Join @stsci.edu as a software engineer, working on interactive data analysis and visualization tools for astronomers. 🔭 #astrocode
Apps due March 18, 2026.
recruiting2.ultipro.com/SPA1004AURA/...
Karl Stapelfeldt (JPL/Caltech) and I summarize the historical context that has led us to the Habitable Worlds Observatory. We always build upon the work of many. HWO is no exception. We hope you find this short paper enlightening.
arxiv.org/abs/2602.14823
Fig. 6. Geometric albedo model results, produced by sampling over the input parameter prior distributions (see Table 5) and using a scaling factor distribution to move the model away from chemical equilibrium. The wavelength-dependent albedos were then bandpass-integrated to produce the expected albedos in the TESS (orange) and CKC (blue) band. We find similar results to the chemical equilibrium model: temperature and pressure had no effect on the geometric albedo (so they are not shown here), and metallicity is the main driver. Due to increased parameter space from the relaxation of the chemical equilibrium constraint, the posteriors of TESS and CKC albedos are now wider and begin to overlap slightly. It is clear that the higher the metallicity, the lower the geometric albedo.
We tied the observed albedos to ranges in chemical abundance for optical absorbers like Na, H2O, TiO and VO with Rayleigh scattering, and compared models with and without condensation or chemical equilibrium.
As you might expect, near infinite chemical parameter space makes interpretation tricky.
Albedo distributions measured with CoRoT, Kepler, and CHEOPS (blue), and with TESS (orange). Hierarchical Bayesian models suggest that both albedo distributions are compatible best described by Rayleigh distributions with consistent parameters in both groups.
It's Dr. Kathryn Jones' final astro paper! 🧪🔭
Kathryn curated a set of geometric albedos for hot Jupiters from CoRoT, Kepler, CHEOPS (CKC; blue histogram) and TESS (orange histogram), and found that the CKC and TESS albedo distributions are indistinguishable.
arxiv.org/abs/2603.02409
Elsie’s the best in the game. arxiv.org/abs/2602.19687 🔭 #astrocode
I like to think we practice science, like a doctor practices medicine. We apply our education – both in facts and in deductive processes – in new and uncertain situations.
This is yet another example where astronomers don't realise how good we have it. I do actually have a GS account, but the profile is private, and I haven't looked at it for many years. Everything we do is via NASA ADS, which is - and has always been - vastly superior to anything Google offered. 🔭
it me
Without naming your job, tell me something you say over and over again at work:
“Those parameters are degenerate too.”
That would take away the deep meaning in spending my life in pursuit of writing effortless New Yorker.
Another job was just posted, at the senior software engineer level at @stsci.edu: 🔭 #astrocode
recruiting2.ultipro.com/SPA1004AURA/...
Entry level software engineer position at @stsci.edu, application deadline Feb 28: 🧪🔭 #astrocode
recruiting2.ultipro.com/SPA1004AURA/...
Note: “never expected” is sarcasm. The goals of one-third reich have been very clear.
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/31/u...
Never imagined conservatives would become yimbys and the housing project would be concentration camps.
never again(?)
🎁 gift link: www.nytimes.com/2026/02/01/u...
The only fun classes I took were:
- ethnomusicology
- West African drumming
I love me a widget 👏
New job opportunity at @stsci.edu: Senior Astronomical Data Scientist for data analysis tools, working closely with my team and me.
This role is very similar to mine. If you have questions, I'm happy to answer them. 🧪🔭
Alex Pretti, wearing a green sweater with his VA badge on.
This is Alex Pretti.
This morning he was murdered by ICE. Six ICE agents held him down and shot him at point blank range. Alex was a nurse and researcher at the VA.
Our thoughts are with his loved ones and we stand united in action calling for the abolishment of ICE.
#ScientistsAgainstICE
NYT video analysis confirms victim’s gun was removed before he was shot. So he was unarmed. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/24/us/minneapolis-shooting-federal-agents-video.html
The real “domestic terrorists” are in the White House.
The victim, Alex Jeffrey Pretti, was reportedly a law abiding US citizen & an ICU nurse at the VA. He was licensed to carry a firearm.
Trump & Miller are responsible for his killing & are now lying to the American people.
A U.S. Border Patrol officer fatally shot a man in Minneapolis on Saturday morning, federal officials said.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara described the man as a 37-year-old White male, who was a resident of the city and believed to be an American citizen. https://wapo.st/3M62eyV
wait, you can stop?
I cook something needlessly elaborate.
A spectrum (transit depth versus wavelength) showing two large bumps, which models and data agree is the Mg II absorption feature.
The Mg II ion has a huge feature at 0.28 microns, which we can resolve with Hubble. The absorption is well past the planet's gravity, indicating extreme escape of gas: we calculate about 10^12.5 grams per sec. @brettmorr.is told us this is about 2x the mass of all elephants on Earth... per second! 😂
SPARCS and Pandora launched together!!! Two small sats I’m very excited about, and thrilled for my friends and colleagues who have worked on them! 🔭
Four minutes to launch for NASA Pandora 🧪🔭
Less than 3 hours to go!!!! Eeeee!
Pandora spacecraft in front of an exoplanet
It's happening!!! Pandora is going to space in just over 16 hours (if all goes well). Pandora is going to help us study exoplanet atmospheres, even when their host stars are misbehaving. I am headed up to Vandenberg to watch the launch shortly, and will make a thread about the mission/launch here!
“The U.S. has led an unprecedented age of cosmic discovery. Now Trump is trying to bring that age to an end, and right at the moment when answers to our most profound existential questions finally seem to be within reach,” @rossandersen.bsky.social reports. theatln.tc/LThKw0kY
