it’s unfortunate that gen z had to touch the stove but I’m glad they’ve come around

You just know he’s had this clip saved in a gif folder for MONTHS

the great thing about democracy is that no matter how much power and wealth gets concentrated in the top 0.1%, when it’s voting time every billionaire still gets only one vote congrats NYC

pendulum is swinging back

it’s a reading-proposals-in-bed sort of day

<candidate> is the most common type of postdoc in the galaxy and yet their origins remain uncertain

going from writing JWST proposals to writing reference letters is interesting because the hype train doesn’t stop I’m just hyping up people instead of ideas

In Cycle 2, I was co-PI of the largest volume limited survey of nearby white dwarfs with #JWST. Our first result is out! Out of 56 white dwarfs, one showed a possible candidate companion between projected separations of 0.5"-2" or roughly 10-40 au. 🔭 #astrosci ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2025arXi...

30 HOURS TO GO

fun with cropping

everyone in my family is sick right now except me and I’m pretty sure it’s because my body knows that it needs to stay healthy until after the JWST deadline

I don’t like how moist it looks

I’m not panicking you’re panicking

Costco knows How It’s Done

it’s such a shame that our top minds are wasted working on AI slop instead of a much more worthy calling: eliminating all mosquitos

they should redo super size me but with Costco hot dogs

Netflix absolutely missed the boat by not investing in kpop demon hunters halloween costumes

fun with phonics

it’s crazy how we just accepted scam phone calls as a fact of life now like yeah please ruin one of our main modes communication we don’t mind

✨✨✨Another Virga advert✨✨✨ Introducing V2.0, with fractal aggregate clouds! Restricted to spheres no more! We handle the dynamics and the optics self consistently. Led by me and PhD candidate extraordinaire Matt Lodge (who is looking for a postdoc 👀 and is amazing). arxiv.org/abs/2509.06708

I have a line at the beginning of my Research Statement about how many exoplanets we've discovered so far. Every year I write faculty applications, I have to update that number. I swear, whatever that number is the year I finally get a job will become my new favorite number.

Our galaxy is full of clouds of dust and gas. We can guess that they probably move, but it's hard to tell for sure. Until now! A groundbreaking new paper by Martin Piecka et al. at @univie.ac.at presents the first *ever* direct measurement of the proper motion of the ISM! 🔭☄️🧪 #galactic

This is the spectroscopic transit of a #planet with an orbital period of 1.5 YEARS !! #HIP41378 🪐 In case you missed the great paper led by Salomé Grouffal (#ProudAdvisor), arXived over the summer, here is a recap'. #Thread [1/8]

David Baltimore passed away this weekend. A pioneer of molecular virology who won the Nobel prize in medicine & physiology for his discovery of viral reverse transcriptase. This essay he wrote in 2018 reflecting of his 60yr career in science is a great read. www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

Congratulations to Tim Lichtenberg, an alumnus of the Oxford Planetary Climate Dynamics Group, on being awarded the Europlanet Early Career Medal! The trio of medals has gone to a great bunch, recognizing three career stages. www.europlanet.org/tim-lichtenb...

*phone rings* Me: Hello? Them: Hello sir, this is the Chase Fraud Department. Can you confirm that you opened a new checking account yesterday? Me: Uhhh how do I know this is Chase Them: *hangs up*

citing an exoplanet paper from 2010

NEW on the arXiv: “CO2 coma of 3I/ATLAS a tell-tale sign of aliens’ reliance on fossil fuels as main spacecraft power source“ by H. Astronomer

the enshittification of The Learning, Discovery, and History Channels in the last 20 years is a rarely talked about but extremely blatant sign of the collapse of civilization

JWST successfully observed interstellar object (ISO) 3I/ATLAS. Interesting results. The composition of the coma could be due to a few different scenarios. Additional JWST observations of the object closer to the sun are needed. science.nasa.gov/blogs/3iatla...

You know when people say you’ll sleep better if you stop using screens before bed, are they referring to the big screen, the medium screen, or the small screen?

had a dream about resolving Overleaf comments

not a big fan of new playgrounds looking more and more like modern art installations instead of places for kids to play

oh that’s not-

In my undergraduate education I found engagement with the humanities to be essential and enriching. It has enriched my whole life, in terms of the books and authors and ideas I was introduced to, and a way of looking at the world that has never failed to sustain me. Even in a more practical sense,

Ironically it’s this exact lack of humanities education of STEM people that is leading to the rise of ethically challenged tech bros who are trying to defund universities

I updated my website to have an interactive webpage where you can plot the exoplanet population, select different parameter spaces to explore, and overlay the observed and planned JWST observations. I think this will be a useful tool for proposal planning: www.astrojake.com/exoplanets

Saying goodbye to another amazing 51 Peg b Summit! It has consistently been the highlight of the year and this year it was no different. The wholesomeness, sincerity, community support, and general feeling of belonging was heartwarming and it’s always bittersweet to see it end. Until next time!

evergreen post

can’t come to the Bay Area without visiting the Golden Gate

mission accomplished

there was a massive traffic jam on the PCH due to a fire and I ended up at my favorite Santa Cruz burrito place literally 1 minute after its closing time, but the guy in charge said no prob bro I’ll take care of you and anyway I love Santa Cruz and I’m very full and I’m ready for ice cream

the American southwest remains undefeated

entrenched meanders

shelf

salt flat, nevada

holy shit we flew almost directly over Half Dome

I love contemporary art