iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Dr Ryan MacDonald

Royal Astronomical Society @royalastrosoc.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

🚨 Astronomy cuts update 🚨 Next Tuesday (1 September) a debate about the ongoing funding crisis will take place in Westminster Hall from 1-1.30pm. 🗣️🔭 The RAS welcomes the debate and is encouraging all Fellows to contact their MPs to urge them to attend. ✍️ Find out more 👉️ ras.ac.uk/news-and-pre...

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Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans @astroroyalscot.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

"There are shades of the departed Starmer government in this saga: @ukri.org wants to tell a big story about science funding going up, but instead is mired in a row over a fairly minor sum.... One does not have to be an astronomer to know that optics matter." 👌🔭 www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

theguardian.com

The Guardian view on the Lovell telescope: budget cuts to physics are bad science and worse politics | Editorial

Editorial: Funders have picked a damaging fight with scientists and the public. They should reconsider their plans

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Reposted by Dr Ryan MacDonald

ESA Space Science @science.esa.int · 01/07/2026

Can a planet survive the death of its star? ☠️ For WD 1856 b, the answer is yes, based on Webb observations. 🔭 🧪 ☄️ 1/2

Illustration of exoplanet WD 1856 b. An orange gas giant planet at left, taking up about one-third of the frame, facing a star, which appears at top right as a far smaller bright dot. The planet has subtle orange cloud bands. The star illuminates the right side of the planet like the crescent of a waxing moon. Both are on the black background of space. The words “artist’s concept” are in the bottom right corner. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, R. Crawford (STScI)

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Dr Ryan MacDonald @distantworlds.space · 01/07/2026

🚨 New research alert 🚨 We have found an atmosphere on a planet orbiting a dead star 🔭✴️💀🪐 Our James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) observations of the white dwarf planet WD 1856b give us a preview into the fate of planets like Jupiter after the death of the Sun. 🧵⬇️ (1/10)

Artist concept of the white dwarf planet WD 1856b

Caption:
Exoplanet WD 1856 b, shown in this artist’s concept, is a gas giant that survived the death of its star. It now orbits a white dwarf at a distance 50 times closer than Earth orbits the Sun. Observations by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope not only determined the planet’s temperature but also detected molecules in its atmosphere. The former measurement provides evidence that WD 1856 b migrated to its current location billions of years after its star became a white dwarf.

Credits:
NASA, ESA, CSA, Ralf Crawford (STScI)

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Dr Ryan MacDonald @distantworlds.space · 09/06/2026

Kicking off #BPSC26 with a workshop on exoplanet atmosphere spectroscopy for planetary scientists. Be sure to follow @bpsc2026.bsky.social for updates over this 3 day conference! 🪐 🔭

Slide show 'Measuring Exoplanet Atmospheres with the James Webb Space Telescope' with Dr Ryan MacDonald (St Andrews) standing next to the screen.

Part of a Jupiter notebook for the BPSC 2026 Exoplanet Workshop showing a transiting exoplanet.

Part of a Jupiter notebook for the BPSC 2026 Exoplanet Workshop, showing a James Webb Space Telescope spectrum of the giant planet WASP-39b

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Reposted by Dr Ryan MacDonald

Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans @astroroyalscot.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

"Someone, somewhere, has taken the decision to defund astrophysics research in the UK, but no-one seems quite sure who that was, or why." The latest on the impact of the catastrophic funding cuts to UK astrophysics, by me, in @natastron.nature.com 👩‍🔬🧪🔭 ✒️ www.nature.com/articles/s41...

World View: A change in UK policy jeopadizes the future of UK astrophysics - By Catherine Heymans

The latest budget proposal announced by the largest UK science funding agency threatens to severely affect UK astrophysics research. My colleagues and I are fighting back.

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Reposted by Dr Ryan MacDonald

Josh Lothringer @jlothringer.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

These are awesome positions where you'll play critical roles in STScI's missions (HST, JWST, Roman)! Definitely apply if interested! Feel free to reach out if you've any questions.

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Reposted by Dr Ryan MacDonald

Emily Rauscher @astronemly.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

Woohoo! Robert Frazier, PhD student who did his pre-candidate project with me, had it accepted for publication today! An impressive comparison of a JWST spectroscopic phase curve to a set of 3-D models (of the ultra-hot Jupiter WASP-121b). Preprint here: arxiv.org/abs/2605.01589

arxiv.org

The Days Drag On on WASP-121 b: Interpreting its NIRISS Spectroscopic Phase Curve with General Circulation Models

Ultra-hot Jupiters present extreme atmospheric phenomena not found in the Solar System. These planets' daysides experience strong temperature inversions, molecular species (including H2) dissociate, a...

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Reposted by Dr Ryan MacDonald

British Planetary Science Conference 2026 @bpsc2026.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

Calling all planetary scientists: The #BPSC26 abstract and early-bird registration deadline of May 9th is soon approaching! Email us your abstracts following the instructions at tinyurl.com/4x8tm6bu, and register for the conference at tinyurl.com/yvnxf6jw. Come share your science with us in June!

tinyurl.com

Abstracts and Presenter Details – BPSC2026

You must be registered to have your contribution (oral/poster) included in the conference.

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Dr Ryan MacDonald @distantworlds.space · 01/04/2026

Incredible to see the #Artemis II mission finally launch! 🤩 For the first time in my life, humans are going back to the Moon 🌎🚀🌕

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Dr Ryan MacDonald @distantworlds.space · 21/03/2026

I had a great time chatting to Max Klymenko on the Career Ladder! Can he guess my job at @uniofstandrews.bsky.social within 2 minutes? 🤓 youtube.com/shorts/JaclY...

youtube.com

His job is BIZZARE and asks a question? 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Ep. 531 🪜

YouTube video by Max Klymenko

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Reposted by Dr Ryan MacDonald

International Astronomical Youth Camp @iayc.bsky.social · 01/01/2026

✨ Applications for the 2026 International Astronomical Youth Camp are now open! ✨🚀 Join us in Spain for the 60th lAYC celebration and experience an unforgettable total solar eclipse! 🌘 Head to our First Info page via the link in our bio to apply! Clear skies 🌌 🔭🎢 #EduSky #scicomm #astroedu

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Dr Ryan MacDonald @distantworlds.space · 12/03/2026

🚨 Job vacancy! We are recruiting a Computing Officer for the School of Physics and Astronomy at St Andrews ⚛️🔭 High-Performance Computing is critical to our work on understanding the Universe, including the search for life on other planets. 🪐🧑‍💻🖥️ www.vacancies.st-andrews.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/...

vacancies.st-andrews.ac.uk

Computing Officer (Academic Computing) - AD2860

Computing Officer (Academic Computing) - AD2860, IT Services Salary: Grade 6 / £38,784-£46,049pa Start date: 1 June 2026 Full time Permanent, <p style="color: #212529; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0...

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Dr Ryan MacDonald @distantworlds.space · 04/03/2026

Quite the crowd today in St Andrews for Max Klymenko filming the Career Ladder. I had a blast discussing our search for life of #exoplanets 🪐 🔭 Max asked many @uniofstandrews.bsky.social staff and students about their jobs - keep an eye out for the episode!

Max Klymenko and Ryan MacDonald standing on a ladder surrounded by a crowd of people.

In the background are the old stone buildings of St Salvator's quad in St Andrews, Scotland.

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Reposted by Dr Ryan MacDonald

Royal Astronomical Society @royalastrosoc.bsky.social · 16/02/2026

We have written to Science Minister Lord Patrick Vallance urging him to step him and help reverse the cuts to astronomy and space science proposed by the Science and Technology Facilities Council last month. Read the letter in full 👉️ ras.ac.uk/news-and-pre...

ras.ac.uk

'Reverse the cuts': RAS urges Vallance to avert scientific crisis

The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) has called on science minister Patrick Vallance to step in and prevent the "catastrophic damage to astronomy and space science" ...

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Reposted by Dr Ryan MacDonald

British Planetary Science Conference 2026 @bpsc2026.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

BPSC2026 Registration and Abstract Submission is open! Information on rates, discounted accommodation and abstract format can be found here bpsc2026.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/registration/ Early bird rates are available til 9th May 2026, which is the same day as the abstract deadline!

bpsc2026.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk

Registration – BPSC2026

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Dr Ryan MacDonald @distantworlds.space · 14/01/2026

We're excited to be hosting the British Planetary Society Conference in St Andrews this summer! One of our aims for BPSC 2026 is to connect the Solar System #planetaryscience and #Exoplanets communities. Be sure to follow the conference page for more details: ⬇️🪐🌍🧪⬇️

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Reposted by Dr Ryan MacDonald

Royal Astronomical Society @royalastrosoc.bsky.social · 24/10/2025

Job vacancy 💻📝 Passionate about building vibrant professional communities? The RAS is seeking a dynamic Head of Membership to develop and deliver our membership strategy and play a pivotal role in growing our membership through retention and recruitment. Apply here👇 ras.ac.uk/news-and-pre...

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Dr Ryan MacDonald @distantworlds.space · 03/10/2025

The Norman Lockyer Fellowship is a great opportunity for postdoc research in #Exoplanets, and we'd love to host you at St Andrews! Feel free to reach out if you're interested in joining our exoplanet group in beautiful Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🪐

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Dr Ryan MacDonald @distantworlds.space · 13/08/2025

We looked for an atmosphere on TRAPPIST-1d using JWST, but we didn't see any atmospheric absorption. So TRAPPIST-1d is quite different from Earth, despite lying just inside the habitable zone. The planet is either: ➡️ A bare rock. ➡️ Very cloudy. ➡️ Has a thin, Mars-like atmosphere. #Exoplanets 🔭

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Reposted by Dr Ryan MacDonald

Hannah Wakeford @stellarplanet.bsky.social · 28/07/2025

If you want know all things #HabitableWorldsObservatory then follow @drjovian.bsky.social for the next two days as she posts from the #HWO25 meeting in Washington DC. Thanks Jo for keeping us posted ☺️

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Dr Ryan MacDonald @distantworlds.space · 11/07/2025

Wow! I wonder if astronomers using AI to 'assist' their coding also have the same overall *slowdown* found by the study below? 👇🔭

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Dr Ryan MacDonald @distantworlds.space · 30/06/2025

Seems I'm a trusted news source for astronomy! 🔭 I'd encourage other professional astronomers to fill in the short official Bluesky form to apply for verification: bsky.social/about/blog/0...

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Reposted by Dr Ryan MacDonald

Sergey Yurchenko @trovemaster.bsky.social · 29/06/2025

Thank you @distantworlds.space and @drjovian.bsky.social for bsky covering the conference.

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Dr Ryan MacDonald @distantworlds.space · 29/06/2025

Last talk of the conference! Patricio Ernesto Cubillos (INAF Osservatorio Astrofisico di Torino): Upper-Atmosphere Exoplanet Constraints from Ultraviolet Transmission Observations. #Exoplanets #AllTheWavelengths

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Dr Ryan MacDonald @distantworlds.space · 29/06/2025

Marco Pezzella (Università G. Annunzio Chieti-Pescar): NRMolCol: Inelastic Scattering Data for (exo)Planetary Atmospheres. #Exoplanets #AllTheWavelengths

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Dr Ryan MacDonald @distantworlds.space · 29/06/2025

Rafael Rianco-Silva (Instituto de Astrofisica e Ciencias do Espaco / UCL): A Study of Very High-Resolution Visible Spectra of Titan: Line Characterisation in Visible CH4 and the Search for C3. #AllTheWavelengths

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Dr Ryan MacDonald @distantworlds.space · 29/06/2025

Oleksiy Smola (UCL): Towards a Spectroscopic Potential Energy Surface of Methanol. #AllTheWavelengths

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Dr Ryan MacDonald @distantworlds.space · 29/06/2025

Final conference day of 'Spectroscopy of #Exoplanets: Across #AllTheWavelengths'. Helgi Hróðmarsson (Paris-Est Créteil): Addressing Laboratory Challenges in the VUV for Exoplanet Atmospheres: Photodissociation and Photoionization.

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Dr Ryan MacDonald @distantworlds.space · 28/06/2025

Haitao Li (Chinese Academy of Scientists): The Earth 2.0 (ET) Space Mission. #Exoplanets #AllTheWavelengths

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Dr Ryan MacDonald @distantworlds.space · 28/06/2025

Gopal Hazra ( IIT Kanpur): Constraining Atmospheric Evaporation Rate From Gas Giants by Simultaneous Modelling of Lyman-α, Hα and Helium Transit Spectra. #Exoplanets #AllTheWavelengths

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Dr Ryan MacDonald @distantworlds.space · 28/06/2025

Jo Barstow (Open University): Three Years of Transiting Exoplanet Spectroscopy with JWST. #Exoplanets #AllTheWavelengths

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Dr Ryan MacDonald @distantworlds.space · 28/06/2025

David Haegele (MPIA): RACER (RApid Calculation of Exoplanetary Radiative Opacities): a New PYTHON Package to Efficiently Calculate Opacities. #Exoplanets #AllTheWavelengths

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Dr Ryan MacDonald @distantworlds.space · 28/06/2025

Matthieu Ravet (Côte d'Azur): Multi-Modal Atmospheric Characterisation of β Pictoris-b: Adding High-Resolution Continuum Spectra from GRAVITY. #Exoplanets #AllTheWavelengths

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Dr Ryan MacDonald @distantworlds.space · 28/06/2025

Sergey Yurchenko (UCL): How to Characterise Uncertainties in Molecular Opacities: An ExoMol Study. #Exoplanets #AllTheWavelengths

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Dr Ryan MacDonald @distantworlds.space · 28/06/2025

Éric Hébrard (Exeter): Some Like it Hot, Some Like it Cold, Some Like it Mild but Old: Chemical Kinetics of (Exo)planetary Atmospheres. #Exoplanets #AllTheWavelengths

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Dr Ryan MacDonald @distantworlds.space · 28/06/2025

Elizabeth Guest (UCL): Predicting the Rotational Dependence of Line-Broadening Using Machine Learning. #Exoplanets #AllTheWavelengths

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Dr Ryan MacDonald @distantworlds.space · 28/06/2025

Louis Siebenaler (Leiden): New Mean-Opacity Tables for Probing Stable Stratification in Giant Planets. #Exoplanets #AllTheWavelengths

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Dr Ryan MacDonald @distantworlds.space · 28/06/2025

Jack Davey (UCL): Investigating the Influence of Asymmetric Error Bars in Retrievals of Exoplanet Transmission Spectra. #Exoplanets #AllTheWavelengths

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Dr Ryan MacDonald @distantworlds.space · 28/06/2025

Sarah Casewell (Leicester): Irradiated Brown Dwarfs and Their Desert. #Exoplanets #AllTheWavelengths

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Dr Ryan MacDonald @distantworlds.space · 28/06/2025

Ray Jayawardhana (Johns Hopkins): Spectroscopy of Free-Floating Planetary-Mass Objects and their Disks with JWST. #Exoplanets #AllTheWavelengths

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Dr Ryan MacDonald @distantworlds.space · 28/06/2025

Ahmed Al-Refaie (UCL): Next Generation Methods for Simulating Exoplanet Atmospheres. #Exoplanets #AllTheWavelengths

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Dr Ryan MacDonald @distantworlds.space · 28/06/2025

Mitchell Yzer (Oxford): The Prospects of Using High-Resolution Spectroscopy to Search for Technosignature Gases on Nearby Rocky Exoplanets with the ELT. #AllTheWavelenghts

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Dr Ryan MacDonald @distantworlds.space · 28/06/2025

Day 3 of Spectroscopy of #Exoplanets: Across #AllTheWavelengths. Hannah Wakefield (Bristol): The Importance of UV-Optical Spectra of Giant Exoplanets.

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Dr Ryan MacDonald @distantworlds.space · 27/06/2025

James O’Donoghue (Reading): Probing the Most Revealing Layers of the Giant Planets. #Exoplanets #AllTheWavelengths

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Dr Ryan MacDonald @distantworlds.space · 27/06/2025

Parul Janagal (Blue Skies Space): Blue Skies Space - A New Model for the Future of Space-Based Research Data. #Exoplanets #AllTheWavelengths

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Dr Ryan MacDonald @distantworlds.space · 27/06/2025

Armando Perri (UCL): Temperature-Dependent Photodissociation Cross-Sections and Rates for H2S and NH. #Exoplanets #AllTheWavelengths

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Dr Ryan MacDonald @distantworlds.space · 27/06/2025

Patrick Tisserand (IAP, Paris): Hydrogen Deficient Carbon-Rich Supergiant Stars: Tracing their Atmospheres Rich in the Oxygen-18 Isotope to their White Dwarf Merger Origin. #AllTheWavelenghts

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