David R. Rice
@davidrrice.bsky.social
Astrophysicist and rock-enjoyer. Slartibartfast's apprentice. Postdoc at ARCO, Open University of Israel. PhD from UNLV. Northwestern University Alumni.
Pinned
David R. Rice
@davidrrice.bsky.social
· Apr 24
Our new planet interior paper is accepted and up on arXiv, arxiv.org/abs/2504.16201! Explore all the knobs you can twist when modeling an Earth-like planet, in this case Trappist-1 f.
Don't miss the appendix where I detail the "correct" way to plot a ternary diagram (below)....
#exoplanets 🔭🧪🪐
Don't miss the appendix where I detail the "correct" way to plot a ternary diagram (below)....
#exoplanets 🔭🧪🪐
Fighting the intrusive thought of sending in "looks all good. QED." for a paper review.
October 27, 2025 at 11:43 AM
Fighting the intrusive thought of sending in "looks all good. QED." for a paper review.
Two of the first works I reviewed for the Journal of Emerging Investigators got published!
Galaxy rotation curves: emerginginvestigators.org/articles/25-...
X-ray binary classifications: emerginginvestigators.org/articles/24-...
Galaxy rotation curves: emerginginvestigators.org/articles/25-...
X-ray binary classifications: emerginginvestigators.org/articles/24-...
Examination of the rotation curve for the dark matter deficient relic galaxy NGC 1277 | Journal of Emerging Investigators
JEI is a scientific journal for middle and high school scientists
emerginginvestigators.org
October 14, 2025 at 5:38 PM
Two of the first works I reviewed for the Journal of Emerging Investigators got published!
Galaxy rotation curves: emerginginvestigators.org/articles/25-...
X-ray binary classifications: emerginginvestigators.org/articles/24-...
Galaxy rotation curves: emerginginvestigators.org/articles/25-...
X-ray binary classifications: emerginginvestigators.org/articles/24-...
I made a travel map generator ✈️🌍
Drop in a list of country codes or names → see your visited & planned trips on a world map.
Runs fully in-browser (GitHub Pages).
Try it here: davidrrice.github.io/TravelMap/
#Travel #Maps
Drop in a list of country codes or names → see your visited & planned trips on a world map.
Runs fully in-browser (GitHub Pages).
Try it here: davidrrice.github.io/TravelMap/
#Travel #Maps
September 29, 2025 at 7:59 AM
I made a travel map generator ✈️🌍
Drop in a list of country codes or names → see your visited & planned trips on a world map.
Runs fully in-browser (GitHub Pages).
Try it here: davidrrice.github.io/TravelMap/
#Travel #Maps
Drop in a list of country codes or names → see your visited & planned trips on a world map.
Runs fully in-browser (GitHub Pages).
Try it here: davidrrice.github.io/TravelMap/
#Travel #Maps
Our new hydrosphere phase diagram is live for Magrathea: github.com/Huang-CL/Mag.... H2O ices, liquid, vapor, and supercritical. Largely inspired by the AQUA phase diagram from Haldemann et al. 2020, but with a couple of our own tweaks and ready to update with future EOS measurements.
September 28, 2025 at 10:11 AM
Our new hydrosphere phase diagram is live for Magrathea: github.com/Huang-CL/Mag.... H2O ices, liquid, vapor, and supercritical. Largely inspired by the AQUA phase diagram from Haldemann et al. 2020, but with a couple of our own tweaks and ready to update with future EOS measurements.
I'm not sure why I've decided to die on this hill radius, but Pluto & Charon are not a "binary planet" because the barycenter lies outside Pluto. That’s a misconception. Binary just means two bodies bound together: binary stars, binary black holes, binary asteroids, binary planet.
September 15, 2025 at 12:27 PM
I'm not sure why I've decided to die on this hill radius, but Pluto & Charon are not a "binary planet" because the barycenter lies outside Pluto. That’s a misconception. Binary just means two bodies bound together: binary stars, binary black holes, binary asteroids, binary planet.
Spent a day re-convincing myself that I know what an orbit is. Here are the barycentric orbits of Pluto-Charon and Alpha Centauri AB with correct proportions. Fun is that the radii of Pluto and Charon are even to scale with the orbit. #planetsci
August 20, 2025 at 11:56 AM
Spent a day re-convincing myself that I know what an orbit is. Here are the barycentric orbits of Pluto-Charon and Alpha Centauri AB with correct proportions. Fun is that the radii of Pluto and Charon are even to scale with the orbit. #planetsci
My MIL handed me pharma-grade DMSO for mosquito bites. Not FDA approved, but my self-study found it more statistical significance than DMS on K2-18b. #exoplanets
July 21, 2025 at 2:06 AM
My MIL handed me pharma-grade DMSO for mosquito bites. Not FDA approved, but my self-study found it more statistical significance than DMS on K2-18b. #exoplanets
Reposted by David R. Rice
Effect of Galactic Chemical Evolution on Exoplanet Properties. Jason H. Steffen (UNLV) et. al. https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.10942
July 16, 2025 at 3:32 AM
Effect of Galactic Chemical Evolution on Exoplanet Properties. Jason H. Steffen (UNLV) et. al. https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.10942
Our new preprint just hit the arXiv: arxiv.org/abs/2507.10942 💥 We take a look at how the core mass fraction of planets may change through galactic time. My largest contribution is this plot with the planets from Weeks et al. 2025 reanalyzed with our interior model. 🔭🪐
July 16, 2025 at 3:13 AM
Our new preprint just hit the arXiv: arxiv.org/abs/2507.10942 💥 We take a look at how the core mass fraction of planets may change through galactic time. My largest contribution is this plot with the planets from Weeks et al. 2025 reanalyzed with our interior model. 🔭🪐
Preparing to trade salt for fresh water—can you guess where I’ll be working next?
Big move next summer, big science starting sooner. Excited for what’s ahead in 2026!
Big move next summer, big science starting sooner. Excited for what’s ahead in 2026!
July 12, 2025 at 6:39 PM
Preparing to trade salt for fresh water—can you guess where I’ll be working next?
Big move next summer, big science starting sooner. Excited for what’s ahead in 2026!
Big move next summer, big science starting sooner. Excited for what’s ahead in 2026!
Reposted by David R. Rice
the woke mob killed SExtractor
June 5, 2025 at 6:23 PM
the woke mob killed SExtractor
Officially published today if you missed the arXiv drop a month ago!
iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3...
iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3...
Uncertainties in the Inference of Internal Structure: The Case of TRAPPIST-1 f - IOPscienceSearchopens in new tab
Uncertainties in the Inference of Internal Structure: The Case of TRAPPIST-1 f, Rice, David R., Huang, Chenliang, Steffen, Jason H., Vazan, Allona
iopscience.iop.org
June 2, 2025 at 12:47 PM
Officially published today if you missed the arXiv drop a month ago!
iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3...
iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3...
A lot of words to circle back to "go around the Sun".
So neat, but seriously this is how we get multiple comments saying "the Sun orbits the Earth" which is an entirely unhelpful and wrong description of nature.
So neat, but seriously this is how we get multiple comments saying "the Sun orbits the Earth" which is an entirely unhelpful and wrong description of nature.
The Earth doesn’t “go around the Sun” the Earth goes in a straight line through an area of spacetime that bends around the Sun and I think that’s neat.
May 12, 2025 at 5:31 AM
A lot of words to circle back to "go around the Sun".
So neat, but seriously this is how we get multiple comments saying "the Sun orbits the Earth" which is an entirely unhelpful and wrong description of nature.
So neat, but seriously this is how we get multiple comments saying "the Sun orbits the Earth" which is an entirely unhelpful and wrong description of nature.
I get a bit carried away with @matplotlib.org's hatching. But it's so helpful! The left plot you can pick any point in the middle and pretty quickly tell which 4 hatch marks are overlapping.
May 4, 2025 at 11:43 AM
I get a bit carried away with @matplotlib.org's hatching. But it's so helpful! The left plot you can pick any point in the middle and pretty quickly tell which 4 hatch marks are overlapping.
Reposted by David R. Rice
Uncertainties in the Inference of Internal Structure: The Case of TRAPPIST-1 f. David R. Rice et. al. https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.16201
April 24, 2025 at 5:44 AM
Uncertainties in the Inference of Internal Structure: The Case of TRAPPIST-1 f. David R. Rice et. al. https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.16201
Our new planet interior paper is accepted and up on arXiv, arxiv.org/abs/2504.16201! Explore all the knobs you can twist when modeling an Earth-like planet, in this case Trappist-1 f.
Don't miss the appendix where I detail the "correct" way to plot a ternary diagram (below)....
#exoplanets 🔭🧪🪐
Don't miss the appendix where I detail the "correct" way to plot a ternary diagram (below)....
#exoplanets 🔭🧪🪐
April 24, 2025 at 8:47 AM
Our new planet interior paper is accepted and up on arXiv, arxiv.org/abs/2504.16201! Explore all the knobs you can twist when modeling an Earth-like planet, in this case Trappist-1 f.
Don't miss the appendix where I detail the "correct" way to plot a ternary diagram (below)....
#exoplanets 🔭🧪🪐
Don't miss the appendix where I detail the "correct" way to plot a ternary diagram (below)....
#exoplanets 🔭🧪🪐
Reposted by David R. Rice
don’t give Elsevier any ideas 😭😭😭😭😭😭
“PromoPlot: Covering open-access fees by filling wasted space in corner plots”
arxiv.org/abs/2503.24254
“PromoPlot: Covering open-access fees by filling wasted space in corner plots”
arxiv.org/abs/2503.24254
April 1, 2025 at 3:45 PM
don’t give Elsevier any ideas 😭😭😭😭😭😭
“PromoPlot: Covering open-access fees by filling wasted space in corner plots”
arxiv.org/abs/2503.24254
“PromoPlot: Covering open-access fees by filling wasted space in corner plots”
arxiv.org/abs/2503.24254
I really really shouldn’t say anything; amazing selections for NHFP. BUT gas giants, brown dwarfs, and free floating planets being selected for “Are we alone?” is objectively funny.
The answer for those “planets” is yes.
The answer for those “planets” is yes.
March 31, 2025 at 5:39 PM
I really really shouldn’t say anything; amazing selections for NHFP. BUT gas giants, brown dwarfs, and free floating planets being selected for “Are we alone?” is objectively funny.
The answer for those “planets” is yes.
The answer for those “planets” is yes.
The video is here! The hardest thing I've ever done: Rim to River to Rim of the Grand Canyon.
youtu.be/9SO7vJeIZ8c?...
youtu.be/9SO7vJeIZ8c?...
Only 1% of people do this at the Grand Canyon! 🐴
YouTube video by the hiker's mix
youtu.be
March 24, 2025 at 7:14 AM
The video is here! The hardest thing I've ever done: Rim to River to Rim of the Grand Canyon.
youtu.be/9SO7vJeIZ8c?...
youtu.be/9SO7vJeIZ8c?...
Reposted by David R. Rice
Our new exoplanet occurrence rate study, led by Penn State President's Postdoctoral Fellow Rachel Fernandes, gives us new insight into the evolution of young planets!
Paper: iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3...
Press Release: www.psu.edu/news/eberly-...
🧵1/8
#exoplanets 🔭🧪🪐
Paper: iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3...
Press Release: www.psu.edu/news/eberly-...
🧵1/8
#exoplanets 🔭🧪🪐
Combination of cosmic processes shapes the size and location of sub-Neptunes | Penn State University
Using a newly developed tool to sift through data from the NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, a team led by a Penn State astronomer has identified young sub-Neptune planets close to their s...
www.psu.edu
March 17, 2025 at 10:31 PM
Our new exoplanet occurrence rate study, led by Penn State President's Postdoctoral Fellow Rachel Fernandes, gives us new insight into the evolution of young planets!
Paper: iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3...
Press Release: www.psu.edu/news/eberly-...
🧵1/8
#exoplanets 🔭🧪🪐
Paper: iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3...
Press Release: www.psu.edu/news/eberly-...
🧵1/8
#exoplanets 🔭🧪🪐
My strong schadenfreude over the stock market crashing has just come crashing down itself when I remembered my parents are retiring soon.
March 11, 2025 at 5:52 PM
My strong schadenfreude over the stock market crashing has just come crashing down itself when I remembered my parents are retiring soon.
Have this link handy to send to people: neal.fun/asteroid-lau...
Asteroid Launcher
Design your own asteroid and launch it at Earth!
neal.fun
February 18, 2025 at 8:14 PM
Have this link handy to send to people: neal.fun/asteroid-lau...
Having my first filtered coffee in 5 months since moving overseas. Spent a minute worried it was tea instead of coffee.
December 22, 2024 at 7:21 AM
Having my first filtered coffee in 5 months since moving overseas. Spent a minute worried it was tea instead of coffee.
Please, who is teaching people that Charon doesn’t orbit Pluto?? 🔭🪐
December 9, 2024 at 11:19 AM
Please, who is teaching people that Charon doesn’t orbit Pluto?? 🔭🪐
Waiting for NdT to post: “AcTuaLy the sun doesn’t pull comets from their orbits.“
a woman in a pink dress stands next to a green witch
Alt: Scene from new wicked movie with Galinda and elphaba looking worried
media.tenor.com
November 22, 2024 at 6:40 PM
Waiting for NdT to post: “AcTuaLy the sun doesn’t pull comets from their orbits.“