It’s Halloween week and I haven’t seen any talk about our favorite spooky #exoplanets yet this year! Crowd-sourcing ideas for our exoplanet journal club this week — what’s your nomination for spookiest exoplanet? 👻

For anyone applying to grad school in the US this fall, the @aas.org has made a working group to monitor which programs have faced cuts - this spreadsheet contains all the info: 🔭☄️

Seeking PhD candidates that want to do a thesis on exoplanet atmosphere retrieval + machine learning inference. Please apply by 31 October to Dr. Max Dax's and my shared project here: is.mpg.de/news/new-max... . Abstract for the thesis project is attached to this thread below!

A lot of comments on Mars rovers or Moon landings, but it's important to remember that the planet NASA studies most is Earth. This is less about cutting flashy things like moonwalks and more about keeping communities in the dark on climate, weather, agriculture, pollution, natural hazards, and more.

It feels useless to point out but if we stop pointing it out that's definitely worse: SURELY IT'S ILLEGAL FOR TRUMP TO ORGANIZE PRIVATE FINANCING FOR THE US MILITARY. www.theguardian.com/us-news/live...

So many spectacular, kind, brave people who I've worked with for years being let go from JPL today. We will all be poorer for their absence from the forefront of human knowledge.

An NSF Graduate Research Fellowship helped launch my career - the next generation of scientists deserves the same opportunity, just as Americans deserve the benefits of a well-supported scientific pipeline. But this year's solicitation is MIA. Please take a minute to speak up for the program👇

For those who may not know ... the magnetic field of Uranus is tilted ~60 deg relative to its spin axis. So it looks like the aurorae are occurring near the equator, because, in fact, they are! Within ~ 30deg of the equator.

Autism is not a "disease" or "epidemic". Autism has a strong genetic component. There is no evidence that vaccinees or Tylenol cause autism. Access to autism diagnostics have dramatically increased as reported rates increased. Neither Trump nor RFK Jr are scientists or medical professionals.

My first NASA position, as a contractor in the Kepler Science Office, was on a H-1b visa. NASA ended up giving me a medal and now I’m the Chief Scientist of NASA Exoplanet Science Institute and an American citizen to boot. Seems like a net win for the US, no? But now this:

🪐🔭 JWST is letting us learn about disks around PLANETARY-MASS OBJECTS!!!

In case you didn't know, Jupiter totally has rings. You can see them (faintly) in this #JWST image.

You are cordially invited to our next AoT Boston event at Aeronaut Brewing on Thursday, September 4!!! We're bringing you some exciting talks about the Rubin Observatory (@vrubinobs.bsky.social), which will capture the ultimate time-lapse movie of the universe in the next 10 years 🔭💫

As a resident of the Boston metro, I find it so interesting that narratives about the whiteness of Boston persist as the dominant national story even though it's a majority minority metro and the actual city is led by a Chinese-American woman. Also, she's more presidential than Gavin Belson

So pleased to see these results published and get the attention they deserve! For the nerds, I do encourage you to read the Beichman paper, section 2 AND all the way to the end, as it details the technical challenges involved in performing these observations. Because holy sh*t, it was HARD 🔭

WHOA. Astronomers may have found a planet orbiting Alpha Centauri A, the closest sun-like star to the Sun! It's a binary system, too, so if this is confirmed it'll be an AMAZING discovery! badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/a-planet-f... 🔭🧪

Will I ever remember the emojis...history indicates no 🔭🧪

"ChatGPT is great for brainstorming!" Actually we have a tool for that already! It's called thinking. We use our brain. It's called brainstorming! Clue is in the name.

I said this recently at #HWO2025, but I'll also say it here in light of the upcoming @nancyromansci.bsky.social call for white papers for the coronagraph: If you don't do planets and disks, please put a white paper in! I'm happy to give advice #astrosci 🔭

To reiterate: Chat GPT is not a search engine. Chat GPT is not a search engine. Chat GPT is not a search engine. Chat GPT is not a search engine. Chat GPT is not a search engine. Chat GPT is not a search engine. Chat GPT is not a search engine. Chat GPT is not a search engine. Chat GPT is not a sear

My brain has said "no." I don't know what the question was. But my brain has said "no."

Uranus is hot. And I'm not just saying that because it is one of my fave planets despite its unfortunate name. uh.edu/news-events/...

Actual, Current, Real-World Cuts to NASA Planetary R&A research.ssl.berkeley.edu/~mikewong/bl... "ROSES 2025 Research and analysis proposal opportunities were just announced yesterday. I did a graphical deep dive into how bad the situation is for soft money researchers working on NASA science."

Technicians installed solar panels onto #NASARoman, one of the final steps in assembling the observatory. Collectively called the Solar Array Sun Shield, these panels will power and shade the observatory, enabling all the mission’s observations and helping keep the instruments cool: bit.ly/453CTvd 🔭

It’s important to point out that many of the cuts at NASA are to astrophysics and earth science, not just the space program Most of that does not involve anyone going to space but involves us learning things that help us live better on earth

My eyes are fixed on the future, even in volatile times.... 🚀🔭 🧪 🪐 www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJwD...

Alt text: You are cordially invited to our Anti-Prime Sale Date: July 8-11, 2025 Location: Bookshop.org Enjoy free shipping and the knowledge that your money will go toward supporting independent bookstores, not billionaires

The Senate reconciliation bill passed yesterday is separate from the annual appropriations process, which determines funding for our federal science agencies. Learn more about the differences here: aas.org/posts/news/2...

Like many NASA projects and missions, the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute was asked to submit a closeout budget this week. Hopefully just a drill! But very difficult just the same. 💔 Regardless of what happens, I’m *so proud* of the service we have performed for the community over the years. ✨🪐💾🔭👩🏻‍🔬

If this ends up happening, it would be devastating to the entire #exoplanet community.

Guys I just want to find planets and show other people planets and think about how cool planets are. 😭

I've had multiple non-science people genuinely tell me that all of the American scientific workforce will be absorbed by other countries and...no, people. If we want to keep science at the level it's been at, we need to save US science.

In prep for today's @astronomycast.com recording, I looked up budgets for major partner space agencies to explore the "Other nations will step up" storyline regarding sci & space exploration in particular. - NASA proposed FY26 cuts: $6.1 billion - JAXA+ESA+ISRO+CSA budget FY25: $12.2 billion 🧵

NASA is being told to cancel 19 *active* missions to save $6B, which looks to be less than the ICE *hiring/retention* budget going forward. I need people to let that sentence sink into their bones for a minute.

We're pleased to announce the talk program for our Astronomy on Tap DC on July 7th @dc9club.bsky.social! Talk 1: Unprecedented, Unstrategic, Wasteful: The 2026 NASA Budget Request in Review - Jack Kiraly (@planetarysociety.bsky.social)

If you'll be in DC on Monday, why not join us? And if you can't, please consider taking one of the other actions on your own time.

Encouraging my Solar System colleagues to get involved in this conference, so it is not just astrophysicists and exoplaneteers talking to one another abut the field that we actually study! noirlab.edu/science/even...

The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has found evidence of a cold, Saturn-mass planet around the star TWA 7, seemingly sculpting its disc of debris! If confirmed, this would be Webb’s first direct image discovery of a planet. Read more 👉 www.esa.int/Science_Expl... 🔭 🧪 ☄️

🧪 If you live in these States and care about biomedical research and the #NIH, please call your Senators: Maine (Collins) West Virginia (Capito) Louisiana (Cassidy) Alabama (Britt) Pennsylvania (McCormick) 👇👇👇👇👇👇👇

#exoplanets #jobs 📣 I'm advertising for a postdoc! Come work with me in sunny SoCal on the Roman Galactic Exoplanet Survey Project Infrastructure Team. You'll help build the pipeline for Roman* occurrence rates. *Launches NEXT YEAR! Please RT & share with your networks! aas.org/jobregister/...

It's time for the first BlueSky Astro Plot of the week! 🌌🔭🧪 Pick one: - Plot from Niraula et al. (arxiv.org/abs/2506.12144) - Plot from Švanda et al. (arxiv.org/abs/2506.11713) Poll closes Friday - vote!

Contact your congressfolks and remind them of this. And then demand they #ImpeachTrump

If you're arrested in Illinois protesting against Trump's war on Iran for Israel, I can represent you pro bono. Email me at [email protected].

There's still time to get those submissions in! As long as it's astro related it counts. We've had some great astro events, including eclipses, aurorae, and more. Astrophotography is eligible as well! @amyraehill.bsky.social @stellerarts.com and @startorialist.com are sponsors! #BlackSpaceWeek

I'm looking for a postdoc for my group at the University of Oxford (UK) to study #Europa surface. The position is open to international candidates and the university can sponsor visa etc. Please apply/forward as you see fit. Full details here: my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru... #planetary #job

Be sure to sign the petition. We are facing elimination of high value planetary missions including OSIRIS-APEX, VenSAR (for EnVision), HelioSwarm, MAVEN, Mars Odyssey, Juno, and more.

🚀The #NASARoman Coronagraph Instrument will demo cutting-edge tech to mature NASA’s ability to build a next-generation exoplanet characterization mission. Submit tech and science observing ideas by Aug 7 to shape the Community Participation Program. 🔗https://bit.ly/45Bv0i8

If you burn down a forest, you don't miss out on lumber for just that season. You have to replant all the trees, nurture them, and wait for them to grow. The science and research budget cuts happening now are wanton, senseless arson. Recovery, if it ever happens, will take generations.

*speechless horror* (Guys the NASA Exoplanet Archive is in this box. My job is in this box.)

🔭☄️