Ben Sutlieff
@bensutlieff.bsky.social
410 followers 190 following 40 posts
Astronomy postdoc at the University of Edinburgh, researching exoplanets and their atmospheres through direct imaging 🪐 He/Him 🔭 Previously in Amsterdam & Exeter.
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bensutlieff.bsky.social
Hi new followers! Seems like a good time for an #introduction post - I'm Ben, a postdoctoral researcher in astronomy based in Edinburgh. I study the atmospheres & weather of exoplanets (and brown dwarfs, their higher mass cousins) using observations from telescopes both on the ground and in space 🪐🔭
The artwork from the cover of my PhD thesis. A large red gas giant exoplanet can be seen. It has bands of clouds and a large storm, similar to the Great Red Spot on Jupiter, in its atmosphere. Two small blue moons orbit nearby. The background is the dark of space, but not black alone - there are also faint blue swirls. There are swirly, red, cloud-like features in the foreground at the top and bottom, partially obscuring the rest of the image. The artwork was designed by @sophiecavelldesign and is partially inspired by the works of Hokusai and van Gogh.
Reposted by Ben Sutlieff
mattkenworthy.bsky.social
My periodic reminder for #astrosci #astrodon #exoplanets Early Career Researchers to please, please, please have a simple web site with your current email address on it - rationale here: kenworthy.space/advice/
A pen sketch of a web page for an astronomer, showing name, email, optional phone number, and professional contact details, with a one sentence summary of their research and an ADS link.
bensutlieff.bsky.social
Swapped ‘on sky’ in the astronomical sense for ‘on Skye’ in the Scottish sense last week - I’d been meaning to visit this stunningly beautiful place since moving to Edinburgh and it definitely lived up to expectations! So many amazing hikes and things to see (+ we even had surprisingly good weather)
A selfie of me smiling in front of The Storr, a mountain on the Trotternish peninsula of the Isle of Skye in Scotland, which has several unique jagged rock formations. The view from the summit of Blà Bheinn, a mountain on the Isle of Skye that has stunning views over a large area of the island including the Black Cuillin ridge, a famous mountain range that gets its name from the dark colour of the gabbro rock it is composed of. A photo of the cliffs at Neist Point, the headland that represents the westernmost point of the Isle of Skye. There is a yellow and white lighthouse on the top of the cliffs with green hills in the foreground. There is a seabird colony on the cliffs themselves, perched high above the sea. A photo of Dun Beag Broch shortly after sunset. Dun Beag Broch is an iron-age broch, largely in ruins today but the walls can still be seen. There are mountains in the distance and the sky is a sunset gradient of blue to orange.
Reposted by Ben Sutlieff
mattkenworthy.bsky.social
Together with Sebastiaan Haffert our review on “High-Contrast Coronagraphy” is out - writing an ARA&A review has been on my academic bucket list, and I’m very proud of the result. It uses the showyourwork! framework, making it a completely reproducible paper. #FAIR #astrodon #exoplanets
Different telescope mirror apertures and their resultant point spread functions.
bensutlieff.bsky.social
I’m around in Edinburgh! Am otherwise occupied this weekend but can maybe meet up in the week if that works? (also let me know if you fancy a visit to the ROE and have time - I’m sure the other exoplanet folks here would be keen to talk to you!)
Reposted by Ben Sutlieff
oxoplanets.bsky.social
Congratulations to Dr Ben Sutlieff (@bensutlieff.bsky.social) for his pop up talk describing his poster about mapping exoplanet atmospheres with ground based observations 🔭 #ukexom25
bensutlieff.bsky.social
Wow, these are beautiful! Looking forward to following this thread!
Reposted by Ben Sutlieff
profsera.bsky.social
Please help us get the word out: our 6 wk astrophysics 🧪🔭summer research program for international MSc students is open for application! Note this is aimed at students from disadvantaged regions or under-represented groups in astro! I will host one position on black holes ⚫️!

aspire.science.uva.nl
ASPIRE
aspire.science.uva.nl
Reposted by Ben Sutlieff
mattkenworthy.bsky.social
With astronomy job season approaching, if you’re a PhD or early postdoc, PLEASE make a webpage and put your current contact details on it, so that searching for “< your name > astronomer” finds you first - more explanation how and why here: Unsolicited Advice #astrodon 🔭🪐
Reposted by Ben Sutlieff
emollick.bsky.social
Sharks are older than the rings of Saturn.

This paper finds that the rings are no older than 400M years. Sharks date back to at least the Late Ordovician Period, 450M years ago.
Reposted by Ben Sutlieff
brionya.bsky.social
Lovely to go on the Dirleton Solar Walk and see some of what @bensutlieff.bsky.social has been up to 🪐
Would definitely recommend, and Neptune is near a great garden centre if you need cake motivation.
bensutlieff.bsky.social
Very excited to be at the opening of the Dirleton Solar Walk today - a scale model of our Solar System in the East Lothian countryside, placed over 1.2km of the John Muir Way walking route! 🪐🔭 This was a really fun project to support and I highly recommend it for those local, esp. for kids/families!
A sign showing a map of the Dirleton Solar Walk, with information describing its scale (1:3.6 billon) and instructions on how to access its augmented reality features for each planet. Myself next to the marker for the planet Jupiter, which consists of a fence post with a sign on top showing an artistic representation of Jupiter and a metallic ball representing its relative size according to the scale. There is also a QR code linking to information about the planet and an AR representation. The marker for the planet Saturn, with a view of the countryside around Dirleton. Myself and my colleague Gergely Friss attempting to demonstrate the augmented reality visualisation of the planet Neptune. I am trying to hold the planet but my hands are in totally the wrong place.
bensutlieff.bsky.social
Yes, it was such a beautiful morning! A really lovely welcome for my first visit to the city.
Reposted by Ben Sutlieff
astroroyalscot.bsky.social
Calling the Lothians - fancy an autumnal planet walk?

The beautiful historic village of #Dirleton is proud to announce that dirleton.solar is open! 🥳😎

Take a stroll from the Sun in the village through to Neptune at the Archerfield Walled Gardens. Scan the QR codes for planet-facts en route! 🔭
A leafy grassy verge, surrounded by trees, sports a tall pole with a silver orb on top.  This is the start of the Dirleton solar walk. A sign showing the location of all the planets.  It reads "welcome to the Direction Solar Walk" with a cute walking astronaut cartoon logo Inside on a table and all lined up are the planet markers before they were installed in the outside.  You can see the swirly pinks on Jupiter and the pockmarks on mercury.  Bluer planets for Neptune uranyst and earth are in the distance with red mars right at the end of the table A wooden marker saying "Earth" with a perspex earth like planet on the top.  The autumnal leaves scatter the grass verge with trees surround a sort of grassy paddock in the background.
bensutlieff.bsky.social
Lastly, thank you very much to @astroroyalscot.bsky.social for introducing me to the team, and to @martinwhitfieldmsp.bsky.social and @brionya.bsky.social for joining us for the grand opening today!
bensutlieff.bsky.social
Very excited to be at the opening of the Dirleton Solar Walk today - a scale model of our Solar System in the East Lothian countryside, placed over 1.2km of the John Muir Way walking route! 🪐🔭 This was a really fun project to support and I highly recommend it for those local, esp. for kids/families!
A sign showing a map of the Dirleton Solar Walk, with information describing its scale (1:3.6 billon) and instructions on how to access its augmented reality features for each planet. Myself next to the marker for the planet Jupiter, which consists of a fence post with a sign on top showing an artistic representation of Jupiter and a metallic ball representing its relative size according to the scale. There is also a QR code linking to information about the planet and an AR representation. The marker for the planet Saturn, with a view of the countryside around Dirleton. Myself and my colleague Gergely Friss attempting to demonstrate the augmented reality visualisation of the planet Neptune. I am trying to hold the planet but my hands are in totally the wrong place.
bensutlieff.bsky.social
Also these excellent penguin bollards 🐧
A photo of some bollards in Dundee, Scotland. Some are standard black bollards, but several are designed to look like penguins, emphasising Dundee’s connection to the Antarctic.
bensutlieff.bsky.social
In Dundee yesterday for the Scottish Universities Physics Alliance Annual Cormack Astronomy Meeting (longest conference name ever? 🔭) with @agastro.bsky.social, @dirkscholte.bsky.social, and others. A full day of talks, but still managed to sneak in a little bit of sunrise sightseeing!
The RSS Discovery, a historic barque-rigged auxiliary steamship built in Dundee and launched in 1901. It carried Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton on their first journey to the Antarctic. It is now a museum ship in Dundee. A view over the River Tay, just before sunrise. The sky is yellow and the water is reflective like a mirror. A bird (a cormorant, I think) is swimming by. The McManus art gallery in Dundee. It is an impressive gothic revival building with green trees on either side and a curved staircase leading up to the main entrance. The view as seen from Dundee Law (a hill in Dundee) shortly after sunrise, with the sun low in the sky to the east. The city below is in the foreground with the River Tay behind it. The Tay Rail Bridge over the river can be seen.
Reposted by Ben Sutlieff
andrealuck.bsky.social
Reposting this video because I think everyone needs to see it. We’re so used to seeing Martian dust storms in movies, but this is actual footage, this is real! 🔭
andrealuck.bsky.social
Dust Storm Conditions over Mars ' North Polar Cap

Full size video: flic.kr/p/2qtp1Vt 🔭
Full size 5k image: flic.kr/p/2qto3Uy

Credits:
Processing: AndreaLuck CC BY
Raw Data: ESA/DLR/FUBerlin

ESA Mars Express 2006-11-16

All timestamps & additional info are available on Flickr in the links above.
Reposted by Ben Sutlieff
kevinmgill.bsky.social
An enormous 5,000 kilometer wide storm in Jupiter’s north polar region. Imaged by NASA’s Juno orbiter on November 24th during Perijove 67 approach.
A huge circular storm

NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Kevin M. Gill
Reposted by Ben Sutlieff
thejason.wang
Optimist: The cup is half full
Pessimist: The cup is half empty
Exoplanetary scientist: We've detected water in the cup!
chanda.blacksky.app
Optimist: The cup is half full
Pessimist: The cup is half empty
Cosmologist: The cup is dusty or full of gravitational waves
jwuphysics.bsky.social
Optimist: The cup is half full
Pessimist: The cup is half empty
Astronomer: This is a high metallicity sightline
Reposted by Ben Sutlieff
interplanetary.bsky.social
These are the planets to scale not only in size, but also in their tilt and rotation speed. Pluto and Ceres (a couple of dwarf planets) are included whether you like them or not 🫣
bensutlieff.bsky.social
Does it still count as being at work if I left my card for the gate at home? 😉