iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Niamh O’Sullivan

Linn Boldt-Christmas @nplinnspace.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

🔭 Really enjoyed stumbling over this paper, and in particular the sass of its title: Saturns Are Not Large Neptunes! Not every day we get a new flavour of #exoplanets — will definitely be using ”Saturnian” from now on 😊 cool work by @niamhk12.bsky.social and others! ✨🪐 arxiv.org/abs/2609.170...

Screenshot of the paper in the link of this post. The section that has been screenshotted is the first part of Section 5 - Conclusions. It reads as follows:

5 CONCLUSIONS
In this paper we have presented an empirical mass-radius relation
fitted to a sub-sample of the PlanetS catalogue, where inflated giant
planetshave been excluded. Our main results are as follows:
•Weupdatethewell-knownirradiationthresholdforgiantplanet
inflation presented in Demory & Seager (2011), defining 𝑆thr =
99 S⊕, the irradiation below which 90% of giant planets have a
radius excess Δlog 𝑅 < 2𝜎.
•We fitted our mass-radius relation to nine versions of the
inflation-cleaned sample and find that in all cases, a breakpoint was
placedbetweenNeptuneandSaturn,whileineightoutofninethere
wasalsoabreakpoint betweenSaturn and Jupiter.
•Ourbest-fitmass-radiusrelationhasthreebreakpointsandfour
distinctsegments,oneofwhichcorrespondstoaregimeofSaturnian
planets. This newly defined regime is between 54.3 ±2.7 M⊕ <
𝑀 < 257.8 ±10.8 M⊕ and has a slope of 0.270 ±0.007, with a
corresponding radiusrange of 8.0 ±0.5 R⊕< 𝑅 < 12.2 ±0.5 R⊕.
•The lower slope of the Saturnian regime compared to the Nep-
tunian regime (0.668 ±0.007) is consistent with the increased im-
portance of electron degeneracy in hydrogen-rich interiors, and the
corresponding onsetof gravitationalself-compression.

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Planets @ Oxford @oxoplanets.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Today we had the pleasure of hosting Francis Zong Lang from the University of Bern who gave a seminar about detecting terrestrial sized planets around M stars and even brown dwarfs! He also talked about how he is using his astrophysics skills to help inspire communities in Nigeria and Cameroon!

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ESA Earth Observation @esaearth.esa.int · 13/08/2026

Here comes the S̶u̶n̶ Moon 🌑 On 12 August, a total solar eclipse was visible across parts of Europe, while much of the continent experienced a partial eclipse. From space, MTG-I1 recorded the Moon’s shadow moving across Earth: www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed... 📹ESA/Eumetsat

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Niamh O’Sullivan @niamhk12.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

The sun came out! Such a beautiful location-feeling so lucky that I get to travel to see things like this!

Total eclipse over the mountain with Venus visible

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Niamh O’Sullivan @niamhk12.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Made it to Spain for the eclipse (despite the thesis deadline) but the clouds don’t seem to be in my favour. Hoping that they clear for like they did in Dallas in 2024! ☀️⛅️

View of a grassy field with a cloudy sky obscuring the sun

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Paul Byrne @theplanetaryguy.com · 05/08/2026

This is the highest-resolution view of the surface of the Sun. Ever. Taken by the NSF's Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope, features as small as 19 km across can be resolved. The wispy things are magnetic field boundaries formed by Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities. The island of Ireland for scale.

A swirling, complex view of yellow–orange–brown wisp-like features. The dark shape in the middle is a superposed outline of the island of Ireland to show scale.

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Suzanne Aigrain @airbornegrain.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

It's not just radio astronomy though. Also "not prioritised for further funding" is HARPS3 - the brand new ultra-stable high-resolution spectrograph (+ polarimeter) for the Isaac Newton Telescope in La Palma.

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Chris Lintott @chrislintott.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

Short-sighted, stupid cuts to the UKRI budget include shutting down Jodrell Bank, the icon of British astronomy. (Many other cuts too, including 20% to our brand new @vrubinobs.bsky.social). Interesting politically to shut down a major facility in...um..Manchester 🔭 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

bbc.co.uk

Jodrell Bank's Lovell telescope faces axe in science cuts, BBC understands

Astronomers warn it would tear the heart out of UK science, and leave a generation untrained.

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Planets @ Oxford @oxoplanets.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

Congratulations to Niamh O’Sullivan (@niamhk12.bsky.social) on her talk "The Search for Supergranulation across Spectral Types" at #Exo6!

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Niamh O’Sullivan @niamhk12.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Made it to #exo6 only one day late and with a partially dislocated wrist! Looking forward to a great rest of the week - it can only get better!!

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Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans @astroroyalscot.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

A full-on week, fighting to #SaveUKAstronomy & PPAN from 30% funding cuts. There were highs (👇hanging out with fab-folk) & lows (@ukri.org trying to erase history in old Council minutes) but the amazing support & ❤️ from the wonderful wide astro-community makes it all worth it. Onwards and upwards 💪🔭

A group of smiling individuals outside Westminster.

Professor Brian Cox CBE (centre) is joined by, from left, Dr Robert Ferdman, Dr Estifa'a Zaid, Dr Becky Smethurst, Dr Melissa Uchida, Professor Catherine Heymans, Professor Chris Lintott, Dr Harry Cliff, RAS President Professor Jim Wild, Professor Jon Butterworth, Dr Linda Cremonesi and Professor Nina Hatch.
Credit
Nick Willoughby/Royal Astronomical Society

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Niamh O’Sullivan @niamhk12.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

Cool Stars talk is done! Was really fun to talk about starting to investigate supergranulation in the wavelength domain! (Even if a plenary talk was a little nerve wracking!!)

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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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Niamh O’Sullivan @niamhk12.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

Officially finished my pre-doctoral fellowship at the CCA in New York investigating supergranulation in the wavelength domain! Thanks so much to everyone who made this such a wonderful experience, in particular my supervisors! Next, back to Oxford to write a thesis!

Certificate of completion for the CCA’s pre-doctoral fellowship.

Pre-doc symposium talk entitled ‘Investigating Supergranulation in the Wavelength Domain’

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Niamh O’Sullivan @niamhk12.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

Conference season has started! Excited to be finishing off my time at the Flatiron Institute by sharing my research at the New York Area Exoplanets Meeting!

Summery slide from a conference talk on exoplanets.

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zoë hackshaw @theastrozo.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

Did you know that stars have fingerprints? To help you search for them (aka to view how different types of stars have characteristically different spectra in the Gaia RVS region) I created this visualization below, best viewed on desktop! zoehackshaw.github.io/kiel_explore... Happy exploring! 🧪🔭

zoehackshaw.github.io

Zoe Hackshaw

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Terra Hunting Experiment @terrahunting.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

Before installing the detector it's essential to take some time out and see the gorgeous spectrum with your own eyes. It's impossible to capture what the eye sees but this photo gives you an idea ...

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Terra Hunting Experiment @terrahunting.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

Successful Echelle installation 🎉 The heart of HARPS3 is looking amazing 😍

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Niamh O’Sullivan @niamhk12.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

I was part of this program a few years ago and I can’t recommend it enough!

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Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans @astroroyalscot.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

The future of UK Astronomy & Particle Physics is at risk from proposed 30% funding cuts that, if implemented, will be "genuinely catastrophic". Great to see this detailed BBC report on the issue by @pallabg.bsky.social 🔭🧪⚛️ #STFCcuts #SaveUKAstronomy 🗞️: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The future of Uk scientific research. Several research projects face funding cuts. Here are some projects under threat.

Words over a picture of the extremely large telescope (ELT) under construction in Chile

Scotland's Astronomer Royal, Catherine Heymans, speaking for the UK community of astronomers, told the science select committee that the proposed cuts were "genuinely catastrophic and will be devastating for the UK."
She, along with a particle physicist, told MPs most of the potential cuts would lead to British scientists having to greatly reduce their involvement or withdraw altogether from some of the world's most important international astronomy and particle physics experiments.
Those experiments seek to answer some of the biggest questions in science. These include learning how the Universe began and how it will end, finding the first ever signs of life on planets orbiting distant stars, detecting black holes that ripple space time, mapping newborn planets around distant stars and analysing their atmospheres for signs of life. All of these are experiments in which, historically, the UK played a leading role. But now, British scientists could be largely locked out of them in the future, if the STFC does not pay its way.

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Suzanne Aigrain @airbornegrain.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

This week we are hosting the @terrahunting.bsky.social science team in Oxford. Terra Hunting will use HARPS3 which is right now being installed on the Isaac Newton Telescope in La Palma to search for nearby Earth analogues. Exciting times! @oxfordphysics.bsky.social @oxoplanets.bsky.social

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Niamh O’Sullivan @niamhk12.bsky.social · 30/11/2025

My dad is moving which means going through all my books stored at his- my Astro book collections is slightly insane it turns out. But more importantly, I found the book that started the space obsession for me! 🔭⭐️🪐

Book: questions and answers, stars and planets

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Eric Mamajek @ericmamajek.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

Big congrats to Jennifer Burt, Xavier Dumusque, and Sam Halverson on finishing their epic (instant classic) Annual Reviews of Astronomy & Astrophysics article "Precise Radial Velocities"! arxiv.org/abs/2511.01954 contains some great new graphics for talks on #exoplanets #EPRV #DopplerSpectroscopy

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Niamh O’Sullivan @niamhk12.bsky.social · 29/10/2025

HARPS3 has definitely arrived at the INT (and I was only slightly excited to see it!) @terrahunting.bsky.social

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Niamh O’Sullivan @niamhk12.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

I’ve made it to La Palma where I’ll be spending the next week observing with the TNG! Here are some mandatory photos of the observatory 🔭🌟💫

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Niamh O’Sullivan @niamhk12.bsky.social · 24/10/2025

It’s happening!! Can’t believe I arrived in La Palma the same day!

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Planets @ Oxford @oxoplanets.bsky.social · 06/10/2025

Great talk by @niamhk12.bsky.social on her talk at the Oxford Astrophysics Early Career Showcase! Teaching us all about supergranulation and the need to understand it in order to detect Earth twins!

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Caltech IPAC @caltechipac.bsky.social · 18/09/2025

The official number of exoplanets has surpassed 6,000! And you can access data on all 6,007 of them right here at IPAC 📈 🪐 Watch the video & read all about the center of the exoplanet universe (also known as NExScI!) here: www.ipac.caltech.edu/news/the-nas...

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Baptiste Klein @astroklein.bsky.social · 28/08/2025

Very excited to share that my new paper has been accepted for publication in MNRAS! We are applying Doppler Imaging to model the activity signals from the HARPS-N Sun-as-a-star spectra! We show that injected planets can be retrieved with great accuracy! ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2025MNRA... 🔭🪐🧪

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Niamh O’Sullivan @niamhk12.bsky.social · 09/08/2025

Sometimes the world is just beautiful

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Planets @ Oxford @oxoplanets.bsky.social · 04/07/2025

Congrats to DPhil student Niamh on her incredible talk! Her work on supergranulation is helping to improve our ability to detect Earth like planets around sunlike stars! You can read more of her work here: arxiv.org/abs/2506.23693

arxiv.org

Measuring the Suns radial velocity variability due to supergranulation over a magnetic cycle

In recent years supergranulation has emerged as one of the biggest challenges for the detection of Earth-twins in radial velocity planet searches. We used eight years of Sun-as-a-star radial velocity ...

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Niamh O’Sullivan @niamhk12.bsky.social · 04/07/2025

Had a great time at #eprv6 this week! We had a splinter session on supergranulation that led to some great discussions! Thank you to everyone who came!

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AstroArxiv @astroarxiv.bsky.social · 01/07/2025

Measuring the Suns radial velocity variability due to supergranulation over a magnetic cycle. Niamh K. O'Sullivan et. al. arxiv.org/abs/2506.23693

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Niamh O’Sullivan @niamhk12.bsky.social · 30/06/2025

Excited to be at #eprv6 this week! If you are here and want to talk about supergranulation come find me!

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Niamh O’Sullivan @niamhk12.bsky.social · 27/06/2025

Had a great time learning all about PLATO and the PLATO-ESP conference in Marseille this week!

Niamh O’Sullivan presenting a slide on how much we need to observe stars to detect supergranulation.

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NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory @rubinobservatory.org · 23/06/2025

Introducing...your sneak peek at the cosmos captured by NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory! Can you guess these regions of sky? This is just a small peek...join us at 11am US EDT for your full First Look at how Rubin will #CaptureTheCosmos! 🔭🧪 #RubinFirstLook ls.st/rubin-first-look-livestream

A sprawling, textured field of galaxies scattered across the deep black of space. It is filled with the delicate smudges and glowing cores of galaxies of many shapes, sizes and colors, as well as the bright multi-colored points of stars. The image focuses on a collection of interacting galaxies connected by delicate streams of stars. At top center lies a large elliptical galaxy that is dense and smooth, like a polished stone glowing with golden light. Like delicate spider silk or stretched taffy, these stellar bridges link the large elliptical to the few larger galaxies beneath, evidence of past collisions.

All throughout the image, thousands of galaxies gather in clusters or are spread throughout, like glittering gems strewn on a table. Some are sharp-edged and spiral, like coiled ribbons; others round and diffuse, like polished pebbles. Still others are just smudges of various colors against the black of space. The background is peppered with pinpoint stars in reds, yellows, and blues, crisp against the velvet black.

A cosmic tapestry of glowing tan and pink gas clouds with dark dust lanes. In the upper right, the Trifid Nebula resembles a small flower in space. Its soft, pinkish gas petals are surrounded by blue gas, and streaked with dark, finger-like veins of dust that divide it into three parts. It radiates a gentle, misty glow, diffuse and soft like the warmth of breath on a cold hand. To the lower left, the much larger Lagoon Nebula stretches wide like a churning sea of magenta gas, with bright blue, knotted clumps sprinkled throughout where new stars are born. Both nebulae are embedded in a soft tan backdrop of gas that is brighter on the left than on the right, etched with dark tendrils of dust and sprinkled with the pinpricks of millions of stars.

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Maike Osborne @maosbot.bsky.social · 21/06/2025

Don't sleep on Gaussian processes. Most under-rated model class on this or any other planet (we've used Gaussian processes to study exo-planets!)

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Dr Jake Taylor @astrojake.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

Spent the evening at @wolfsonoxford.bsky.social learning about astronomy in ancient Mesopotamia! It was fascinating!

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Niamh O’Sullivan @niamhk12.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

We had a great talk by @moudhy.bsky.social at @wolfsonoxford.bsky.social AstroClub this evening! Thank you so much to everyone who came along and especially to Moudhy for such a great talk!

Halley’s Comet and recordings of the comet from 164 BCE

Calculations of distance travelled by Jupiter from ancient clay tablets

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Terra Hunting Experiment @terrahunting.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

... and the picture of the grism in its holder just before installation - how beautiful is this?!

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Niamh O’Sullivan @niamhk12.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

Come join us if you are interested in astronomy, history, or both! Should be a great event!

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Niamh O’Sullivan @niamhk12.bsky.social · 01/05/2025

Happy May Morning from Oxford 🌸 🌺🌻

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Emily Hunt @emily.space · 17/04/2025

Reading more about this, I'm disappointed in the authors of this study & how they've turned a very marginal result into worldwide press releases. In this climate, we as scientists have a responsibility to lead by example and represent our work accurately to the press. This is not that. ☄️🔭🧪

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Terra Hunting Experiment @terrahunting.bsky.social · 06/04/2025

Hello World!

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Planets @ Oxford @oxoplanets.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

Congratulations to Niamh O’Sullivan (@niamhk12.bsky.social) on her pop up talk advertising her poster, which describes her research on understanding stellar supergranulation in order to find Earth twins 🔭 #ukexom25

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Niamh O’Sullivan @niamhk12.bsky.social · 29/03/2025

Partial solar eclipse in the UK! Sharing my love of the Sun with my friends! ☀️🔭⭐️

2 friends watching a partial solar eclipse

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ESA Operations @operations.esa.int · 27/03/2025

Goodbye, Gaia.

'Bye' appears in the status of Gaia's subsystems as the spacecraft is powered down and switched off for the final time

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