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Forming Worlds Lab @formingworlds.space · 15/09/2026

🌍✨ Last week, the FormingWorlds group attended the Europlanet Science Congress (#EPSC2026) in The Hague. We had a great time with Karen Stuitje, Saphira Brandenberger, @marianasastre.bsky.social, Emeline Decocq, @marattia.bsky.social, Lorenzo Cesario, Ema Jungová & @timlichtenberg.bsky.social!

The FormingWorlds research group smiling together at the Europlanet Science Congress 2026 in The Hague. Eight members are standing in a conference venue hall.

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Forming Worlds Lab @formingworlds.space · 08/09/2026

Accepted earlier this year in A&A, work led by Mara Attia (@marattia.bsky.social) tackles a core problem in exoplanet interiors: "PALEOS: Multiphase equations of state and mass-radius relations for exoplanet interiors" 🌍 Read: arxiv.org/abs/2605.03741 #Exoplanets

Portrait of Mara Attia with an overlaid white card displaying the title 'PALEOS: Multiphase equations of state and mass-radius relations for exoplanet interiors' and author names.

Screenshot of the paper abstract detailing how internal temperature shifts the mass-radius relationship of rocky exoplanets.

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Forming Worlds Lab @formingworlds.space · 28/08/2026

The JWST campaign on TOI-561 b, led by @johannateske.bsky.social, continues to deliver surprises! Samuel Boucher (supervised by @astrolisadang.bsky.social) just posted a new phase curve study on this lava world.

JWST phase curve from the general circulation model that best matches TOI-561 b

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Forming Worlds Lab @formingworlds.space · 24/08/2026

Earlier this summer, Mariana Sastre (@marianasastre.bsky.social) posted her first paper as lead author 🌋 "Geophysical and atmospheric implications of fO2-dependent melting on rocky exoplanets" Read the paper: arxiv.org/abs/2606.20249 #Exoplanets #PlanetaryScience

Line plot of pressure against temperature showing where mantle rock begins and finishes melting, for five oxidation states from four log units below the iron-wüstite buffer to four above. Solid lines mark the solidus and dashed lines the liquidus. The curves fan out across the plot: the most reduced case, in dark blue, melts several hundred kelvin hotter at any given pressure than the most oxidised case, in dark pink.

Portrait of Mariana Sastre, smiling, against a plain background.

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Forming Worlds Lab @formingworlds.space · 31/07/2026

New paper from Lorenzo Cesario 🔭 His third first-author paper, and he only finished his MSc this year. "Characterizing the oxidation state of rocky exoplanets with the Large Interferometer for Exoplanets (LIFE)" Read the paper: arxiv.org/abs/2607.28121 #Exoplanets #PlanetaryScience

Six panels of mid-infrared emission spectra from 6 to 16 microns, one per mantle oxidation state. A red line marks the true model spectrum, blue bands the one, two and three sigma retrieved ranges, grey the simulated instrument noise. The three reduced cases on the top row are smooth, sloping curves with few features; the three oxidised cases below carve deep, sharp absorption bands.

Portrait of Lorenzo Cesario, smiling, wearing a light blue shirt against a plain wall.

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Forming Worlds Lab @formingworlds.space · 29/07/2026

Harrison worked closely with our group all through his PhD, and still does. His new paper asks what you can learn about an exoplanet by fitting its whole life instead of a snapshot of today. 🔭 arxiv.org/abs/2607.25845 #Exoplanets #PlanetaryScience

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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.

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Forming Worlds Lab @formingworlds.space · 21/07/2026

Last week was our annual Exoplanet Summer BBQ, in Quentin Changeat's garden in Groningen: our group and his exoplanet group together for the afternoon. Lots to catch up on, the latest from Exoplanets 6 in Porto, holiday plans, and celebrating our recent BSc and MSc graduates. 🌞

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Forming Worlds Lab @formingworlds.space · 17/07/2026

New paper led by Ioannis Panagiotou, his first as lead author, on arXiv ten days after he defended his MSc with us 🌋 "Sulfur photochemistry observationally traces mantle redox states of rocky planets" Read the paper: arxiv.org/abs/2607.15204 #Exoplanets #PlanetaryScience

Three stacked panels of synthetic emission spectra for a rocky planet around an M dwarf, plotting planet-to-star flux ratio in parts per million against wavelength from 1 to 15 microns. Coloured dashed vertical lines mark absorption features of water, methane, hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide. In the top panel, for an intermediate mantle redox state, the black curve including photochemistry drops far below the grey mixing-only curve around 7 and 9 microns, deepening the sulfur dioxide features. The effect weakens in the middle panel and disappears in the bottom panel for the most oxidised mantle. Arrows below the x-axis mark the JWST NIRSpec and MIRI wavelength ranges.

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Forming Worlds Lab @formingworlds.space · 17/07/2026

New paper led by Emma Postolec, her first as lead author, PhD student at @kapteynastro.bsky.social 🌋 "Atmospheric evolution through outgassing and escape on young molten rocky exoplanets" Read the paper: arxiv.org/abs/2607.15011 #Exoplanets #PlanetaryScience

$Six panels tracking an Earth-size planet at 0.1 astronomical units from a Sun-like star over ten thousand to ten million years, comparing a model with hydrodynamic atmospheric escape (solid lines) against one without (dashed). In the escape case the atmospheric mass falls to zero and is labelled 'Atmosphere is lost', the mantle melt fraction collapses to 'Mantle solidified', and surface temperature drops sharply. Without escape the atmospheric mass instead grows, labelled 'Atmosphere is retained', and the mantle stays molten in a 'Permanent magma ocean'. Further panels show surface volatile partial pressures, a carbon-dioxide-dominated atmosphere, and the interior volatile partitioning.$ Portrait of Emma Postolec.

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Forming Worlds Lab @formingworlds.space · 16/07/2026

New paper led by Lorenzo Cesario, his second first-author paper from his MSc 🌍 Some close-in super-Earths puff their atmospheres back up late in life instead of only shrinking. We call it reflation. Read the paper: arxiv.org/abs/2607.13793 #Exoplanets #PlanetaryScience

Schematic comparing oxidised (blue, top) and reduced (red, bottom) super-Earth atmospheres evolving over time. Three planets shrink from left to right under XUV irradiation arrows driving escape to space. Reduced atmospheres are rich in CO and hydrogen with water; oxidised atmospheres in CO2, CO and water, with SO2 appearing later. The reduced planet swells before shrinking, illustrating the reflation mechanism.

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Forming Worlds Lab @formingworlds.space · 13/07/2026

🎓 Congratulations to three bachelor's graduates in the Forming Worlds Lab: Malina Ovesen, Ioana Balint and Viesturs Streľčs, who defended their BSc theses last week at @kapteynastro.bsky.social. All from one group project on how planets lose their air to space. 🔭 #Exoplanets #PlanetaryScience

Four members of the Forming Worlds Lab stand smiling under a yellow parasol on a sunny terrace at the Kapteyn Institute in Groningen, with university buildings and green trees behind them. Two of them hold small wrapped gifts. Left to right: co-supervisor Mara Attia, BSc graduate Viesturs Streľčs, project member Renske Beuker, and group leader Tim Lichtenberg.

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Forming Worlds Lab @formingworlds.space · 10/07/2026

Big congratulations to Harrison Nicholls (@nichollsh.bsky.social) 🎓 Two prizes for his PhD on the climates of rocky worlds: the Second Thesis Prize 2026 from the @iop.org Computational Physics Group, and Highly Commended for the UK Planetary Forum Early Career Medal.

Harrison Nicholls smiling on a college rooftop, holding a bottle of prosecco. He is wearing formal academic dress: a dark suit, white shirt and black bow tie, with a dark gown over his shoulders. Behind him are slate college roofs, a spire and a partly cloudy sky.

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Forming Worlds Lab @formingworlds.space · 10/07/2026

Congratulations Harrison! 🚀🎉👽

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Forming Worlds Lab @formingworlds.space · 09/07/2026

Two Forming Worlds researchers are at Origins 2026 in Paris this week, the ISSOL astrobiology conference. Emeline Decocq and Anna Grace Ulses brought posters: one on the earliest Earth, one on false alarms for life on other worlds. With @kapteynastro.bsky.social 🔭 #PlanetaryScience #Astrobiology

Emeline Decocq (left) and Anna Grace Ulses (right) of the Forming Worlds Lab stand smiling beside their scientific posters at the Origins 2026 astrobiology conference in Paris. Decocq's poster is titled "Redox sensitivity of the surface conditions and climate state of the Hadean Earth." Ulses's poster is on the plausibility of abiotic oxygen accumulation in low non-condensable terrestrial atmospheres.

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Forming Worlds Lab @formingworlds.space · 06/07/2026

1/ Two new master's graduates in the Forming Worlds Lab! 🎓 Congratulations to Lorenzo Cesario and Ioannis Panagiotou, who both defended their MSc theses today at @kapteynastro.bsky.social with excellent work. What they did 👇 🔭 #Exoplanets #PlanetaryScience

Three people smiling in front of a framed deep-field astronomy image. Left: Ioannis Panagiotou in a black shirt holding his printed thesis. Centre: Tim Lichtenberg holding a bouquet of flowers. Right: Lorenzo Cesario in a light blue shirt holding his printed thesis.

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Forming Worlds Lab @formingworlds.space · 03/07/2026

That's a wrap on #Exoplanets6 in Porto 🇵🇹 The Forming Worlds Lab brought four posters, all using our open PROTEUS model to link a rocky world's interior (magma ocean, redox, outgassing, escape) to what JWST can observe. Featuring @marianasastre.bsky.social, @nichollsh.bsky.social & team 👇

Emma Postolec, Imre Kisvárdai, Mariana Sastre and Harrison Nicholls of the Forming Worlds Lab stand smiling in front of a large orange exo6 sculpture outside the Alfândega do Porto, venue of the Exoplanets 6 conference.

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Forming Worlds Lab @formingworlds.space · 03/07/2026

Hello, and welcome! 👋 We're the Forming Worlds Lab at @kapteynastro.bsky.social, @rug.nl. We study how rocky planets form and evolve, and what makes a world habitable, from magma oceans 🌋 to the skies of distant exoplanets 🪐, and we build the open-source PROTEUS framework our science runs on. 🔭

Around eighteen members of the Forming Worlds Lab together outdoors on a paved terrace, with trees and a university building behind them, at the University of Groningen.

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