/abs/2603.05586
arxiv.org
The TESS All-Sky Rotation Survey: Periods for 944,056 Stars Within 500 pc
Stellar rotation is a fundamental tracer of stellar magnetic evolution, age, and activity, with broad implications for Galactic archaeology and exoplanet characterization. The Transiting Exoplanet Sur...
48921
Bibiana Prinoth @bibianaprinoth.ch · 27/02/2026
The ESO studentship was probably one of the best experiences of my academic career so far; recommend it 100%! Please spread into your networks. Happy to answer questions or even host a student with one of my fellow #exoplanets people. Just get in touch!💙
074
Bibiana Prinoth @bibianaprinoth.ch · 03/02/2026
This goes onto my reading list immediately ☺️
041
Bibiana Prinoth @bibianaprinoth.ch · 21/01/2026
As one of the things I do @eso.org, I am part of the organising team for the Star-Planet Exchange meetings. We‘re always looking for speakers to tell us about #stellarastro and #exoplanets (or even both? 🤩). If you pass through Munich any time soon, we‘d love to have you. Shoot me a message! 🪐⭐️
0122
Bibiana Prinoth @bibianaprinoth.ch · 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.
0811
Bibiana Prinoth @bibianaprinoth.ch · 14/11/2025
When @eso.org announces your dream job but your still too much of a science baby 😭 In case you consider applying, feel free to reach out. Happy to chat about ESO 💙🫶 #astronomy
170
Bibiana Prinoth @bibianaprinoth.ch · 01/10/2025
Time to update that affiliation I guess! I‘m starting my fellowship @eso.org in Garching 🇩🇪 today! Wish me luck ❤️🤭
1280
Reposted by Bibiana Prinoth
Planets @ Oxford @oxoplanets.bsky.social · 09/07/2025
Congratulations to Dr Tobias Meier (@tgmeier.bsky.social) on his #ExoclimesVII poster presentation about the lava world K2-141b!
0193
Reposted by Bibiana Prinoth
Planets @ Oxford @oxoplanets.bsky.social · 09/07/2025
Congratulations to Dr Jake Taylor (@astrojake.bsky.social) on his poster at #ExoclimesVII concerning the JWST NIRISS/SOSS transmission spectrum of the super-Earth GJ 357b. The paper is published and can be read here: academic.oup.com/mnras/articl...
0313
Bibiana Prinoth @bibianaprinoth.ch · 10/07/2025
In case you’re interested in the paper(s) about WASP-121 b using the 4UT mode of ESPRESSO — or as I like to call it: ESPRESSO’s superpower — check out: ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2025A%26... ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2025Natu...
ui.adsabs.harvard.edu
Titanium chemistry of WASP-121 b with ESPRESSO in 4-UT mode
Transit spectroscopy usually relies on the integration of one or several transits to achieve the signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) necessary to resolve spectral features. Consequently, high-S/N observations...
031
Reposted by Bibiana Prinoth
Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans @astroroyalscot.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
Nature study: when do girls fall behind in #maths? During their 1st year at primary school. 4 yr study, 2.6M French children. By comparing kids born a month apart but in diff school years they show it's education, not age, that triggers the gap☹️ 🧪👩‍🔬 ℹ️: www.nature.com/articles/s41... 👇Excellent 🧵
A set of graphs

Title:  WATCH THE MATHEMATICS GENDER GAP EMERGE The school environment triggers a gender gap in mathematics. Test results
from all children in France who started school in 2018 reveal the trend.

Graph 1: Start of first year of school.  Boys and girls show similar performance in maths test results.

Graph 2:  Four months into first year
We see more boys are now starting to achieve the higher grades with girls getting more poorer grades

Graph 3:  Start of second year at school
Gender gap is now exaggerated with boys twice as likely to get the top marks than their female counterparts.

From https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-01831-4
49946
Bibiana Prinoth @bibianaprinoth.ch · 12/06/2025
I don't post super often here, but I just came by to share this news article with you (published alongside the paper in Nature yesterday). www.nature.com/articles/d41... There are a couple of sentences in the news article that stuck with me more than anything: 1/x
nature.com
When do girls fall behind in maths? Gigantic study pinpoints the moment
Analysis of almost three million children captures when ‘mathematical gender gap’ first emerges and could help focus efforts to stop girls from falling behind.
14816
Bibiana Prinoth @bibianaprinoth.ch · 13/05/2025
Last Friday, I defended my PhD in Astronomy and Astrophysics 🪐 Still processing… but you can call me Dr. Bibi now. 💅 I am eternally grateful to my supervisors, mentors, and everyone who supported me on this journey. 💜 #astronomy #exoplanets
Little me during my defence talk convincing the audience, committee and opponent that titanium oxide is a wonderful molecule.
161998
Reposted by Bibiana Prinoth
Dr Ryan MacDonald @distantworlds.space · 17/04/2025
𝗡𝗼, 𝗮 𝗯𝗶𝗼𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗱𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝗻 𝗞𝟮-𝟭𝟴𝗯'𝘀 𝗮𝘁𝗺𝗼𝘀𝗽𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲. K2-18b is back in the news, now with a bold claim that biosignature molecules (DMS and/or DMDS) have been 'detected at 3σ'. Most exoplanet astronomers are extremely sceptical about these claims, let's see why (1/n). 🔭🧪🪐 #exoplanet
Artist's impression of the exoplanet K2-18b.
Credit: A. Smith, University of Cambridge.
361121364
Reposted by Bibiana Prinoth
Aline Novais @alinenovais.com · 21/04/2025
Meu vídeo sobre a “detecção de bioassinaturas” na atmosfera do exoplaneta K2-18b e os possíveis problemas relacionados a essa análise, do ponto de vista de quem trabalha na área 🪐 Links abaixo:
1187
Reposted by Bibiana Prinoth
Chris Lintott @chrislintott.bsky.social · 17/04/2025
An astonishing headline reporting on new observations from a team led to Nikku Madhusudhan claims they’ve found ‘hints of life’ on a planet orbiting a dwarf star some 124 light years away. What’s going on? (1/n) www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... 🔭 🧪
bbc.co.uk
Promising hints of life found on distant planet K2-18b
Scientists find new but tentative evidence that a faraway world orbiting another star may be home to life.
27868340
Reposted by Bibiana Prinoth
Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 17/04/2025
Chris, this is terrible scholarship from Nikku and his team. It's also INSANELY irresponsible scicomm on the part of everyone involved with reporting on it. It's going to take such an effort to correct this misinformation, and it comes at a time where scrupulousness is sorely needed.
3353
Reposted by Bibiana Prinoth
Emily Hunt @emily.space · 17/04/2025
Reading more about this, I'm disappointed in the authors of this study & how they've turned a very marginal result into worldwide press releases. In this climate, we as scientists have a responsibility to lead by example and represent our work accurately to the press. This is not that. ☄️🔭🧪
917238
Reposted by Bibiana Prinoth
Populär Astronomi @popularastronomi.se · 14/04/2025
Nu finns Populär Astronomi här på Bluesky också! 🚀🥳 Vi har skrivit om rymden och astronomi i mer än hundra år – papperstidningen kommer ut med fyra nummer per år och nyhetsartiklar publiceras löpande på vår hemsida. www.popularastronomi.se
popularastronomi.se
Populär Astronomi - Rymden och astronomi på svenska
Sveriges tidskrift för astronomi och rymdfart sedan 1920.
0106
Bibiana Prinoth @bibianaprinoth.ch · 15/04/2025
Nailed it! As per Swedish tradition, I’ve officially nailed my thesis to the wall to announce that I’ll be defending my PhD in #exoplanets atmospheres in 3 weeks and 3 days. Dr title, I’m coming for youuuu!
Me nailing my thesis to the wall.Me happily smiling at the camera after nailing my thesis to the wall.
111477
Reposted by Bibiana Prinoth
Brett Morris @brettmorr.is · 09/04/2025
After maybe wikipedia, the most important page on the internet is hiring. 🧪🔭
info.arxiv.org
Careers at arXiv - arXiv info | arXiv e-print repositorycontact arXivsubscribe to arXiv mailingsReport an issue
210535
Reposted by Bibiana Prinoth
Gijs D Mulders @gijsmulders.com · 07/04/2025
Postdoctoral Fellowship opportunities in #astronomy at my new employer, UC Chile aas.org/jobregister/... If you are interested in writing a proposal to work on #exoplanets or planet formation with me, get in touch!
aas.org
Postdoctoral Fellowships in Astrophysics at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile | American Astronomical Society
The Institute of Astrophysics at Pontificia Universidad Católica (IA-PUC) and the Center of Astro-Engineering of the Universidad Católica (AIUC) invite applications for sponsoring postdoctoral researc...
2165
Bibiana Prinoth @bibianaprinoth.ch · 03/04/2025
The cat’s out of the bag! 🥳 I'm thrilled to share that I’ll be joining @eso.org as a 2025 ESO Fellow in Germany starting this October! Expect plenty more #astronomy and #exoplanets spam from me in the years to come 🤓 But first—gotta earn that Dr. title! www.eso.org/sci/publicat...
eso.org
ESO - Introducing the 2025 ESO Fellows - Germany and Chile
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.
9804
Reposted by Bibiana Prinoth
Linn Boldt-Christmas @nplinnspace.bsky.social · 30/03/2025
👇 Extremely cool work by the awesome @alinenovais.com on #exoplanet atmospheres with HST, highlighting some key challenges in today’s research: retrievals are hard, clouds are hard… everything is hard, which is why it’s important to revisit older data! 🧪🔭☄️
195
Bibiana Prinoth @bibianaprinoth.ch · 01/04/2025
@sophienewman.bsky.social and Ana Sainz de Murieta absolutely made my day. Thanks for this! 💜 arxiv.org/abs/2503.24188 This is my favourite day on astro-ph. Thanks #astronomy for being such a fun field to work in!
arxiv.org
A Swift analysis of the Eras tour set list and implications for astrophysics research (Taylor's version)
Popular culture plays a significant role in shaping public interest in science, and Taylor Swift's discography frequently incorporates astrophysics terminology. This study examines the occurrence of a...
171
Reposted by Bibiana Prinoth
Aline Novais @alinenovais.com · 30/03/2025
I am thrilled to announce my second PhD paper, under the supervision of Luan Ghezzi, Kevin Heng, and Chloe Fisher 🪐📄 This study is a summary of my PhD thesis (2019–2024), where we analysed retrievals of HST WFC3 transmission spectra and parameter degeneracies associated with them. Read more ⬇️
doi.org
Parameter degeneracies associated with interpreting HST WFC3 transmission spectra of exoplanetary atmospheres
ABSTRACT. The Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope has provided an abundance of exoplanet spectra over the years. These spec
1206
Bibiana Prinoth @bibianaprinoth.ch · 27/03/2025
In the heat of battle that was submitting my PhD thesis, I completely forgot to share this with you! @nature.com invited us to contribute a Research Briefing on our latest #exoplanets paper 🪐 Hope you enjoy it 😊
1537