Reposted by Sean Raymond (planetplanet.net)Nautilus Magazine @nautil.us · 09/12/2024We've made a starter pack of Nautilus contributors! A great way to jumpstart your Bluesky experience with great science minds. go.bsky.app/RbETK5c 88629
Sean Raymond (planetplanet.net) @planetplanet.bsky.social · 08/09/2026A couple of great talks coming at the @labastrobordeaux.bsky.social on Fri Oct 2. Make sure to sign up first! smr.u-bordeaux.fr/departement-...smr.u-bordeaux.frConférence SMR « De l'apparition de la vie sur Terre aux mondes habitables » - 2 Octobre 2026Purificacion Lopez-Garcia (Membre de l'Académie des Sciences, DR CNRS Paris-Saclay) et Martin Turbet (LAB Université de Bordeaux). Amphithéâtre B18, 17h30 001
Reposted by Sean Raymond (planetplanet.net)Space Telescope Science Institute @stsci.edu · 28/08/2026Named for NASA's first chief astronomer, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is expected to reveal new information about the expansion of the universe and discover multitudes of planets orbiting distant stars. #NASARoman 🔭 npr.orgNASA is about to launch a space telescope that could change how we see the universeNASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launches Aug. 30 on a mission to explore some of the most pressing mysteries of the cosmos. 27824
Sean Raymond (planetplanet.net) @planetplanet.bsky.social · 25/08/2026Published version of our new review on planetary ejection (led by @malenarice.bsky.social, and with Will DeRocco) is out now! iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1...iopscience.iop.orgThe Dynamics of Planetary EjectionThe Dynamics of Planetary Ejection, Rice, Malena, DeRocco, William, Raymond, Sean N. 0103
Reposted by Sean Raymond (planetplanet.net)Corey S. Powell @coreyspowell.bsky.social · 18/08/2026I needed something spectacular, and here it is: a view of the August 12 solar eclipse as seen from South Korea's Danuri satellite, in orbit around the Moon. You can see the lunar shadow sweeping across Greenland. 🔭🧪 www.mt.co.kr/amp/tech/202... 520462
Reposted by Sean Raymond (planetplanet.net)Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans @astroroyalscot.bsky.social · 15/08/2026This is a pleasing factoid: the Nancy Grace Roman space telescope is the same size and weight as a T-Rex! Countdown: 15 days to launch! 🚀 AUG 30, 2026 11:26 UTC ℹ️: science.nasa.gov/mission/roma... 1025584
Sean Raymond (planetplanet.net) @planetplanet.bsky.social · 31/07/2026In an alternate Universe, maybe. If that setup ever happened, there would've been no rescuing the Solar System! 020
Sean Raymond (planetplanet.net) @planetplanet.bsky.social · 28/07/2026There is definitely some erosion of the Oort cloud during both encounters and generally while stars putz around in the Galaxy -- see for example Kaib et al ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2011Icar... Hanse et al ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2018MNRA...ui.adsabs.harvard.edu 110
Sean Raymond (planetplanet.net) @planetplanet.bsky.social · 28/07/2026In this new paper we showed that interstellar objects can be captured as a byproduct of stars flying by each other in the Galaxy (no planets involved). It only works for strong-enough encounters, probably just a few for the Sun during its history. It means that all stars have (sparse) Oort clouds 2237
Sean Raymond (planetplanet.net) @planetplanet.bsky.social · 07/07/2026I fell asleep and forgot my June 15th tradition of reminding the world that something amazing may have happened on June 15, 2014 -- but no one on Earth saw it.. planetplanet.net/2014/06/04/s... 030
Sean Raymond (planetplanet.net) @planetplanet.bsky.social · 30/06/2026For #AsteroidDay, here is a good ol' poem about, well, asteroids! planetplanet.net/2020/06/30/a...planetplanet.netAsteroids — the poem – planetplanet 120
Sean Raymond (planetplanet.net) @planetplanet.bsky.social · 30/06/2026A nice write-up of a new paper by Nate Kaib and myself by @starstryder.space. The punchline: the orbits of long-period comets appear to hold a signature of the flyby of the star HD 7977, which happened 2.5 million years ago! phys.org/news/2026-06...phys.orgAncient stellar flyby may still be steering long-period comets todayThe Gaia mission has allowed researchers to understand the motions of stars like never before, even revealing possible interactions between our solar system and nearby stars. Planetary Science Institu... 1216
Sean Raymond (planetplanet.net) @planetplanet.bsky.social · 10/06/2026I never thought I'd get the chance to shake hands with the president and have a one-on-one chat -- for a solid 15 seconds, during which one subject of conversation was, indeed, my tie (thanks to Marisa for suggesting it!) 1170
Reposted by Sean Raymond (planetplanet.net)Paul Byrne @theplanetaryguy.com · 01/06/2026Left: the comet in Deep Impact (1998) Centre: the comet in Armageddon (1998) Right: an actual, real-life comet (2015) 1012919
Sean Raymond (planetplanet.net) @planetplanet.bsky.social · 23/05/2026@elizabethtasker.bsky.social made an amazing and amazingly clear all about sample return mission from asteroids. Well worth your time! 041
Sean Raymond (planetplanet.net) @planetplanet.bsky.social · 20/05/2026I love this new paper about planets in AGN disks around supermassive black holes! arxiv.org/abs/2605.19241 Naturally, it also helps to motivate some of the crazy planetary systems I've built: planetplanet.net/2018/06/01/t...arxiv.orgActive Galactic Nucleus Tori: Potential Birthplace to Millions of PlanetsThe outer regions of AGN disks have temperatures similar to those of circumstellar disks, permitting dust condensation. Therefore, planet formation and growth could be active in these dust tori throug... 4289
Reposted by Sean Raymond (planetplanet.net)Paul Byrne @theplanetaryguy.com · 11/05/2026For your Monday, here's one of the JWST Deep Field images. This is a portion of the sky about one-fifth the size of a full Moon. And it contains THOUSANDS of galaxies—some of which extend back to when the Universe was a couple of billion years old. The redder a galaxy, the farther away it is. 724661
Reposted by Sean Raymond (planetplanet.net)Opinion Editor @ Bluesky @dly.bsky.social · 08/04/2026how have I never seen this Georgia O'Keefe painting called "Ladder to the Moon" 😭 1537960
Reposted by Sean Raymond (planetplanet.net)Stephen Kane @exocytherean.bsky.social · 09/02/2026This week in my "Planets in Science Fiction" class, I will be discussing the amazing short story "Nightfall" by Isaac Asimov and its insights into the nature of scientific bias. Also be sure to check out the incredible work of @planetplanet.bsky.social at planetplanet.net. 081
Sean Raymond (planetplanet.net) @planetplanet.bsky.social · 30/01/2026It's official. I just took over as the new director of the Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Bordeaux (@labastrobordeaux)! It's a whole new gig -- wish me luck! 4243
Sean Raymond (planetplanet.net) @planetplanet.bsky.social · 05/01/2026Bummer! Reminds me of the Kepler-186 triple transit of 2014 that we didn't get time to observe planetplanet.net/2014/06/04/s...planetplanet.netSomething amazing will happen on June 15th but no one on Earth will see it – planetplanet 020
Sean Raymond (planetplanet.net) @planetplanet.bsky.social · 23/12/2025Looks like the link's not working. You can access the paper here: arxiv.org/abs/2512.07979arxiv.orgWas the Solar System's dynamical instability triggered by a (sub)stellar flyby?An instability among the giant planets' orbits can match many aspects of the Solar System's current orbital architecture. We explore the possibility that this dynamical instability was triggered by th... 120
Sean Raymond (planetplanet.net) @planetplanet.bsky.social · 22/12/2025My new paper with Nate Kaib explores what triggered the dynamical instability that took place among the giant planets in the young Solar System. We show that the flyby of a low-mass brown dwarf or free-floating planet could have done it (probability ~5%). ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2025arXi... 1306
Sean Raymond (planetplanet.net) @planetplanet.bsky.social · 14/12/2025Last week, my son Zack shadowed me at my department for a week. I put him to work but I gave him a choice -- and he decided to simulate rings of planets and stars orbiting a black hole. And he wrote a blog post about it for your reading enjoyment (with gif!) planetplanet.net/2025/12/13/b... 091
Sean Raymond (planetplanet.net) @planetplanet.bsky.social · 28/11/2025About 100 billion humans have walked the Earth. About 100 billion stars roam the Milky Way galaxy. About 10,000 humans have ever been paid to study the stars (if anyone has better data let me know). So, modern astronomers are each lucky to the tune of 1 in 10 million! 050
Sean Raymond (planetplanet.net) @planetplanet.bsky.social · 18/11/2025Here's a teaser: me on the beach showing how a basketball does not match 'Oumuamua's light curve! My favorite was the "making a comet" demo with dry ice, or maybe going to check out the Vera Rubin telescope in Chile. 161
Sean Raymond (planetplanet.net) @planetplanet.bsky.social · 18/11/2025If you live in France, a new documentary about 'Oumuamua comes out Thursday evening, starting at 9pm on the France 5. Replays on france.tv after I was scientific advisor (and I show up in several places), which was a great pleasure. www.francetvpro.fr/contenu-de-p...france.tvFrance TV - Replay et Direct tv des chaînes France Télévisions (ex Pluzz)Retrouvez toutes les vidéos, articles et podcasts des programmes des chaînes de France Télévisions. 3249
Sean Raymond (planetplanet.net) @planetplanet.bsky.social · 07/11/2025I just realized that a couple weeks ago was the fifth anniversary of the release of my astronomy poem book: Black Holes, Stars, Earth and Mars. www.amazon.com/dp/B08LFZZWGZamazon.comBlack Holes, Stars, Earth and Mars: Astronomy poems for all agesBlack Holes, Stars, Earth and Mars: Astronomy poems for all ages [Raymond, Sean, Raymond, Owen, Tyson, Neil deGrasse] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Black Holes, Stars, Earth and Mars: Astronomy poems for all ages 010
Sean Raymond (planetplanet.net) @planetplanet.bsky.social · 19/10/2025Here is a link to the original article, by Ozsvart et al: arxiv.org/pdf/2509.04165arxiv.org 000
Sean Raymond (planetplanet.net) @planetplanet.bsky.social · 19/10/2025Here's a new article I wrote for @nautil.us about a new result hinting that variations in the cosmic ray flux hitting the Earth, which itself varies as the Sun oscillates vertically within the Galaxy, have a strong link to the diversity of microplankton. nautil.us/could-the-su...nautil.usCould the Sun’s Orbit Shape Evolution?Could the Sun’s Orbit Shape Evolution? The connection between our massive star and the tiniest microplankton. 131
Sean Raymond (planetplanet.net) @planetplanet.bsky.social · 19/10/2025nautil.us/the-nautilus...nautil.usThe Nautilus Reading List About the CosmosThe Nautilus Reading List About the Cosmos: Our writers have read a universe of books on the cosmos. Here are their favorites. 000
Sean Raymond (planetplanet.net) @planetplanet.bsky.social · 10/10/2025The main challenge is the alternating prograde and retrograde rings of planets. To build a single ring, I think you's need to pass through a horseshoe constellation phase (see planetplanet.net/2023/04/20/c...) and then damp out the librations. Obviously not feasible for humanity at the moment....planetplanet.netConstellations of co-orbital planets – planetplanet 020
Sean Raymond (planetplanet.net) @planetplanet.bsky.social · 10/10/2025I guess it would be transits, not eclipses, but if the planets had moons they would also be blocking the light from the other planets all the time. A very astronomically-engaging place to be! 040
Sean Raymond (planetplanet.net) @planetplanet.bsky.social · 10/10/2025New animation of the ultimate engineered solar system for a talk I'm giving tomorrow at a sci-fi convention in Lithuania. It has 400 rocky planets in the habitable zone of a single Sun-like star It's perfectly stable (I simulated it out to about a billion years) planetplanet.net/2017/05/03/t... 54013
Reposted by Sean Raymond (planetplanet.net)American Astronomical Society (AAS) @aas.org · 06/10/2025AAS members are on the Hill today to #SaveNASAScience and advocate for sustained funding for NASA, NSF, and our nation's other science agencies! Help us amplify their voices by calling and writing to your Congressional offices today: aas.org/action-alert... 03014
Sean Raymond (planetplanet.net) @planetplanet.bsky.social · 09/09/2025See for example this paper : ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2009ApJ....ui.adsabs.harvard.eduTidal Limits to Planetary HabitabilityThe habitable zones (HZs) of main-sequence stars have traditionally been defined as the range of orbits that intercept the appropriate amount of stellar flux to permit surface water on a planet. Terrestrial exoplanets discovered to orbit M stars in these zones, which are close-in due to decreased stellar luminosity, may also undergo significant tidal heating. Tidal heating may span a wide range for terrestrial exoplanets and may significantly affect conditions near the surface. For example, if heating rates on an exoplanet are near or greater than that on Io (where tides drive volcanism that resurfaces the planet at least every 1 Myr) and produce similar surface conditions, then the development of life seems unlikely. On the other hand, if the tidal heating rate is less than the minimum to initiate plate tectonics, then CO<SUB>2</SUB> may not be recycled through subduction, leading to a runaway greenhouse that sterilizes the planet. These two cases represent potential boundaries to habitability and are presented along with the range of the traditional HZ for main-sequence, low-mass stars. We propose a revised HZ that incorporates both stellar insolation and tidal heating. We apply these criteria to GJ 581 d and find that it is in the traditional HZ, but its tidal heating alone may be insufficient for plate tectonics. 000
Sean Raymond (planetplanet.net) @planetplanet.bsky.social · 09/09/2025Thanks! If there was a very large amount of internal heat flux from tidal dissipation, it would likely be bad for habitability if the planet is close to the inner edge of the habitable zone, or good if it's beyond (colder). The planet's orbit would also change (slowly) due to tidal dissipation. 110
Sean Raymond (planetplanet.net) @planetplanet.bsky.social · 09/09/2025In my new @nautil.us article, I use a lot of recent research to argue that rocky exoplanets on eccentric orbits are often very good candidates for life. (At least, eccentric/inclined orbits should not be used as a negative for habitability) nautil.us/wild-orbits-...nautil.usWild Orbits Prime Planets for LifeLooking for habitable worlds? Check the ones with extreme swings. 1101
Sean Raymond (planetplanet.net) @planetplanet.bsky.social · 03/09/2025It would be interesting to see what the mass ratio threshold is for stability -- does it have to be 1.000000 or could it be 1.01, 1.1, 2., ...? 100
Sean Raymond (planetplanet.net) @planetplanet.bsky.social · 03/09/2025Ask away. In terms of stability, eccentric rings are clearly stable for billions of years if left undisturbed. I wrote a paper about the dynamical stability of the circular-orbit case when it's perturbed -- it's more robust than you might think. ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2023MNRA...ui.adsabs.harvard.eduSurvival and dynamics of rings of co-orbital planets under perturbationsIn co-orbital planetary systems, two or more planets share the same orbit around their star. Here we test the dynamical stability of co-orbital rings of planets perturbed by outside forces. We test tw... 100
Sean Raymond (planetplanet.net) @planetplanet.bsky.social · 03/09/2025I haven't studied that carefully for eccentric rings. For circular rings of planets, I wrote a paper about it. The punchline is that they're pretty robust. When kicked, these systems often transition to a horseshoe state, unless they're kicked really hard... ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2023MNRA...ui.adsabs.harvard.eduSurvival and dynamics of rings of co-orbital planets under perturbationsIn co-orbital planetary systems, two or more planets share the same orbit around their star. Here we test the dynamical stability of co-orbital rings of planets perturbed by outside forces. We test tw... 010
Sean Raymond (planetplanet.net) @planetplanet.bsky.social · 03/09/2025That's a great idea to check! 010
Sean Raymond (planetplanet.net) @planetplanet.bsky.social · 02/09/2025Here's something new and weird -- eccentric rings of co-orbital planets. They are stable indefinitely, from an orbital point of view. Could they actually form and exist? planetplanet.net/2025/09/02/e... 4329
Sean Raymond (planetplanet.net) @planetplanet.bsky.social · 29/08/2025Flashback to 2012 when I ate the Sun (Photo from the top of Vulcano in Sicily) 140
Reposted by Sean Raymond (planetplanet.net)Dorothy Berry @dorothyjberry.bsky.social · 28/08/2025Imagine the complicated and precious genius of the girl who made this embroidery sampler in 1811 The Solar System, sampler, unknown maker, 1811, England. Museum no. T.92-1939. Victoria and Albert Museum, London. 19998312
Reposted by Sean Raymond (planetplanet.net)Jason Wright @astrowright.bsky.social · 26/08/2025Sigh. sites.psu.edu/astrowright/...sites.psu.eduHST Has Conclusively Shown that Avi Loeb is Wrong About 3I/ATLASThe recent JWST observations have firmly shown that 3I/ATLAS is a comet—an interesting and anomalous one in some ways, but definitely not a spacecraft. This has not stopped Avi Loeb from continuing to... 6448
Reposted by Sean Raymond (planetplanet.net)Jason Wright @astrowright.bsky.social · 18/08/2025Still can't get over @deschscoveries.bsky.social parodying Loeb, and Loeb straight-up playing out the parody a 3 days later. Is Desch a clairvoyant, or did Loeb read this mockery of him and think—hey, that's actually a great idea!—and just plagiarize him?! 2799
Reposted by Sean Raymond (planetplanet.net)Steve Desch @deschscoveries.bsky.social · 15/08/2025My complaints have not yet been resolved. medium.com/@steve.desch...medium.comThere’s No “I” in Team. But There Is One in “ALIENS”Yelling “Tarantulas!” in a crowded movie theater has its time and place. If you’re enduring Madame Web, everyone will be relieved you… 57519
Reposted by Sean Raymond (planetplanet.net)Jason Wright @astrowright.bsky.social · 12/08/2025Loeb’s bad science flies out faster than any one of us should have to deal with it. For a nice explanation of what’s wrong with many of his claims I have not addressed, see @hectorsocas.bsky.social ’s work here: tinieblasyestrellas.blogspot.com/2025/08/3iat...tinieblasyestrellas.blogspot.com3I/ATLAS. A cat on my balcony(En español aquí ) S ummary Recently, a new interstellar object passing through our solar system has been discovered: 3I/ATLAS. Thi... 22612