iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Thomas Beatty

Wisconsin Center for Origins Research @wicor.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

WiCOR seeks a #postdoctoral fellow to participate in Center #research in any discipline related to our two main research questions: 1. How do habitable planets form? 🪐 2. How does life emerge on habitable planets? 🧬 Full information at: wicor.wisc.edu/postdoc/ Apply by Nov 15 🔭 🧪 #postdoc #hiring

Image with a blue to purple gradient in the background with graphics of a planet, sunset on water, DNA & an Erlenmeyer flask, with text "WiCOR seeks a Postdoctoral Fellow, Apply by Nov 15, Learn more at wicor.wisc.edu/postdoc"

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Thomas Beatty @tgbeatty.bsky.social · 15/10/2025

Serious comment to anyone on the JSTUC or who works on APT: can we *please* get a version that updates in place? Every other piece of software I work with can do this.

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Thomas Beatty @tgbeatty.bsky.social · 01/08/2025

Fishing! All the kids involved managed to catch something (thankfully!).

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Thomas Beatty @tgbeatty.bsky.social · 30/07/2025

Of course a cursory review of Juno's technical specs show the engine has a less-efficient specific impulse of 318s, and it has already expended at least 1/5 of its fuel for Jupiter orbit-insertion (to say nothing of maneuvers since then).

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Thomas Beatty @tgbeatty.bsky.social · 30/07/2025

According to these calculations, Juno could just do a flyby 3I/ATLAS assuming the spacecraft's engine has a specific impulse of 340s and uses its entire fuel load.

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Thomas Beatty @tgbeatty.bsky.social · 04/07/2025

This July 4, remember that the US is the only country whose national anthem ends in a question.

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Thomas Beatty @tgbeatty.bsky.social · 30/06/2025

How some of my Zoom calls feel:

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Thomas Beatty @tgbeatty.bsky.social · 17/05/2025

Congratulations Dr. Matthew Murphy! Matthew is off to Michigan State next year to work on a great JWST atmospheres project with @afeinstein20.bsky.social.

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Thomas Beatty @tgbeatty.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

Jim Lattis and I will be on Madison's local NPR affiliate tomorrow afternoon from noon - 1pm, as a part of the Larry Meiller Show. We'll talk about exoplanets, the search for life, and the new WiCOR center at UW. Locals can listen on FM 88.7, or online www.wpr.org/shows/larry-...

wpr.org

The Larry Meiller Show

Join us every weekday from 11:00 to 1:00 when we discuss the environment, consumer issues, nature, books, gardening, home improvement and so much more. Our expert guests share their knowledge and take...

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Thomas Beatty @tgbeatty.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

nasawatch.com/ask-the-admi... "We will close NASA’s Office of Technology, Policy, and Strategy, the Office of the Chief Scientist, and the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility branch in the Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunity, along with reducing their workforce."

nasawatch.com

The NASA RIF Has Begun

This was just sent to the NASA workforce:

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Reposted by Thomas Beatty

Wisconsin Center for Origins Research @wicor.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

The WiCOR Website has launched! 🚀 Visit the site to learn all about WiCOR! 🧪🔭 wicor.wisc.edu

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Reposted by Thomas Beatty

Star Trek Minus Context @nocontexttrek1.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

It's the weekend, baby

Voyager scene. Seven of Nine (tertiary adjunct of unimatrix 01) is pictured. She has a dolphin shaped metal robotic implant around her left eye because she is a borgs. Closed caption reads, "Fun will now commence."

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Thomas Beatty @tgbeatty.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

I will say this highlights the wisdom of how NASA was created 60 years ago: by placing the centers all over the country, we end up with a lot of members of Congress across party lines (like the Alabama delegation) who don't want things cut. Even if day to day it feels inefficient.

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Thomas Beatty @tgbeatty.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

The bill passed last night had funding levels through 2034, and (on my quick skim) they looked roughly constant in current dollars. But you're right that even if the 250 funding makes it through mostly intact this year, we all get to keep doing this.

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Thomas Beatty @tgbeatty.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

So cautious optimism about overall levels, and it seems like the scenario of a 50% budget cut to NSF and no new awards this year may be prevented.

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Thomas Beatty @tgbeatty.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

The budget bill passed last night allocated about $43 billion next year for Function 250, which covers NASA, NSF, and DOE Science. That's only about $1 billion less than the previous FY25 budget from last summer.

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Reposted by Thomas Beatty

Wisconsin Center for Origins Research @wicor.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

Hello from the Wisconsin Center for Origins Research! 👋🧪🔭 WiCOR’s Mission is to advance our understanding of the #OriginsOfLife in the #Universe through interdisciplinary #research and #education. Follow us to stay updated on all things WiCOR! linktr.ee/wicenterforo...

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Thomas Beatty @tgbeatty.bsky.social · 07/02/2025

For, borne on the night-wind of the Past, Through all our history, to the last, In the hour of darkness and peril and need, The people will waken and listen to hear The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed, And the midnight message of Paul Revere.

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Thomas Beatty @tgbeatty.bsky.social · 07/02/2025

So through the night rode Paul Revere; And so through the night went his cry of alarm To every Middlesex village and farm, — A cry of defiance and not of fear, A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door, And a word that shall echo forevermore!

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Thomas Beatty @tgbeatty.bsky.social · 27/01/2025

Ice skating! I like that Madison's parks clear off big sections of the ponds and run skate rental booths.

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Thomas Beatty @tgbeatty.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

I'm pleased (?) to report that my school-based stress dream has now switched from "arrive on the last day of class for the final exam and realize you haven't attended all semester" to the alternate version of "arrive on the first day of class and realize you haven't prepared anything."

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Thomas Beatty @tgbeatty.bsky.social · 17/01/2025

Check out grad student Max Kroft's new paper on TOI-6054: two dynamically interacting sub-Neptunes (both ~ 10 M_E) around a bright (K=6.7) sub-giant. The star has started evolving - so the inner planet has gone from a life of leisure to strong mass-loss in the last few Myr. arxiv.org/abs/2501.09095

arxiv.org

A Pair of Dynamically Interacting Sub-Neptunes Around TOI-6054

We confirm the planetary nature of a pair of transiting sub-Neptune exoplanets orbiting the bright F-type sub-giant star TOI-6054 ($V=8.02$, $K=6.673$) as a part of the OrCAS radial velocity survey us...

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Thomas Beatty @tgbeatty.bsky.social · 14/01/2025

In particular, one wild card is that if there is a lot of vertical mixing like in Luis and David's papers, the usual silicates might be still in the mix (harhar). In principle an eclipse would see that easily and help resolve a lot of the uncertainties in the modeling that complicate the analysis

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Thomas Beatty @tgbeatty.bsky.social · 14/01/2025

Matthew's paper has a discussion about this, with KCl as the most likely possibility ("evidence for KCl") but not for sure since, as you note, traditionally there are no KCl features here (a "detection of KCl"). A dayside emission spectrum with MIRI would help clear (harhar) this up - hopefully!

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Thomas Beatty @tgbeatty.bsky.social · 14/01/2025

BUT, the clouds on W107 (if that's what they are) are a bit of a puzzle, since Dryek+23 originally saw SiO2. That sort of works, but the overall feature is very broad.

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Thomas Beatty @tgbeatty.bsky.social · 14/01/2025

KCl is pretty much the only "reasonable" thing that has a condensation curve crossing the GCMs' TP profiles at the right places to be there at morning but not at evening. And Kiefer+24 recently suggested that you could get distinct features in the W107 MIRI data using heterogenous cloud particles.

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Thomas Beatty @tgbeatty.bsky.social · 14/01/2025

Sadly, no. It's sort of metallic. It's not a ... good smell.

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Thomas Beatty @tgbeatty.bsky.social · 14/01/2025

I recommend everyone stop by the ExEP desk at the NASA portion of the exhibit hall. They have "smell an exoplanet" that is pretty entertaining. It includes WASP-107b from our MANATEE work! #AAS245

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Thomas Beatty @tgbeatty.bsky.social · 14/01/2025

Matthew Murphy: new panchromatic limb-asymmetry obs. of WASP-107b show lots of morning/evening differences and evidence for nightside formation of KCl clouds. For once both 1D and GCM models agree! #AAS245

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Thomas Beatty @tgbeatty.bsky.social · 14/01/2025

Good morning #AAS245! Want to learn about how JWST is giving us our first insights into weather on exoplanets? Come to Matthew Murphy's dissertation talk at 11:10am in Potomac 3-4. He is doing the first direct measurements of East/West differences in transmission spectra and sees some cool stuff!

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Thomas Beatty @tgbeatty.bsky.social · 13/01/2025

Fun fact for those watching the AAS plenary talk on DART and planetary defense: the asteroid Apophis was named after the main villain in the first few seasons of Stargate: SG1. #AAS245

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Thomas Beatty @tgbeatty.bsky.social · 13/01/2025

There is a bird flying around the plenary hall. According to the speaker this is the "AAS bird" and if it lands on your head you give the plenary next year. #AAS245 #aviocracy

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Thomas Beatty @tgbeatty.bsky.social · 13/01/2025

Rezi Ashtari showing results from a big survey of WFC3 observations to try and see trends in clouds. They find a "clear sky corridor" around 1000K, but with an intriguingly strong mass dependence. #AAS245

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Thomas Beatty @tgbeatty.bsky.social · 13/01/2025

Jacob Lustig-Yaeger now showing the same sort of thing in similar obs. of the similar planet TOI-5205b. Very odd. Jacob suggests that since both host stars have significant spots, maybe we need to improve our spot modeling. #AAS245

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Thomas Beatty @tgbeatty.bsky.social · 13/01/2025

Kevin Stevenson just showed JWST transmission spectra of the warm Jupiter TOI-3714b, which showed some methane, ammonia, carbon dioxide, but no water (???). That means a super high C/O to this observer. #AAS245

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Thomas Beatty @tgbeatty.bsky.social · 13/01/2025

Hot stuff from Yao Tang, who modeled the interior structure of sub-Neptunes using higher fidelity models. A good explanation for super puffs? #AAS245

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Thomas Beatty @tgbeatty.bsky.social · 13/01/2025

Rory Barnes on atmosphere loss on the short period Earth sized planet GJ 1132b: an initial hydrogen atmosphere would step quickly. But if there were a lot of water the planet might still have a magma ocean with an extremely thick CO2-dominated atmosphere. #AAS245

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Thomas Beatty @tgbeatty.bsky.social · 11/01/2025

Love a good flow chart. Listening to the SAG 24 report on starshade development. They've gotten everything to TRL 5 and tested to contrasts of 10^-10. Apropos of the previous report on imaging with segmented mirrors, starshade might be the only option if we can't get "standard" imaging working.

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Thomas Beatty @tgbeatty.bsky.social · 11/01/2025

Update from ExEP technology: direct imaging testbeds using segmented mirrors (i.e., HWO) have contrast curves 2 to 3 orders of magnitude higher than the HWO requirements. But work on imaging with segmented mirrors is just getting started. Most testing has focused on monolithic mirrors. #exopag31

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Thomas Beatty @tgbeatty.bsky.social · 11/01/2025

A recurring theme this morning during the talks from NASA is how strongly the ExEP office and others at JPL have been affected by the Eaton Fire. "Hundreds" of JPL staff have lost their houses. #exopag31

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Thomas Beatty @tgbeatty.bsky.social · 11/01/2025

Major news from new head of ExEP @dawngelino.bsky.social: there might be a way to fund coffee at some NASA exoplanet meetings. Our long national nightmare is (maybe) over. #exopag31 #aas245

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Thomas Beatty @tgbeatty.bsky.social · 11/01/2025

XRP selection rates have been pretty constant the last few years. Starting this year the exoplanet side of the old HabWorlds grants will go to XRP. SMD wants to keep the selection rate at about 20%, but no mention if part of the HabWorlds funding is getting shunted to XRP.

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Thomas Beatty @tgbeatty.bsky.social · 11/01/2025

For the next several hours: news from ExoPAG31 meeting before AAS245.

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Thomas Beatty @tgbeatty.bsky.social · 31/12/2024

The early 1900s Russian art scene was wild. "It appeared in a 1913 cubo-futurist opera written in Zaum - a phonetic, transrational language created by Russian futurist poets. In the opera, the characters seek to abolish discursive reasoning by capturing the Sun. The opera was not well received."

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Thomas Beatty @tgbeatty.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

Done with class for the fall! Only 60 semesters more to go.

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Thomas Beatty @tgbeatty.bsky.social · 04/12/2024

"Re-views", as in "watch again." Next week you need to have finished reviewing Ghostbusters.

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