What a year for the James Webb Space Telescope! From identifying frozen water in a young star system to wowing us with great images of the distant universe, Webb has exceeded our expectations in 2025. 🔭 https://youtube.com/shorts/kf-mjdxK6KM

In a recent SETI Live, @goastromo.bsky.social spoke with @sierragrant.bsky.social and @gcugno.bsky.social about their analysis of CT Cha b – a distant, planetary-mass companion surrounded by a compact moon-forming disk. 🧪 🔭 👩‍🔬 Learn more: www.seti.org/news/baby-mo...

#ICYMI: During our latest #SETILive, Moiya chatted with Sierra Grant and Gabriele Cugno about the potentially moon-forming disk around exoplanet CT Cha b and its high carbon molecule content. Watch the full episode: youtube.com/live/t1pz56F...

@gcugno.bsky.social and I had a wonderful discussion with @goastromo.bsky.social for @setiinstitute.bsky.social LIVE about our work on the circumplanetary disk around CT Cha b!

Next #SETILive: Baby Moons in the Making? TODAY, 4 December, 11:00 am PST @goastromo.bsky.social welcomes two leading researchers—Gabriele Cugno & @sierragrant.bsky.social—to dive into a carbon-rich, moon-forming disk around the distant exoplanetary object CT Cha b, some 625 light-years away. 🧪 🔭 👩‍🔬

Why? NASA is a crown jewel of US science and an international inspiration. Its logo adorns hoodies worn by young and old. The most famous telescopes could not have existed without Goddard and shutting down parts of it, even temporarily, cuts off the life blood for future missions. Why kill NASA?!?

AAS Nova turned 10 this year! For our 2,000th post, we’re looking back on the past decade of astronomy research. aasnova.org/2025/10/03/a... @aas.org 🔭🧪

Moon formation drama, a bit more understood 🌚 The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has found evidence of a ‘construction yard’ for moons around a large exoplanet, CT Cha b, which lies 625 light-years from Earth. Read more 👉 www.esa.int/Science_Expl... 🔭 🧪 ☄️

Cugno and Grant @sierragrant.bsky.social with “A Carbon-rich Disk Surrounding a Planetary-mass Companion” detected using #JWST - an impressive detection of several different carbon molecules that are very promising for #exomoon formation around the directly imaged #exoplanet CT Cha b ☄

Space Telescope Science Institute: NASA’s JWST Studies Moon-Forming Disk Around Massive Planet science.nasa.gov/science-rese...

SO PROUD OF MY (FUTURE*) WIFE @sierragrant.bsky.social *FUTURE MEANING SUNDAY

PRESS RELEASE DAY! Could not be prouder of this result and so happy that it's now out!!! 🤩✨ Thanks to the team at @stsci.edu for the wonderful write-up and image!

TOMORROW: Two talks, one big night of discovery! Join Earth & Planets Laboratory postdocs Sierra Grant & Shubham Kanodia as they reveal how planets are born—and the giants that defy the rules. #NeighborhoodLecture 📅 Sept 25 | 6:30 PM ET | DC & Online 🔗 RSVP: carnegiescience.edu/birth-worlds...

The best part of my job is the people I get to work with 🪐💙

🤯🤯🤯 circumstellar disk chemistry? No, circumPLANETARY disk chemistry! What an INCREDIBLE result! Check it out below ⬇️🧪🔭🪐

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

Today is a special paper day for me: for the first time we can do chemistry in a circumplanetary disk around a planetary-mass companion! Gabriele Cugno and I used JWST to tease out the signal of CT Cha b, finding a rich carbon chemistry (7 molecules + 1 isotopolog detected)! arxiv.org/abs/2509.15209

Feel free to reach out if you have any questions about Carnegie! It's an amazing place to be a postdoc!

Another MINDS JWST paper! We explore the stark transition from H2O-dominated spectra in Sun-like systems to the carbon-rich chemistry seen for low-mass objects. We don't know exactly what is driving this trend, but we explore the possibilities that may be acting in concert. arxiv.org/pdf/2508.04692

New MINDS paper from Nicolas Kurtovic, focused on binary systems. Spectra, extended emission, variability, multi-observatory analysis -- there's something for everyone! arxiv.org/pdf/2508.02576

Our cat, but now in spherical form 😍

A spotted star, a (very!) misaligned planet, and awesome gifs, what more could you want?! 🤩

Now published in AJ! We used Tierras to measure the 23-day rotation period of a K dwarf and found that the orbit of its transiting planet is aligned with the star's spin axis. Stay tuned as we measure true obliquities for a larger sample! iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3...

Great work by Kielan Hoch and team on this incredible two-planet system!! We will revisit this target with MIRI-MRS next year to hunt for molecules in the disk around planet b, in a program led by Gabriele Cugno and me, and with Kielan's expertise on the system 🥳🪐

Save NASA Science: Please join me in signing this petition from The Planetary Society, urging Congress to reject the deep cuts to science that have been proposed by the administration. www.planetary.org/advocacy-act...

〰️〰️〰️〰️ New paper from @tamburo.bsky.social! 🤩

The data produced by this group has been an essential resource for so much great science. We use their data and websites to interpret our JWST spectra of protostars. It is exactly the kind of foundational investments the US should be making to advance science. www.change.org/p/oppose-the...

I received a heartbreaking email today: A paper in a special issue I’m editing is being retracted because one of its authors is afraid of losing their job and their legal status in the U.S. if they publish a scientific study on evolution. Yes, on evolution, nature's engine of diversity.

Here is a highly recommended thread that summarizes what has happened in scientific landscape in the US since Trump's inauguration. It makes for dystopian reading ⬇️

Hey New England friends! You might’ve just felt an earthquake. If you did, please fill out the form below for science! earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/...

The accepted version of my SY Cha winds paper is now on arXiv: arxiv.org/abs/2409.11176! And if you are at #AAS245 I will discuss the results TODAY at 2 pm in Potomac 3-4 🧪🔭

Ever wonder what the secret ingredient is in your favorite dessert? We can’t answer that, but we can share this planet formation recipe! It takes a high degree of precision and a lot of patience, but the result is pretty spectacular: bit.ly/3Cv3k2e 🔭 🧪

The latest protoplanetary disk study by the MINDS collaboration using JWST-MIRI is out now! arxiv.org/abs/2412.127... Led by Leiden PhD student Marissa Vlasblom, it focusses on CX Tau, a disk for which the dust emission is much more compact than gas, suggesting dust grains have drifted inwards. 1/4

There will be some amazing speakers and discussion leaders. Some are here on 🦋: @sethajacobson.bsky.social, @malenarice.bsky.social, @planetplanet.bsky.social, @astrojoanna.bsky.social, @lavainspace.bsky.social, @catherineespaillat.bsky.social, @meteoritegirl.bsky.social, @sierragrant.bsky.social

One of my favourite #planetaryScience conferences, which I only discovered in 2023, is the Gordon Conference on "Origins of Solar Systems." It brings together observers, theorists, cosmochemists, planetologists, and astronomers. The next one is in 2025! 🧪 Registration: www.grc.org/origins-of-s...

Meteor caught on Whipple Observatory sky cameras last night 🪐🔭

Recently implemented Sicko Mode™ on Tierras 🔭🪐

I'm a #QueerinSTEM astronomer. Having queer communities and safe spaces, especially in the workplace, is so important! Which reminds me of the asto outlis, which can help you find queer astronomers and allies near you astro-outlist.github.io

Comet C/2023A3 as seen by the Tierras Observatory! 🪐🔭

Excited to share our latest results on NatureAstronomy! JWST/NIRSpec gives an unprecedented view of disk winds from young stars, with key implications for planet formation and evolution: rdcu.be/dVZ9C

New paper alert! Using JWST MIRI we resolve a molecular disk wind from a transition disk! arxiv.org/abs/2409.11176 🔭

Obligatory picture at the institute sign and new headshot for my first day as a Carnegie Fellow at the Earth and Planets Laboratory

What's really going on vs. what you get from TESS

Our latest JWST (+ ALMA, VLTI-GRAVITY, IRTF-iSHELL) paper has been accepted in A&A! arxiv.org/abs/2406.10217 We investigated the short-separation DF Tau binary system. We find an unexpected disk around B with ALMA, with movement seen in ~2 months. The disks are < 3 au in radius.

My new favorite abstract

A mind-blowing result from the MINDS team! The disk around this small star is teeming with carbon-rich gas, further confirming how different the disks around low-mass stars are compared to their more massive siblings! Led by the awesome PhD student Aditya Arabhavi! webbtelescope.org/contents/new...

Very proud of @sierragrant.bsky.social, who gave an excellent invited talk at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute last week on what we're learning about planet formation with JWST! www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAWU...

I finally celebrated job news: I’m moving stateside (well, okay, federal-district-side)! In the fall I will start a three-year position as a Carnegie Fellow at Carnegie Science’s Earth and Planets Laboratory (EPL) in Washington, D.C. 🇺🇸

Wonderful article in Scientific American about water's cosmic journey, including some thoughts of my own!! 💧✨🔭 www.scientificamerican.com/article/jwst...