Sign in

Channon Visscher

@cvisscher.bsky.social
331 followers 254 following 70 posts

Professor of Chemistry & Planetary Sciences at Dordt University (IA) and Research Scientist with the Space Science Institute (CO) Github: cvisscher.github.io

PostsRepliesMedia
Channon Visscher @cvisscher.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
New study led by @bemiles.bsky.social, reporting the detection of variable water clouds(!) in the cold brown dwarf WISE 0855
news.arizona.edu
Discovery marks the first detection of variable water clouds outside of our solar system
A Jupiter-sized world just 7.5 light-years away is cloudy, chemically complex, and, it turns out, more like home than anyone expected.
0199
Channon Visscher @cvisscher.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
I realized that previous one was the first 400 papers. Here's all records available
network of co-authors arranged in a circle with connections between them.
100
Channon Visscher @cvisscher.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
I've shared this before, but the ads -> Explore -> Author Network is a pretty quick way to do this (although it is a circle and lines diagram...). Here's your network:
100
Channon Visscher @cvisscher.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
This is also a nice reminder of how great the library is at @lpitoday.bsky.social
020
Reposted by Channon Visscher
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...
13426
Reposted by Channon Visscher
the babahuck @tylerhuckabee.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
rip annie dillard
One of the things I know about writing is this: spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away, every time. Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book or for another book; give it, give it all, give it now. The impulse to save something good for a better place later is the signal to spend it now. Something more will arise for later, something better. These things fill from behind, from beneath, like well water. Similarly, the impulse to keep to yourself what you have learned is not only shameful, it is destructive. Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you. You open your safe and find ashes.
1134431142
Channon Visscher @cvisscher.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
I was *obsessed* with that book!
010
Reposted by Channon Visscher
Dr. Caprice Phillips @capricephillips.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
My stellar abundance paper is finally published! iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3...
2183
Channon Visscher @cvisscher.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Also grew up in South Dakota, and I love how you've captured it here!
000
Channon Visscher @cvisscher.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
I’m so sorry for your loss Marisa.
020
Channon Visscher @cvisscher.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
\begin{enuma-rate}
110
Reposted by Channon Visscher
David_j_roth @davidjroth.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Got a good job down at the Data Center. I work on the line, and it's hard work but it's honest and the wage is fair; my family and I are grateful for it. I rivet the word "absolutely" onto the little apologies that chatbots do when they misunderstand a prompt.
1654563572
Reposted by Channon Visscher
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...
1228
Channon Visscher @cvisscher.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
IF YOU CARE
010
Channon Visscher @cvisscher.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
I like Radiohead but I can see this
020
Channon Visscher @cvisscher.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Modest Mouse
120
Reposted by Channon Visscher
Jeremy Yoder says no war @jbyoder.org · 13/07/2026
Holy COW. Text analysis of comments on the OMB rule: overwhelming opposition, overwhelmingly not form letters. (But 9 in 10 comments supporting the rule ARE form responses, LOL) Whatever happens next, folks have stepped up.
Screenshot text: Between May 29 and July 9, roughly 51,000 comments were posted to regulations.gov (and over 200,000 more had been received but not yet published). The verdict on public sentiment is clear and lopsided: about 94 percent oppose the proposed rule and only 6 percent support it, with fewer than one percent marked as unclear. The opposition is overwhelmingly grassroots rather than orchestrated. Form letters make up only about 16 percent of all comments (roughly 8,400 comments across 210 distinct campaigns), and only about one in eight opposing comments came from a form-letter campaign. Support for the rule, by contrast, was almost entirely organized: nearly nine in ten supportive comments (about 2,500) came from a single form-letter campaign. Opponents mostly wrote their own comments; supporters mostly signed the same form-letter.
1807302
Channon Visscher @cvisscher.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Statistical Analysis of Minor-planet WIde-field Survey Estimation (SAMWISE)
020
Channon Visscher @cvisscher.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
200.205 is particularly bad, because it would take grant proposal decisions away from scientific experts and into the hands of political appointees
000
Channon Visscher @cvisscher.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
some of the key proposed changes to highlight include 200.205 (politically appointees for grant approval decisions), 200.432 (conference rules), 200.218 (international collaboration), and 200.306 (subawards etc)
200
Channon Visscher @cvisscher.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
The Federal OMB has proposed a sweeping set of rule changes for research grants: *changes that would be harmful to scientific research* If you'd like to speak out, they are still accepting comments on the proposed changes until July 13: www.federalregister.gov/documents/20...
federalregister.gov
Regulation for Federal Financial Assistance
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) proposes to revise the Guidance for Federal Financial Assistance to improve government- wide policies and requirements related to the management of grants, co...
101
Reposted by Channon Visscher
Alex von Tunzelmann @alexvont.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
This is exactly it. The work is the point.
When I assign analysis, I am not trying to extract a polished product; I am trying to put the student’s mind through resistance in order to make it stronger. Offloading the struggle to a chatbot does not “free students up for higher-order work.” It deprives them of building the strength to do any substantial cognitive work at all.
1460952246
Channon Visscher @cvisscher.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
So, so sorry for this loss Caprice.
010
Channon Visscher @cvisscher.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
I don’t have strong feelings about it but personally prefer a geophysical definition of a planet, which would include Pluto But I do think that if a reporter asks about Pluto, you should immediately mention how NASA funding & our ability to study interesting objects like Pluto is under dire threat
140
Reposted by Channon Visscher
Nature @nature.com · 24/04/2026
A model of the early Solar System that cools too quickly to reach chemical equilibrium generates mineral regimes resembling important classes of meteorites go.nature.com/4sPuG7t
go.nature.com
Rapid cooling shaped the formation of the first meteorites in the Solar System
A model of the early Solar System that cools too quickly to reach chemical equilibrium generates mineral regimes resembling important classes of meteorites.
0191
Reposted by Channon Visscher
Emily J @emexastris.bsky.social · 11/04/2026
If you’ve been moved & inspired by Artemis, NASA needs your help. Literally during A2, the president proposed cutting NASA science 47%, canceling 54 missions, including many already in-flight. To help stop these cuts, check out @planetarysociety.bsky.social www.planetary.org/save-nasa-sc...
planetary.org
Save NASA Science Action Hub
Updates and actions on the proposed cuts to NASA science in FY 2027.
5533408
Reposted by Channon Visscher
Casey Dreier @caseydreier.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
The FY 2027 NASA budget request hides its science cuts by omitting mission names instead of explicitly zeroing them out. We did the work and found 54 missions cancelled in this proposal. This is another extinction-level event for NASA science. Full list: planetary.org/save-nasa-science
9290211
Reposted by Channon Visscher
Simeon Schmauß @stim3on.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
This is possibly the most incredible tracking video of a rocket launch that I have ever seen, and Shuttle had some really incredible videos too! Just look at those gorgeous flame dynamics and then the booster separation... 🔭🧪 #Artemis
34813229
Reposted by Channon Visscher
Brian LaMarre @blamarre.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
Awesome view of @NASAArtemis II, as viewed from NOAA weather satellite. Note the dark (warmer) dot launching off from Cape Canaveral and off to the northeast! #flwx #artemis
19737
Reposted by Channon Visscher
lastpositivist.bsky.social @lastpositivist.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
Genuinely just bonkers to watch the USA do this to one of the most successful and innovative hubs of scientific research the world has ever seen. All those years of Free Speech On Campus debates and it turns out they actually wanted less cancer research. Absurd.
4533431029
Reposted by Channon Visscher
Paul Byrne @theplanetaryguy.com · 12/03/2026
This is the entire budget of NASA's Planetary Science Division for *four years*
5385168
Reposted by Channon Visscher
Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
Americans: we live in a fallen state—embroiled by sin, cheating, lying, and evil. You cannot trust anyone, not even those who claim to know you best Canadians: I love my neighbors and my friends!
A picture of PEW poll on global attitude survey, saying the % who rate the morality and ethics of people in their country as good vs bad, where the US has the worst rankings and Canada the best
27959451546
Reposted by Channon Visscher
Michael Plummer @magmaskies.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
Publication day for our paper on the T2.5 brown dwarf/exoplanet analog SIMP0136! We find cloud formation appears to drive upper atmospheric temperature and chemical structure. We also debut a new, novel method for vertical mapping extrasolar atmospheric dynamics. iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3...
iopscience.iop.org
Mapping the Cloud-driven Atmospheric Dynamics and Chemistry of an Isolated Exoplanet Analog with Harmonic Signatures
Mapping the Cloud-driven Atmospheric Dynamics and Chemistry of an Isolated Exoplanet Analog with Harmonic Signatures, Plummer, Michael K., Cocchini, Francis P., Kearns, Peter A., McCarthy, Allison M., Artigau, Étienne, Cowan, Nicolas B., Akhmetshyn, Roman, Vos, Johanna M., Nasedkin, Evert, Visscher, Channon, Benneke, Björn, Doyon, René, Metchev, Stanimir A., Rowe, Jason F., Suárez, Genaro
163
Reposted by Channon Visscher
Joel Boerckel @jboerckel.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
I present the most interesting graph ever made. HUMAN ON BICYCLE beats every other living thing. www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-hu...
1822577
Reposted by Channon Visscher
Cato Institute @cato.org · 03/02/2026
The US immigrant population generated more in taxes than they received in benefits from all levels of government every year from 1994 to 2023. The Cato study provides the first-ever 30-year analysis of the fiscal effects of immigration on government budgets. ow.ly/jy8a50Y8kM3
8043802251
Reposted by Channon Visscher
Mark Marley @markmarley.bsky.social · 17/01/2026
Great article on the cosmic shoreline. I was fortunate to have an office near Kevin’s for my 20 years at NASA Ames. He is the most creative planetary scientist I know.
2143
Reposted by Channon Visscher
Brooke Harrington @ebharrington.bsky.social · 31/12/2025
They're going to *throw out* one-of-a-kind NASA archives?! Not even a year since the Inauguration & we're already at the 2nd-time-as-farce version of the burning of the Library of Alexandria.
8629661565
Reposted by Channon Visscher
Brian Hughes @bmhughes.bsky.social · 01/12/2025
This is actually quite brilliant, up to and including the final sentence 🔥
5682879411201
Channon Visscher @cvisscher.bsky.social · 20/11/2025
Why is this written as if that statement is just another opinion? What does the actual law say about the matter?
010
Channon Visscher @cvisscher.bsky.social · 12/11/2025
we had spent much of the (chilly) evening in the countryside away from any lights, but my favorite image of the night ended up being the aurora just casually, majestically, filling the sky above our homes
Image of the front entrance of a house, showing bright northern lights above: a green layer of aurora beneath a red aurora
050
Channon Visscher @cvisscher.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
yeah - tear drop shape, and I think the heaviest was 2.5 oz (I have them first weigh in g) Screening out pebbles and smoothing sand surface is better and have them measure rim-to-rim "as self-consistently as possible" Powder is a good idea -or with something like alternating layers of colored sand
120
Channon Visscher @cvisscher.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
one of the things I want to them to see is the effect of kinetic energy in impact geology and conversion of these high energies into (effectively) the violent excavation of the target surface
020
Channon Visscher @cvisscher.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
I have a short class activity exploring the mechanics of impact crater formation and crater morphology. First they drop small weights (fishing sinkers work well!) from various heights into sand beds and record crater diameters as a function of m,g,z, etc. Then end with lighting some firecrackers...
220
Channon Visscher @cvisscher.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
slow-motion capture from a student's phone:
010
Channon Visscher @cvisscher.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
Teaching some comparative planetology, it turns out that lighting half-buried firecrackers in a bed of sand does a pretty nice job of simulating the formation of impact craters ; ) 🧪🔭
Still image of sand bed with firecracker explosion starting to spread out an ejecta blanket
1172
Channon Visscher @cvisscher.bsky.social · 13/10/2025
nist.gov and its associated subdomains: incredibly useful and important data, at risk of being lost...
nist.gov
National Institute of Standards and Technology
NIST promotes U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness by advancing measurement science, standards, and technology in ways that enhance economic security and improve our quality of life
010
Channon Visscher @cvisscher.bsky.social · 08/10/2025
it's something that existed in the population long before widespread recognition - so better diagnosis (and hopefully removal of stigma) would make it seem like there's a huge increase in its occurrence (whether or not that's actually the case...)
000
Channon Visscher @cvisscher.bsky.social · 25/09/2025
I think about this plot all the time, and especially with respect to things like autism. If you’d lived in 1940 and had access to this data, would it feel like an “epidemic” of left-handedness?
Classic plot of the occurrence of left handedness by birth year. The plot starts at 5% in 1890, dips to near 3-4% around 1910 then rises until leveling off at 12% in 1960 onward
170
Channon Visscher @cvisscher.bsky.social · 18/09/2025
To conclude, it looks like the Moon was moved around to give a nice backdrop(s) for the bridge scene ; ) A silly activity but a fun way to review some of the concepts we've been exploring in intro astronomy in order to better understand the relative motions of the Earth, Sun, and Moon!
132
Channon Visscher @cvisscher.bsky.social · 18/09/2025
But in the next scene we see our main character(s) on or near what appears to be the "padlock bridge" on the Seine. We again see the Moon roughly aligned with the river. But the river runs SE-NW here(!) The timing and geometry therefore make it impossible to have the full Moon in this scene.
Belly from TSITP on the padlock bridge on the Seine, with the full Moon above the river in the background.
220