iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by David R. Rice

Journal of Open Source Software @joss-openjournals.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Just published in JOSS: 'Magrathea v2: A planetary interior modeling platform in C++' doi.org/10.21105/joss.10692

David R. Rice @davidrrice.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Frankie mouse is at #Exoplanets6 this week. Come find me for a Magrathea v2 sticker, and check out my poster on the big mixing updates coming in v3. Poster: T3 #5 #exo6

Magrathea sticker in front of large Exo signed

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David R. Rice @davidrrice.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

Making a short presentation on the challenges of astronomy software development. Quick compilation of logos:

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David R. Rice @davidrrice.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

📣 New paper day! 🔭🪐 When a civilization stops being afraid of the dark, do it's defense mechanisms leave detectable atmospheric signatures? Explore with @radplanets.com and I the garlic smell of DMS, silver-lined clouds, and specter-countable salt limits. arxiv.org/abs/2603.28895

arxiv.org

Plan 9: Detecting Atmospheric Deterrence Against Interstellar Monsters

Exoplanet atmospheres are usually discussed as tracers of climate, chemistry, and habitability, but they may also preserve signatures of planetary defense. We consider three folklore-motivated deterre...

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Reposted by David R. Rice

Mike Lund @lowbacca.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

As it's now Wednesday in enough of the world - this is looking like a banner year for Acta Prima Aprilia, with a number of submissions in this year's issue: www.actaprimaaprilia.com/2026-issue Here's some highlights

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David R. Rice @davidrrice.bsky.social · 23/01/2026

A memorable breakout session at #RockyWorlds4 someday we’ll answer this question; for now it’ll keep us up at night. (After we catch up on sleep from a busy conference week)

James Rogers and Greg Cooke presenting “how much water do sub-Neptunes contain?”

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David R. Rice @davidrrice.bsky.social · 23/01/2026

Best conference hack: take photos of your friends presenting. Great talk Hannah!

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David R. Rice @davidrrice.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

Frankie mouse made it to Groningen. Coming to #RockyWorlds4 tomorrow! And check out Magrathea for your MR relationship or planet composition needs: github.com/Huang-CL/Mag... v2 live now and v3 already on the horizon

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Reposted by David R. Rice

Rocky Worlds Meetings @rockyworlds.bsky.social · 16/01/2026

Wondering why we've been so quiet this month? That's because we're busy preparing to welcome everyone *next week* to Groningen 🇳🇱 for... 🌋✨🚀 The ROCKY WORLDS 4 Conference 2026! 🪐✨☄️ Updates will be posted throughout the week from this account & others using the #RockyWorlds4 hashtag – stay tuned! 🔭🧪

A view of the canal in the city of Groningen, Netherlands. The sky is blue and the trees lining the water are green, so it's *definitely* not taken in January. Credit: https://www.hanze.nl/en/study/living-in-the-netherlands-and-groningen/groningen-is-waiting-for-you

A screenshot from our conference website: https://groningen2026.rockyworlds.org/

The text reads:
Rocky Worlds 4
19–23 January 2026, Groningen, Netherlands
In-person registrations for the conference are booked up.
Registration for virtual participation is open.

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David R. Rice @davidrrice.bsky.social · 08/01/2026

I was looking for my folder of posters I like, and found the 2019 Sagan Workshop poster page. Wow blast from the past, crazy how well I remember so many of the faces even though many I've only seen once or twice. nexsci.caltech.edu/workshop/201...

nexsci.caltech.edu

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David R. Rice @davidrrice.bsky.social · 04/01/2026

Officially started my postdoctoral fellowship at UW-Madison! Collaborating with Prof. Juliette Becker funded by the university's AI initiative. I haven't watch Big-10 football in ~10 years, but I think I'll have to get back into it (Go Cats!)

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Reposted by David R. Rice

Lorena Acuña @astrolore.bsky.social · 05/12/2025

Hi all! If you are looking for a conference in exoplanet interiors in 2026, check out "Layers of Understanding: Model Intercomparisons of Exoplanet Interiors": layersofunderstanding2026.github.io It will take place in MPIA's campus in April 13-17th. The registration deadline is 15 January 2026

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David R. Rice @davidrrice.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

If you invite me to give a talk, I will bring my rock collection.

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David R. Rice @davidrrice.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

Fighting the intrusive thought of sending in "looks all good. QED." for a paper review.

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David R. Rice @davidrrice.bsky.social · 14/10/2025

Two of the first works I reviewed for the Journal of Emerging Investigators got published! Galaxy rotation curves: emerginginvestigators.org/articles/25-... X-ray binary classifications: emerginginvestigators.org/articles/24-...

emerginginvestigators.org

Examination of the rotation curve for the dark matter deficient relic galaxy NGC 1277 | Journal of Emerging Investigators

JEI is a scientific journal for middle and high school scientists

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David R. Rice @davidrrice.bsky.social · 29/09/2025

I made a travel map generator ✈️🌍 Drop in a list of country codes or names → see your visited & planned trips on a world map. Runs fully in-browser (GitHub Pages). Try it here: davidrrice.github.io/TravelMap/ #Travel #Maps

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David R. Rice @davidrrice.bsky.social · 28/09/2025

Our new hydrosphere phase diagram is live for Magrathea: github.com/Huang-CL/Mag.... H2O ices, liquid, vapor, and supercritical. Largely inspired by the AQUA phase diagram from Haldemann et al. 2020, but with a couple of our own tweaks and ready to update with future EOS measurements.

A graph of pressure and temperature in the hydrosphere for a number of planets with varying surface temperatures. The curves go through the various regions of the phase diagram

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David R. Rice @davidrrice.bsky.social · 15/09/2025

I'm not sure why I've decided to die on this hill radius, but Pluto & Charon are not a "binary planet" because the barycenter lies outside Pluto. That’s a misconception. Binary just means two bodies bound together: binary stars, binary black holes, binary asteroids, binary planet.

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David R. Rice @davidrrice.bsky.social · 20/08/2025

Spent a day re-convincing myself that I know what an orbit is. Here are the barycentric orbits of Pluto-Charon and Alpha Centauri AB with correct proportions. Fun is that the radii of Pluto and Charon are even to scale with the orbit. #planetsci

The center of mass in the middle of the diagram with Pluto on a small circle and Charon on a larger circle. The eccentricity of near 0 is noted.

Alpha Centauri A and B on ellipses that are rotated 180 degrees to one another with center of mass at a focii. alpha Cen B is on larger ellipse. Makes a figure-8 like pattern.

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David R. Rice @davidrrice.bsky.social · 21/07/2025

My MIL handed me pharma-grade DMSO for mosquito bites. Not FDA approved, but my self-study found it more statistical significance than DMS on K2-18b. #exoplanets

99.9% pure DMSO in large 16 oz container.

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Reposted by David R. Rice

AstroArxiv @astroarxiv.bsky.social · 16/07/2025

Effect of Galactic Chemical Evolution on Exoplanet Properties. Jason H. Steffen (UNLV) et. al. arxiv.org/abs/2507.10942

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David R. Rice @davidrrice.bsky.social · 16/07/2025

Our new preprint just hit the arXiv: arxiv.org/abs/2507.10942 💥 We take a look at how the core mass fraction of planets may change through galactic time. My largest contribution is this plot with the planets from Weeks et al. 2025 reanalyzed with our interior model. 🔭🪐

$The core mass fraction of planets with stellar age. Old stars have planets with lower core mass fractions and newer stars have higher core mass fractions.$

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David R. Rice @davidrrice.bsky.social · 12/07/2025

Preparing to trade salt for fresh water—can you guess where I’ll be working next? Big move next summer, big science starting sooner. Excited for what’s ahead in 2026!

Me standing in front of Washburn Observatory

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Reposted by David R. Rice

Catherine 🌌 @catieslaughts.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

the woke mob killed SExtractor

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David R. Rice @davidrrice.bsky.social · 12/05/2025

A lot of words to circle back to "go around the Sun". So neat, but seriously this is how we get multiple comments saying "the Sun orbits the Earth" which is an entirely unhelpful and wrong description of nature.

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David R. Rice @davidrrice.bsky.social · 04/05/2025

I get a bit carried away with @matplotlib.org's hatching. But it's so helpful! The left plot you can pick any point in the middle and pretty quickly tell which 4 hatch marks are overlapping.

Plot of the % wt water with r-cmf of the 7 Trappist-1 planets with the 1-sigma bounds using matplotlibs hatching.

Plot of the % wt water with r-cmf of the 7 Trappist-1 planets with the 1-sigma bounds filled with a transparent color.

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Reposted by David R. Rice

AstroArxiv @astroarxiv.bsky.social · 24/04/2025

Uncertainties in the Inference of Internal Structure: The Case of TRAPPIST-1 f. David R. Rice et. al. arxiv.org/abs/2504.16201

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David R. Rice @davidrrice.bsky.social · 24/04/2025

Our new planet interior paper is accepted and up on arXiv, arxiv.org/abs/2504.16201! Explore all the knobs you can twist when modeling an Earth-like planet, in this case Trappist-1 f. Don't miss the appendix where I detail the "correct" way to plot a ternary diagram (below).... #exoplanets 🔭🧪🪐

A water-mantle-core ternary diagram showing 1-sigma bounds of 5 outer

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Reposted by David R. Rice

michael @radplanets.com · 01/04/2025

don’t give Elsevier any ideas 😭😭😭😭😭😭 “PromoPlot: Covering open-access fees by filling wasted space in corner plots” arxiv.org/abs/2503.24254

a correlation “corner” plot with the upper empty corner filled with logos of the companies that typically sponsor podcasts and YouTube videos: nordvpn, hello fresh, duolingo, better help, etc

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David R. Rice @davidrrice.bsky.social · 31/03/2025

I really really shouldn’t say anything; amazing selections for NHFP. BUT gas giants, brown dwarfs, and free floating planets being selected for “Are we alone?” is objectively funny. The answer for those “planets” is yes.

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David R. Rice @davidrrice.bsky.social · 24/03/2025

The video is here! The hardest thing I've ever done: Rim to River to Rim of the Grand Canyon. youtu.be/9SO7vJeIZ8c?...

youtu.be

Only 1% of people do this at the Grand Canyon! 🐴

YouTube video by the hiker's mix

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Reposted by David R. Rice

Kevin Hardegree-Ullman @kevinkhu.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

Our new exoplanet occurrence rate study, led by Penn State President's Postdoctoral Fellow Rachel Fernandes, gives us new insight into the evolution of young planets! Paper: iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3... Press Release: www.psu.edu/news/eberly-... 🧵1/8 #exoplanets 🔭🧪🪐

psu.edu

Combination of cosmic processes shapes the size and location of sub-Neptunes | Penn State University

Using a newly developed tool to sift through data from the NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, a team led by a Penn State astronomer has identified young sub-Neptune planets close to their s...

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David R. Rice @davidrrice.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

My strong schadenfreude over the stock market crashing has just come crashing down itself when I remembered my parents are retiring soon.

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David R. Rice @davidrrice.bsky.social · 22/12/2024

Having my first filtered coffee in 5 months since moving overseas. Spent a minute worried it was tea instead of coffee.

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David R. Rice @davidrrice.bsky.social · 09/12/2024

Please, who is teaching people that Charon doesn’t orbit Pluto?? 🔭🪐

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David R. Rice @davidrrice.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

Ah! I forgot to post when my newest paper was published in Sept. We find that in exoplanet systems with complex spacings between multiple planets (C) there are less sub-Neptunes and more super-Earths. The radius valley and peas-in-a-pod are related: iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3...

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David R. Rice @davidrrice.bsky.social · 17/11/2024

I will be shamelessly reposting my old tweets. 🔭

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David R. Rice @davidrrice.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

Now that I’m leaving the bird, my followers over there are going to skyrocket. I won’t be there to delete the bots following me every single day.

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David R. Rice @davidrrice.bsky.social · 03/10/2024

Movie poster out for what will surely be a hit film! The movie poster perfectly captures Nicholas Hoult debating how many of his own publications to recommend the authors cite. #AcademicChatter #phdlife #Reviewer2

Movie poster for Juror #2 with "Juror" replaced with "Reviewer"

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David R. Rice @davidrrice.bsky.social · 20/08/2024

I need a new break-time distraction. What's something that you can do at work that takes your mind off of things? Currently I move men around a map online, but I'm losing sleep over it.

Picture form tiktok by MrBrotein "Extremely sus of any man in their mid 20s to 30s who doesn't play a map-based strategy game."

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David R. Rice @davidrrice.bsky.social · 29/07/2024

Michael, the other postdoc in my group, kept my rattlesnake plant alive for a year! So nice to be back in my desk that sat empty for most of the year at the Open University.

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David R. Rice @davidrrice.bsky.social · 23/07/2024

Wild time to be moving overseas! Can't wait to see our new home in approximately 24 hours!

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David R. Rice @davidrrice.bsky.social · 19/06/2024

#ExSSV gave me what I thought was a preposterous idea, but today it's a preprint on arXiv! There's missing sub-Neptunes in irregularly-spaced Kepler multiplanet systems! Or should I say, "Mind the gap: gap complexity and the radius gap are correlated". arxiv.org/abs/2406.12239

arxiv.org

The Distribution of Planet Radius in Kepler Multiplanet Systems...

The distribution of small planet radius ($<$4 R$_\oplus$) is an indicator of the underlying processes governing planet formation and evolution. We investigate the correlation between the radius...

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David R. Rice @davidrrice.bsky.social · 27/03/2024

Ever had an unyielding desire, to see EVERY confirmed planet all at once? No, just me? Enjoy a long scroll at davidrrice.github.io/ExoSystemPlo... It's only about 14 meters long. (works best on desktop)((only transiting planets, sorry to the less cool discovery methods)) #Exoplanets 🪐🔭

"All the things" meme on top of many colorful circles representing host stars and planetary systems.

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David R. Rice @davidrrice.bsky.social · 12/03/2024

First time being upside down! Traveling around NZ before ExSS

Orion with Betelgeuse toward bottom left

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David R. Rice @davidrrice.bsky.social · 01/03/2024

You might be used to seeing the Trappist-1 planets on super tiny orbits. But what if you take Mercury's period and put it around T1, aka where is an 88 day orbit in the T1 system? Well here it is! I've wanted this plot for a long time so finally made it.

Orbits depicted as concentric ellipses. Trappist-1's 7 planets intermixed with circles for galilean planets. Mercury's position 3x out form T1h.

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