janiceleeastro

Countless star trails appear as colorful brushstrokes spread across the night sky above the NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory. This mesmerizing image was created using long-exposure photography, a technique in which a photographer allows light to enter their camera lens for a period of several minutes to several hours. The camera captures the subject’s movements, and the resulting image shows the flow of time in a single shot. During its decade-long Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) Rubin will use a technique known as difference imaging: equipped with the largest camera ever built, Rubin will image the southern sky every few nights. Scientists will stack the best images in each filter each year into ultra-long exposures and create template images of the southern sky. When this template is compared to individual images, scientists will be able to identify ‘movements’ in the night sky, such as new supernovae or the 'pulsations' of variable stars. After 10 years and thousands of exposures, Rubin will produce an unprecedented ultra-wide, ultra-high-definition, time-lapse record of our Universe — the ultimate movie of the night sky. This image was captured by Hernán Stockebrand, a NOIRLab Audiovisual Ambassador. Credit: RubinObs/NOIRLab/SLAC/NSF/DOE/AURA/H. Stockebrand

NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory 🔭 has issued its first scientific alerts, marking a historic milestone in astrophysics. Expected to increase to seven million alerts per night (!!!), these first alerts start a new era of dynamic, real-time observation of the night sky. More: noirlab.edu/public/news/...

This galaxy is one of the most enigmatic in our PHANGS survey✨🔭🧪☄ Today's @apod.shinyakato.dev compares our Webb infrared and Hubble optical images...
(Find these color-composite images, science-ready imaging data, plus catalogs of star clusters at archive.stsci.edu/hlsp/phangs ) #extragalactic

Congrats @leefeinberg.bsky.social !! 🎉🧪🔭

A new census of OB associations with Gaia!

In this study, we took advantage of my OB stars map to find new OB associations within 1 kpc. The goal was to create a useful reference catalogue for this era, and to trace the star formation and structure of the local Milky Way.

#stellarastro #galactic

The Hidden Life of Stars: Embedded Beginnings to AGB Endings in the PHANGS-JWST Sample. I. Catalog of Mid-IR Sources We present a multiwavelength catalog of mid-infrared-selected compact sources in 19 nearby galaxies, combining JWST NIRCam/MIRI, HST UV-optical broadband, H$α$ narrow-band, and ALMA CO observations. W...

My recent PhD paper, titled “The Hidden Life of Stars: Embedded Beginnings to AGB Endings in the PHANGS-JWST Sample. I. Catalog of Mid-IR Sources”, is out!

The paper presents a catalog of JWST MIRI 10 µm and 21 µm sources across 19 nearby galaxies.
arxiv.org/abs/2509.16459

so grateful to everyone who showed up and made the case for sustaining science and discovery 🔭✨🧪

“Humanity is waiting for the breakthroughs this mission is capable of achieving and the questions it could help us answer about life in the universe. We intend to move with urgency, and expedite timelines to the greatest extent possible to bring these discoveries to the world.”

NASA Selects Tech Proposals to Advance Search-for-Life Mission - NASA NASA announced Monday the selection of industry proposals to advance technologies for the agency’s Habitable Worlds Observatory concept – the first mission

“The Habitable Worlds Observatory is exactly the kind of bold, forward-leaning science that only NASA can undertake...” said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman...
🔭✨🧪🧵☄️
#exoplanets
#extragalactic

🔭☄️
#extragalactic #exoplanets

🔭🧪☄️ #habitableworldsobservatory
#extragalactic #exoplanets #galactic #stellarastro

ESA Member States commit to largest contributions at Ministerial The largest contributions in the history of the European Space Agency, €22.1 bn, have been approved at its Council meeting at Ministerial level in Bremen, ...

22.1 billion euros subscribed.
A record.
A first.
And a clear message that Europe is serious about space and that @esa.int is the agency it trusts to deliver.

A historic Ministerial. A united Europe. A stronger ESA.
www.esa.int/About_Us/Cor...

Our special November issue, celebrating 30 years of exoplanets, is now here! https://bit.ly/483MH9I
#astronomy #exoplanets

Echoes of the First Stars: Massive Star Evolution in Extremely Metal-Poor Environments with the Habitable Worlds Observatory A remarkable span of frontier astrophysics, from gravitational-wave archaeology to the origin of the elements to interpreting snapshots of the earliest galaxies, depends sensitively on our understandi...

arxiv.org/abs/2511.03715
#habitableworldsobservatory 🔭🧪☄️
The search for life is one frontier.
HWO will be built to unlock all the others too.✨
#extragalactic

NASA's #habitableworldsobservatory
building a #superhubble in the race to answer fundamental questions about life in the Universe, the place of humanity in the cosmos, and where explorers could dare to go next✨🧪🔭☄️ #exoplanet #extragalactic

Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.

post-JWST deadline reflections...
the ESA/Hubble Picture of the Week returns to the galaxy that started our PHANGS team journey with JWST ✨🔭🧪
iopscience.iop.org/collections/...
and so much still to be learned 🤞
#extragalactic

NASA’s First-Ever Alien-Hunting Space Telescope Could Enlighten Our New Dark Age The Habitable Worlds Observatory is poised to tell us whether Earthlike planets are common—if it can get off the ground

Now on @sciam.bsky.social: NASA’s next-gen Habitable Worlds Observatory may be our best chance to find alien life. But can a nation busy ripping itself apart unite to launch a mission to solve life’s cosmic mysteries? By @nadiadrake.bsky.social (and me).

www.scientificamerican.com/article/are-...

One of my faves, among the galaxies that we're studying. Uncommonly beautiful because of its striking "flocculent" spiral morphology. We've learned its star clusters tell a story of gas accreted from a neighbor, rejuvenating the disk🧪🔭
iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3...
#extragalactic #astrosci

🥳PLATO, @esa.int's planet-hunting space telescope, has arrived at their ESTEC facility in the Netherlands, after its successful integration in Germany in June.

We're looking forward to the next steps, when its solar panels and sunshield are fitted ahead of the planned launch in 2026! 🔭 #Exoplanets

Today, we mourn the memory of those we lost on September 11, 2001.

We also come together to honor the brave heroes, like our first responders, who risked their lives that tragic day to save countless others. Their sacrifice can never be repaid.

We will never forget.

Heads up to attendees of #epscdps2025 - there will be a splinter session about Solar System planning for the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) in the Ganymede Room TODAY (Weds) at 3 pm!

A high fraction of close massive binary stars at low metallicity - Nature Astronomy The analysis of radial velocity variations of O-type stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud reveals a large fraction of close binaries, suggesting that binary physics also plays a prominent role in the l...

"no evidence supporting a statistically significant trend of [O star] multiplicity properties with metallicity" still high (~70%) in the SMC - interesting! 🔭🧪 #AstroSci #extragalactic

Another fantastic paper that arose from our @kitp-ucsb.bsky.social GalEvo23 program.

This one is from the inimitable Kartheik Iyer, who also shared a fantastic takeaway figure on how simulated feedback affects galaxy star formation histories.

#AstroSci #extragalactic

The Habitable Worlds Observatory is early in its development as a large infrared/optical/ultraviolet space telescope. Many designs are under consideration, including this artist's concept animation. More about the planned observatory: go.nasa.gov/HWO #HWO2025 #HWO25 🔭 🧪 ☄️

A photo of Jessie in a grey suit and pink shirt in front of a giant black screen with the NASA meatball on it.

There was a photographer for the first two days of the Habitable Worlds Observatory conference in Washington DC a few weeks ago - it's so rare to actually get a nice photo dressed up and giving a talk!

Next Friday 8/15 is the deadline to endorse #HabitableWorldsObservatory science cases. If you think it is important to consider whether a planet has the right geology in place to host life as we know it _before_ looking for life there, please endorse our case: bit.ly/GeochemHab_endorse #HWO25

Towards the Habitable World Observatory - Monday Session 2 YouTube video by STScI Research

(3/n) #HWO25 speakers, esp on 1st day, not only engaged the mind, but spoke to the soul, reminding us of the wonder & purpose that lie at the heart of our work to understand the universe, the origin of galaxies and elements, and the place of humanity in the cosmos✨🔭🧪 www.youtube.com/live/V_rPlVR...

Towards the Habitable World Observatory- July 2025 - YouTube We are pleased to announce the inaugural open community event for NASA's Habitable Worlds Observatory, to be held at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg Center in Wa...

(2/n) #HWO25 talks on STScI Research YouTube Channel🔭🧪☄️ #exoplanets #extragalactic www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

I said this recently at #HWO2025, but I'll also say it here in light of the upcoming @nancyromansci.bsky.social call for white papers for the coronagraph: If you don't do planets and disks, please put a white paper in! I'm happy to give advice #astrosci 🔭

Towards the Habitable World Observatory - Monday Session 2 YouTube video by STScI Research

you too!
@aussiastronomer.bsky.social your talk was phenomenal ✨🔭 #exoplanets
www.youtube.com/live/V_rPlVR...