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Michael Plummer

@magmaskies

Assistant Professor of Physics, Mountain West, Astronomy PhD, Brown Dwarf & Exoplanet πŸͺ Atmospheric Researcher β›ˆοΈ, He/Him, michaelplummer.dev

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17.11.2024
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Latest posts by Michael Plummer @magmaskies

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Hey #sciart! This is "Punching Above (Normalized)". This piece is a view of the Earth from space through the lens of my plasma physics research. The piece reveals Earth's true intention is to become the next Jupiter. It won 2nd place at the Art of Planetary Science show, open this weekend!

23.02.2026 17:39 πŸ‘ 9 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Thank you to all the co-authors including (but not limited to) : @alliemccarthy.bsky.social @evertnasedkin.bsky.social @johannavos.bsky.social @cvisscher.bsky.social @jasonfrowe.bsky.social

27.02.2026 14:27 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Mapping the Cloud-driven Atmospheric Dynamics and Chemistry of an Isolated Exoplanet Analog with Harmonic Signatures Mapping the Cloud-driven Atmospheric Dynamics and Chemistry of an Isolated Exoplanet Analog with Harmonic Signatures, Plummer, Michael K., Cocchini, Francis P., Kearns, Peter A., McCarthy, Allison M., Artigau, Γ‰tienne, Cowan, Nicolas B., Akhmetshyn, Roman, Vos, Johanna M., Nasedkin, Evert, Visscher, Channon, Benneke, BjΓΆrn, Doyon, RenΓ©, Metchev, Stanimir A., Rowe, Jason F., SuΓ‘rez, Genaro

Publication day for our paper on the T2.5 brown dwarf/exoplanet analog SIMP0136! We find cloud formation appears to drive upper atmospheric temperature and chemical structure. We also debut a new, novel method for vertical mapping extrasolar atmospheric dynamics.

iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3...

27.02.2026 14:21 πŸ‘ 6 πŸ” 3 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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fry from futurama is holding a bunch of money in his hand ALT: fry from futurama is holding a bunch of money in his hand
07.02.2026 04:24 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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JADES: An Abundance of Ultra-Distant T- and Y-Dwarfs in Deep Extragalactic Data Ultra-cool T- (T$_{\mathrm{eff}} \approx$ 500 - 1200 K) and Y-dwarfs (T$_{\mathrm{eff}}$ $\lessapprox 500$ K) have historically been found only a few hundred parsecs from the Sun. The sensitivity and ...

I wrote another paper! And yes it's about brown dwarfs wait don't go anywhere they're really neat

arxiv.org/abs/2510.00111

02.10.2025 02:59 πŸ‘ 42 πŸ” 9 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 0
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Mapping the Cloud-Driven Atmospheric Dynamics & Chemistry of an Isolated Exoplanet Analog with Harmonic Signatures Young planetary-mass objects and brown dwarfs near the L/T spectral transition exhibit enhanced spectrophotometric variability over field brown dwarfs. Patchy clouds, auroral processes, stratospheric ...

I’m thrilled to announce a new paper that went up on the arXiv last night: arxiv.org/abs/2510.02260! The paper finds and maps the connections between clouds, temperature structure, and chemistry in the isolate exoplanet analog SIMP 0136. Very grateful to all my collaborators and co-authors!

03.10.2025 12:33 πŸ‘ 9 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1

Outstanding new paper from Evert Nasedkin on the variable, isolated exoplanet analog, T dwarf, SIMP-0136! Time resolved atmospheric retrievals find temperature driving variability and potential auroral signatures (stratospheric temperature inversion)!

26.09.2025 12:36 πŸ‘ 5 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Looks like it’s a strong possibility

13.09.2025 20:22 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Really nice opening drive

13.09.2025 19:52 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

I loved this paper, particularly the comparisons to GCMs! I would definitely love to see more Brown Dwarf Doppler imaging studies!

30.08.2025 18:22 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Perfect story for morning drive to work! Loved it!

13.08.2025 13:55 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

The original RE4 marked the shift in the series away from survival horror to action as I recall; I wasn’t a fan of RE5/6 but still really liked RE4

10.08.2025 18:23 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

I need to play this; haven’t played RE4 since the PS2 days but loved the RE2 remake

10.08.2025 17:10 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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The IAC leads the first scientific results of NIRPS, the new infrared exoplanet hunter The new infrared spectrograph NIRPS, built with the participation of the Instituto de AstrofΓ­sica de Canarias (IAC) and installed on the 3.6-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile, has...

It's NIRPS day! Today we are publishing the first results of the new near infrared planet hunter. A high resolution spectrograph with YHJ coverage and capable of measuring radial velocities with a precision better than 1 m/s.
We debut it with the detection (in the NIR) of Proxima b. #exoplanets πŸ”­

29.07.2025 09:59 πŸ‘ 97 πŸ” 31 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 3
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UR: Infrared Spectrum: Probing for life beyond the visible In the latest of our #UndergradResearch series, discover how Diya Talesara uses IR spectroscopy to study biosignatures in exoplanet data.

In the latest of our #UndergradResearch series, discover how Diya Talesara uses IR spectroscopy to study biosignatures in exoplanet data. πŸ”­βœ¨β˜„οΈ
astrobites.org/2025/07/25/i...

25.07.2025 21:43 πŸ‘ 39 πŸ” 8 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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If you could hear in the infrared, what would CO2 sound like? We calculated this recently for a Gen Ed course, and the result is a little eerie.

Results were generated by mapping IR frequency in inverse cm to sound frequency in Hz.

24.07.2025 17:02 πŸ‘ 39 πŸ” 10 πŸ’¬ 5 πŸ“Œ 2

It’s thought to be a shallower ionic ice layer, perhaps explaining the extreme multi-polarity in Neptune’s magnetic field.

27.03.2025 02:38 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Neptune’s magnetic field is thought to be generated in an ionic layer of ice (water, methane and ammonia).

27.03.2025 02:36 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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24.03.2025 00:44 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Check out the press release for our recent work using JWST observations of SIMP0136! Also published today on ApJL: iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3...

03.03.2025 15:48 πŸ‘ 15 πŸ” 7 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Thanks! Excited to hear more about the new project!

25.02.2025 02:53 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

This wouldn’t happen to have molecular absorption bands too?

25.02.2025 01:44 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Go Bucks!

22.01.2025 04:17 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Good morning #aas245! My students Peter Kearns and Francis Cocchini will be presenting a talk on 1D mapping brown dwarf atmospheres with ground-based photometry on Wednesday at 11:20 AM (319.07) in Stars/Cool Dwarfs/Brown Dwarfs II. Hope to see you there!

12.01.2025 14:02 πŸ‘ 6 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

I would love a Sonic Adventure 1 & 2 Remaster (also from Sega, I really want a Shenmue remake/remaster with modern controls).

31.12.2024 05:52 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

She is such an amazing writer, such a powerful book!

29.11.2024 04:57 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Love this idea! Would you be able to add me as well?

18.11.2024 03:59 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Glad to meet you! I research brown dwarf and exoplanet atmospheres with a current focus on the sources of variability. I am a new assistant professor at the US Air Force Academy.

17.11.2024 16:17 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0