Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Chara @astrochara.bsky.social · 59m

The planet is HD 209458 b (kind of). Cloud pattern follows the "shallow heating" model from journals.aps.org/prl/abstract..., where the heating is deposited at altitude corresponding to pressure of 1000 Pa (0.01 bar).

Repeated Cyclogenesis on Hot-Exoplanet Atmospheres with Deep Heating

Supercomputer simulations of the weather on a hot Jupiter reveal a previously unseen storm pattern in which cyclones are repeatedly generated and destroyed.

journals.aps.org

Chara @astrochara.bsky.social · 1h

A study on drawing a hot Jupiter's nightside.

The dayside is overexposed. The nightside is pinkish from the combination of blackbody radiation and absorption from Na/K/H2O, similar to brown dwarfs.

#art #astronomy #space #planet #exoplanet #HotJupiter

This image depicts a hot Jupiter's crescent, being illuminated by a host star located off-screen to the bottom left. The dayside, being overexposed, is pure white, and the atmosphere shows up as a white glow surrounding the dayside. The nightside is dull pinkish, with cooler clouds showing up as darker regions. The two large hemispherical storms appear on the image as well.

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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 12h

One of the terrible things about the conservative elites’ attacks on higher education is that they are giving their constituents the impression that the universe isn’t big, complicated, and fascinating — that it really does take this many people to work out how even a small fraction of it works

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Kelsey Johnson @profkelsey.bsky.social · 12h

Procrastination takes may forms. Tonight as a service to the astronomical community I offer help with your JWST proposal titles.
#JWST 🧪🔭✨

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John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 13h

To be clear:

LA County has declared a state of emergency BECAUSE OF the federal government.

The Feds, LA County is (correctly) saying, have CAUSED the emergency.

This is a striking political moment of internal collapse. Local govts feeling compelled to protect their ppl from … their own govt.

Los Angeles County declares state of emergency over immigration raids

Los Angeles County officials voted on Tuesday to declare a state of emergency over ongoing federal immigration raids.

abcnews.go.com

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Astrobiology @astrobiology.bsky.social · 21h

Ancient Mars Climate With a Polar Ocean and Ice Sheet Dynamics
astrobiology.com/2025/10/anci... #Astrobiology #Mars

Ancient Mars Climate With a Polar Ocean and Ice Sheet Dynamics - Astrobiology

In this article, we study the conditions required to maintain a stable ocean on Mars 3 Ga using a new suite of simulations.

astrobiology.com

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Celeste Labedz @celestelabedz.bsky.social · 1d

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.

Reuters @reuters.com · 1d

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to lay off about 550 workers reut.rs/4302N2L

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to lay off about 550 workers

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said on Monday it will cut nearly 550 jobs as part of a restructuring, not related to the current U.S. government shutdown.

reut.rs

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András Gáspár @andrasgaspar.bsky.social · 1d

The JWST Cycle 5 "Procrastination Monitor", i.e. Molly's proposal counter submission form, is up an running. Please fill it out if you have data to add to it. And do share! #JWSTCycle5

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

JWST Cycle 5 Proposal Procrastination Monitor

An anonymous way to monitor JWST proposal submission times In the email from proposal-submission@stsci, the subject line will be like, "JWST Phase I Proposal 3434 submission 4 received". Here, 3434 =...

docs.google.com

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Chara @astrochara.bsky.social · 1d

Two fictional warm neptunians. I would've made this an art of real exoplanets, but frankly I don't actually *know* that many exoplanets...

The right one "Skanbou" is closer in / hotter. The left one "Kellun" is further out / cooler.

#astronomy #space #planet #exoplanet #art

This artwork depicts a foreshortened image of two planets: hazy, featureless-looking neptunians with different colours. The right one is closer to the star and hotter, and has yellowish/greenish haze over subtle cloud deck of potassium chloride. The left one is further from the star and cooler, and features brownish haze.

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Chara @astrochara.bsky.social · 1d

Today's arXiv day brought us a really cool paper that analyzed the two stars of 55 Cancri. It detected the known planets around A, and found TWO new planets around the B.
arxiv.org/abs/2510.11523

Here's my quick art of Harriot, one of the planets around A.

#astronomy #space #exoplanet #planet #art

A depiction of the extrasolar planet 55 Cancri A f, or Harriot. It is depicted as a beige-coloured hazy giant planet with some bright high-altitude clouds. A fictional irregularly-shaped moon transits in front of it.

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kaibootsu @kaibootsu.bsky.social · 1d

#2kkitober intermission. some dreamer headcanons i have
#fanart

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arianne20131.bsky.social @arianne20131.bsky.social · 2d

I did prefer staying alone before most of the time... Nowadays I wish I had someone to hang around with

#touhou

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Matthew Kenworthy @mattkenworthy.bsky.social · 1d

Gibson et al. “TESS Discovers a Second System of Transiting Exocomets in the Extreme
Debris Disk of RZ Psc” showing 24 exocomet transits and the existence of a broken power law for the sizes of these exocomets, unlike Beta Pic’s exocomet distribution #exoplanet #astrodon #astrosci

TESS light curve of RZ Psc, showing several dog tooth-like dips indicating exocomet transits.

Plot os radius of exocomet versus cumulative number count - the RZ Psc shows a distinct change in slope at 2.5km, whilst the Beta Pic distribution from des Etangs shows a single straight power law.

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Meg Schwamb @megschwamb.bsky.social · 2d

starlinked

Andy Rivkin @asrivkin.bsky.social · 2d

In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand.

Visit Planner timed out.

barbylon @barbylon.bsky.social · 2d

In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand.

The valve stuck open.

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triple cheeseburger @triplchii.bsky.social · 2d

what if we collected all the strong sweaty tank top engineer/mechanic anime girls and put them in a room and got them to construct or design something

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kbethany.bsky.social @kbethany.bsky.social · 2d

Not sure about the others but Dartmouth basically told them to eff off…

www.msn.com/en-us/news/p...

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BlaParky @blaparky.bsky.social · 3d

#hololive #ほしまちぎゃらりー
#Holoctober Day 13: Free Theme

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Doc Vivi Leandra - Real-Life Scientist VTuber 🧬🖥️ @docvivileandra.bsky.social · 3d

saw someone say plasma weapons are "more realistic" than laser weapons and I want to scream, people who assess "realism" based entirely on vibes are a plague

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Chara @astrochara.bsky.social · 3d

Planetes’s anime was awesome. Starting with it then reading the manga right after to switch from a exciting conclusion to a solemn reflection was also a wonderful experience.

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OtakuNoCreepo 🎃 @wessoman.bsky.social · 3d

Above all else, watch Planetes. Always a classic.

PLANETES

(Picture of a man in an orange spacesuit attempting to intercept a loose bolt in earth orbital space)

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Tom Watson @guitarwatson.bsky.social · 4d

Great work by my friend @kenjenkinsny.bsky.social. More public officials should stand up the way Ken has in Westchester.

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Michelle A. Rodrigues 🐒 @marspidermonkey.bsky.social · 12d

While Goodall received her PhD in the 1960s, it was not until the 2000s that Ugandan Emily Otali became the first African woman to complete a PhD on chimpanzee behavior. The networks that facilitated European and North Americans researchers impeded the same opportunities for Africans (9/10)

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Michelle A. Rodrigues 🐒 @marspidermonkey.bsky.social · 12d

When Goodall began her research in 1960, she was not alone in the forest, but accompanied by game scouts in her fieldwork—Adolf, Saulo, David, and Marcel—and back at camp she and her mother had the company of a local cook and his family. She would have relied heavily on their local knowledge (6/10)

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Michelle A. Rodrigues 🐒 @marspidermonkey.bsky.social · 12d

What the narrative leaves out is the contributions of the local Tanzanians who assisted and facilitated Goodall's early research, as well as preceding and concurrent research. Nat Geo created a story about a lone white woman alone with chimpanzees, erasing the Africans that were beside her (3/10)

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Michelle A. Rodrigues 🐒 @marspidermonkey.bsky.social · 12d

As a primatologist, Jane Goodall was a huge inspiration to me. I admired the way she describes chimpanzee behavior with such detail and empathy, and she’s inspired so many people and advocated for chimpanzee conservation and welfare.

However, I'm dismayed at what her narrative leaves out (1/10)

Photo of Jane Goodall in the center, signing a book, with three women standing slightly hunched behind her. A very young Michelle is to the right, smiling.

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