iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jonathan Fortney @jjfplanet.bsky.social · 5h

The fact that this got zero traction means it was a good choice to not go for a Patty Duke-themed JWST proposal title. (They're cousins...identical cousins....)

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Andy Rivkin @asrivkin.bsky.social · 8h

We _think_ there's over 2800 submitted so far, with a bit less than 5 hours to go. I hear that 2855 went in last cycle.

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Kelly Lepo @kellylepo.bsky.social · 9h

My first thought when looking at this: very cool, but what planet is it? It's the Earth🤦‍♀️ Why does the Earth look smooth and featureless, other than the auroral ring? It's because Smile is an ultraviolet telescope, and Earth's atmosphere is opaque at ultraviolet wavelengths shorter than ~300 nm.

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Paul Byrne @theplanetaryguy.com · 10h

Oh my. The aurora borealis, seen in ultraviolet light from space. Our planet, putting on a show ✨

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Jonathan Fortney @jjfplanet.bsky.social · 9h

Identical "cousin" planets?! Sounds like this JWST proposal needs a fun title based on the 60s sitcom the Patty Duke show?! www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mr8n... (My mom used to sing the theme song when I was a kid.)

youtube.com

Classic TV Theme: The Patty Duke Show

YouTube video by David Gideon

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Jonathan Fortney @jjfplanet.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

So this happened at our hybrid in person /zoom faculty meeting yesterday....

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Jonathan Fortney @jjfplanet.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

As seen in Santa Cruz, vol. 381. Note the bottom line. No going solo!

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Yvette Cendes @whereisyvette.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

If @science.org is covering it, I guess I should share something here- we have for the first time definitively detected radio emission from a planet around another star! 🔭🧪🎢 What does this mean? Details in thread! (But TL;DR- still not aliens) 🧵 www.sciencenews.org/article/exop...

sciencenews.org

First radio waves seen from an exoplanet hint at otherworldly auroras

The gas giant Beta Pictoris b, about 63 light-years away, has the mass of 10 Jupiters and a magnetic field thousands of times as strong as Earth’s.

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Jonathan Fortney @jjfplanet.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Well, it's done. 😢 Here we go!

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Julia Raifman, ScD @juliaraifman.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Routine childhood vaccines have brought immense benefit to the US For children born 1994-2023: ⬇️ 32M fewer hospitalizations ⬇️ 1.129M fewer deaths ⬇️ $504B direct savings ⬇️ $2.7T indirect savings Both science & policy have been essential to achieving these benefits www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes...

cdc.gov

Health and Economic Benefits of Routine Childhood...

This report describes health and economic benefits from routine childhood vaccines among children born during 1994–2023.

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Planetary Science Institute @psi.edu · 18/09/2026

PSI Co-founder William Hartmann is both a planetary scientist and accomplished space artist, using his scientific understanding to help bring other worlds to life. Explore some of his visions of the Moon. ⬇️ See some of these pieces in person at PSI 9/19! Details: buff.ly/Jg9CDTw #SciArt

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Bruce Macintosh @bmacastro.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Postdoc opportunity! I'm looking for a postdoc to work with me on coronagraph performance and modeling and science. The primary project is understanding Roman with an eye to HWO; secondary project could be a side order of GPI2. aas.org/jobregister/...

aas.org

Postdoctoral Scholar in Adaptive Optics & Coronagraphy | American Astronomical Society

The Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and University of California Observatories has an opportunity for a postdoctoral researcher working on analyzi...

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Jonathan Fortney @jjfplanet.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Textbook update: I just read the whole thing.....AGAIN. I'm doing some minor tweaks but within a month I hope it will be approved by the editorial board and moved onto production (still more to do then), meaning (hopefully) a Fall 2027 publication.

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The Onion @theonion.com · 16/09/2026

Gas Station Price Sign Using Scientific Notation

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Dr. Amber Straughn (she/her) @astraughnomer.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

WOW! “As a result of exquisite planning by our orbital dynamics team, brilliant execution by the operations team, and a precise launch from SpaceX, Roman has fuel for at least 22 years of potential science ops” science.nasa.gov/blogs/roman/...

science.nasa.gov

Fuel Savings Double Potential Lifetime for NASA’s Roman Mission - NASA Science

The results are in: NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope’s very accurate first mid-course correction, along with other fuel savings, are expected to more

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Jonathan Fortney @jjfplanet.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Current view just outside my office window...

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American Astronomical Society (AAS) @aas.org · 14/09/2026

The American Astronomical Society today announced that Dr. Emily Levesque (University of Washington) has been confirmed as the next Editor in Chief of the AAS journals. 🔭https://aas.org/press/emily-levesque-named-editor-chief-aas-journals @publishing.aas.org

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Jonathan Fortney @jjfplanet.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Winner for the most "Santa Cruz" thing I saw this past week!

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Jonathan Fortney @jjfplanet.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

My wife, coming into the bathroom: "What's your favorite element"? Me, brushing teeth, mind racing!....so many choices!, maybe cesium? but just thinking, not talking.... Her, impatient: "The electrolyte drink flavors -- lemonade?" Me: "Oooh, yeah, sure. I was thinking of the periodic table. Her: 😑?!

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Jonathan Fortney @jjfplanet.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Always great to catch up with professor Eric Ford, at Penn State. We're like dinosaurs, having started our PhDs before there were *any* transiting exoplanets!

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Jonathan Fortney @jjfplanet.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

"The undergrads at UCSC had at least some sense of style. The Penn State undergrads all just wear athleisure wear or oversized Penn State gear." --Postdoc

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Mike Brown @plutokiller.com · 31/08/2026

um, no? calling it a planet in 1930 was the actual mistake. but we fixed it and are all good now thanks.

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Jonathan Fortney @jjfplanet.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Heading off to Penn State today for a 2-day visit and colloquium! Lotta exoplanet folks there!

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Jonathan Fortney @jjfplanet.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Saturday night at 9 PM. Are you *also* working on the last last changes to your draft textbook after 4 1/2 years....?

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Larry R. Nittler 🚀🎹🌖☄️ @larrynittler.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Apologies if you've heard this story before but with tomorrow's launch of the Nancy Grace Roman space telescope I’m gonna tell it again. April 1997, I was a new postdoc at @carnegiescience.bsky.social 's Dept of Terrestrial Magnetism (now Earth & Planets Lab) and was asked to give dept seminar. 1/ 🔭

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Jonathan Fortney @jjfplanet.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Yesterday was the last day of the 8th Other Worlds Laboratory exoplanet summer program at UC Santa Cruz, which brought 70 researchers to campus for stays of 1-3 weeks to build and foster research collaborations. As is customary, the last activity is the Monterey Bay sail!!

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Jonathan Fortney @jjfplanet.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Campus wildlife are ready for the last day of OWL at UC Santa Cruz!

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Jonathan Fortney @jjfplanet.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

The end of OWL, week 2, Prof Andy Skemer's BBQ at Natural Bridges State Beach!

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Phil Plait @philplait.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

The spacecraft that was hoped to boost Swift to a higher orbit has failed, and now the gamma-ray hunting space observatory is doomed to burn up in Earth's atmosphere later this year. Swift's an AMAZING mission, and I'm really sad to see it go. badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/the-swift-... 🔭🧪

badastronomy.beehiiv.com

The Swift spacecraft reboost mission has failed

Swift has a few months at most before it burns up in Earth’s atmosphere

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Jonathan Fortney @jjfplanet.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

A great pic by Zifan Lin of the UC Santa Cruz mascot, a Banana Slug, at the Other Worlds Laboratory (OWL) today. *On a redwood tree*, no less!!!

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Jonathan Fortney @jjfplanet.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

A big group for Week 2 at the Other Worlds Laboratory in Santa Cruz this week!

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Jonathan Fortney @jjfplanet.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Coffee and breakfast before the 50th Bay Area Exoplanets Meeting, at UC Santa Cruz! 50!

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Andrea Luck @andrealuck.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Scottish type eclipse in Glasgow 🤣

University of Glasgow’s Gothic looking tower beneath dark, dramatic clouds, with a partially eclipsed Sun glowing through the clouds in the background.

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Jonathan Fortney @jjfplanet.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Well, "not being department chair" lasted all of 6 weeks. Tomorrow morning I'm filling in for the real chair (Raja) in a Science Division chairs' meeting with the Dean....

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Jonathan Fortney @jjfplanet.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

Other Worlds Laboratory (OWL) Exoplanet Summer Program, Day 1, prepped and ready!!!

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Jonathan Fortney @jjfplanet.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Part of what we need to solve clouds in brown dwarf atmospheres.

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Jonathan Fortney @jjfplanet.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

. @sagnikmukherjee.bsky.social gave a copy of his impressive *540-page* PhD thesis! To quote Jackie Faherty: "Sagnick, holy shit!!". 😜

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Jonathan Fortney @jjfplanet.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

"I did not like that decade. The only good things to come out of the 70's were you and your brother." --my mom

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

Trump administration admits, in court filings, that it canceled billions in federal grants not for policy or performance reasons, but because recipients lived in blue states. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/24/b...

Months later, in court filings, federal officials indicated there was little else that had informed the final decision about which grants to cancel.

“With one exception,” a lawyer for the Energy Department conceded in a court filing this month, “the 284 terminated grants had a recipient location and/or at least one place of performance in a state that awarded its electoral votes to Kamala Harris in the 2024 election and has two Democratic-caucusing senators.”

The lawyer acknowledged that none of the grants were included in the October terminations “based on any programmatic, statutory, cost-reduction or performance-based factor.”

In contrast, the administration left untouched hundreds of additional energy grants in states that were represented by Republicans and had backed Mr. Trump in the last election, even though the Energy Department had recommended canceling them, the government confirmed in the July court filing.

The cancellations coincided with a broader White House effort at the time to pressure Democratic lawmakers to cave in a fight over funding that had shut down the government. That month, Mr. Trump had vocalized the strategy: He threatened openly to slash what he described as “Democrat agencies,” while Mr. Vought announced a series of additional spending cuts targeting other Democratic-led states.

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Jonathan Fortney @jjfplanet.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

18 months in, I thought that I'd made a terrible mistake. I wanted to just take my grant money, move to a soft money institute, and work by myself as long as I could. The first years are hard!

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Jonathan Fortney @jjfplanet.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

I find this brand of "alternative" environmentally friendly home products to be really hilarious.

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Jonathan Fortney @jjfplanet.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

Sheesh, Haaland of Norway is twice the size of these Brazil players.

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Brian Tyler Cohen @briantylercohen.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

"The success of the US soccer team comes in spite of Trump, not because of him. Half the roster is made up of dual citizens, foreign-born players, and immigrants... You can’t take credit for the team's success while simultaneously trying to eliminate the conditions necessary for it to exist."

plus.briantylercohen.com

Trump’s Plans for America 250 get Cooked, as the World Cup Shines

While Trump’s long planned propaganda party wilts in the heat, America embraces the World Cup.

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