iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Sean Terry

MAST - Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes @mast-news.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

New HLSP: Terry Hubble Observations of Roman (THOR) early-release catalog of point sources in the Roman Galactic Bulge Time Domain Survey footprint. Multi-passband photometry and astrometry (ACS+WFC3, F606W+F814W) cross-matched to HST-WFC3IR and Gaia DR3 where available. archive.stsci.edu/hlsp/thor

This two-panel figure shows, on the left; the color-magnitude diagram (CMD) for four of the early-release fields (HD16, HD70, HD98, and HD138). The stars in each of these four CMDs are in different positions in color and magnitude-space, largely due to the differential reddening and extinction along these sight lines toward the galactic bulge. On the right; the CMD of stars in the HD138 field, along with cross-identified Gaia DR3 stars (colored by Gaia G mag). The right-panel demonstrates the vast difference in detection efficiency and limiting magnitudes between Gaia DR3 and HST, where Gaia extends down to F814W of ~19.5, the HST detections extend to F814W of ~24.

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Reposted by Sean Terry

Euclid Consortium @ec-euclid.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

Two more days! Wednesday this week will see a new #ESAEuclid data release. A new image, very different from #Euclid's main survey. Tune in, Wednesday, 22 June, noon CEST: www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DtF... #ESA #astronomy #MilkyWay

youtube.com

Countdown to the new Euclid image release (24 June at 12:00 CEST)

YouTube video by European Space Agency, ESA

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Sean Terry @seanterry.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

Big thanks to collaborators Jay Anderson, Chas Beichman, @mhuston.bsky.social, Dave Bennett, many others! Much more work to be done to prepare for Roman!

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Sean Terry @seanterry.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

While there are many cool science cases described in the paper, one of my favorite uses is directly measuring microlens objects in HST *BEFORE* they cause lensing events that are detected in the future GBTDS. This figure shows examples of this type of detection of lenses separated from sources.

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Sean Terry @seanterry.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

One of the biggest strengths of Roman is its massive field of view (FoV), this figure demonstrates just how many *tiny* HST fields are needed to cover a majority of the upcoming Roman GBTDS footprint. With 354(!) HST fields, we can cover approximately ~70% of the lower-5 GBTDS fields.

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Reposted by Sean Terry

Melina Thévenot🏳️‍⚧️ @melina-iras07572.bsky.social · 12/04/2026

Planetary Nebulae with #Hubble ACS (lower left image uses WFC3) with filters F606W, F814W. All from this program: archive.stsci.edu/proposal_sea... PI: Sean Terry @seanterry.bsky.social

All planetary nebulae are blue and located in very star-rich fields. Upper left nebula shows maybe spiral-like structure. Upper middle nebula is circular with a donut-like shape. Upper right is bipolar with a distinct eye-shape in the middle. Lower left is bright, small and circular with a distinct outer wall and a relative bright central star. Lower middle is very faint, large and circular. Lower right is elliptical with two shells.

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Reposted by Sean Terry

Space Telescope Science Institute @stsci.edu · 04/12/2025

NASA has completed the construction of #NASARoman! Last month, technicians joined the inner and outer portions of the observatory in Maryland. After final testing, Roman will move to the launch site at the Kennedy Space Center for launch preparations in summer 2026: go.nasa.gov/48EqnE8 🔭 🧪

Two technicians in clean suits inspect a the completed Roman Space Telescope in a clean room at a NASA assembly facility.

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Reposted by Sean Terry

Space Telescope Science Institute @stsci.edu · 27/08/2025

Technicians recently tested two major deployments for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope: the Deployable Aperture Cover (DAC) and the Solar Array Sun Shield (SASS): go.nasa.gov/41X95PN #NASARoman 🔭 🧪

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Reposted by Sean Terry

Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 09/04/2025

'Bluesky has overtaken its flailing rival X in hosting posts related to new academic research, indicating the platform is fast becoming the go-to place for scholars to share their work.'

timeshighereducation.com

X’s dominance ‘over’ as Bluesky becomes new hub for research

Data indicates more scholars turning to alternative social media site to post about their work after Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover

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Sean Terry @seanterry.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

This is a great program, and I am supervising one of the available positions! Please consider applying or sharing if you know anyone interested. Happy to talk about the job in DMs 🔭

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Reposted by Sean Terry

Space Telescope Science Institute @stsci.edu · 02/01/2025

Imagine a telescope that can perform 200 Hubble Ultra Deep Fields in near-infrared light at once. #NASARoman is up to the task. 🔭 🧪 hubblesite.org/contents/new...

hubblesite.org

Roman Space Telescope Could Image 100 Hubble Ultra Deep Fields at Once

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Sean Terry @seanterry.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

Love is a big fat turkey and everyday is Thanksgiving.

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Sean Terry @seanterry.bsky.social · 20/03/2024

This work isn't possible without contributions and support from many great collaborators (including high school and undergrad students!). Thanks to JP Beaulieu, Dave Bennett, Euan Hamdorf, @aacole42.bsky.social, Viv Chaudhry, Jessica Lu, Clement Ranc, Katie Vandorou, and many others.

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Sean Terry @seanterry.bsky.social · 20/03/2024

But why not one perfect solution? This is where we come full-circle ⭕- back to the poor sampling of the light curve, but there are also some remaining degeneracies (which plagues microlensing!). High-res imaging is powerful, but it doesn't make life perfect.

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Sean Terry @seanterry.bsky.social · 20/03/2024

So we've fully ruled out any possibility that the lens host is a brown dwarf. The planet is also a bit more massive than the previous studies but it's still very likely a super-Earth. We've reduced the possible solutions by a factor of 2.

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Sean Terry @seanterry.bsky.social · 20/03/2024

With these direct measurements of the lens object in the Keck and Hubble data, we now have strong confidence that the lens host is a star with ~0.3 times the mass of the Sun. The mass of the planet orbiting this star is in the super-Earth regime. The lens distance is ~2kpc.

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Sean Terry @seanterry.bsky.social · 20/03/2024

This measurement of the lens object gives a definitive answer for its mass and distance. We used the Keck and Hubble telescopes many years after the microlensing event to get images like the one here showing a classic 'dipole' feature when we subtract one-star from the image.

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Sean Terry @seanterry.bsky.social · 20/03/2024

With enough patience, we can wait several years for the lens star (or brown dwarf or whatever it is) to separate from the background source star. We can then attempt to image the target(s) with big telescopes and directly measure light from the lens.

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Sean Terry @seanterry.bsky.social · 20/03/2024

Since the 2008 paper and a follow-up in 2012, we've been stuck with at least 8 solutions for this event, but is there a way to do better and rule out more possible solutions? (spoiler: yes!)

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Sean Terry @seanterry.bsky.social · 20/03/2024

Because there is only MOA/OGLE data, the light curve is sparse and poorly sampled, which complicates the modeling of this event. The original studies report many possible solutions (models) that explain the data. Some early solutions even gave a planet orbiting a brown dwarf!

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Sean Terry @seanterry.bsky.social · 20/03/2024

Back in 2008 this was the fourth published microlensing exoplanet, and the first published planet using data from *only* the MOA/OGLE telescopes. Usually a larger network of telescopes gather data for these events, but for many reasons it wasn't the case for this planet.

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Sean Terry @seanterry.bsky.social · 20/03/2024

🚨NEW PAPER ALERT🚨 Appearing on arXiv today and your local Astro Journal soon: Unveiling MOA-2007-BLG-192: An M Dwarf Hosting a Likely Super-Earth #Astro 🔭 arxiv.org/abs/2403.12118

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Sean Terry @seanterry.bsky.social · 30/09/2023

IRL Tetris in preparation for the big move.

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