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

arxiv.org/abs/2507.21402 Yeah, not possible.

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

How some of my Zoom calls feel:

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

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-...

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."

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

It's the weekend, baby

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.

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...

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!

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

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."

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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."

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

More dog photos. This time doing a two mile walk with clear skies but cold (almost 20 deg. F today!).

Christmas dog!

Our stuffing recipe needs raisins soaked in brandy overnight. So now the rest is going into old fashions while the turkey cooks.

I'm currently giving a final exam, on a Saturday evening, in a windowless basement room, that is one notch too warm. On the plus side, due to a vote amongst the students I'm also dressed up as a cowboy with a big hat, belt buckle, and boots.

The Atlantic's references to Arrested Development grow more obvious by the day.

From a recent McSweeney's: "The cybertruck looks like it's front the future, but a very specific future that's been ruined by an increasingly out-of-touch billionaire."