Eamonn Kerins

An Ironman themed woolly knitted for me by my wife Kate. It's amazingly brilliant and my new favourite hat.

Me wearing the fantastic Ironman themed woolly hat. It has the red Ironman M logo and also is adorned with swimmers, cyclists and runners.

Building up my training load at the moment as I prep for my first attempt at a full Ironman distance in August. However, I have a secret weapon - a superb support crew in the shape of my wife, Kate. Look at this amazing woolly hat she's just knitted for me!!

Nasa releases videos of its Perseverance rover landing on Mars - BBC News YouTube video by BBC News

5 years ago today - one of the most remarkable landings of all time.
youtube.com/watch?v=y8rY...

Today the astro-community discussed the devastating proposed 30% cuts to our research funding, cuts that will be offsetting (some of the) rising costs at UK facilities that we don't use. Hard not to feel victimised when those same facilities make a fanfare announcement about an expensive facelift. 🔭

📣"RAS Fellows urged to lobby against unprecedented cuts" 📣

🔭The @royalastrosoc.bsky.social is calling on its members to help force the Government to reconsider its proposed cuts to astronomy and space science.🧪⚗️🚀🛸🛰️🌌

#stfc #ukri #saveSTFC

Read and share: www.ras.ac.uk/news-and-pre...

Early Career Researchers Response to UKRI Investment Approach Dear PhD students, PDRAs and early career researchers, You may be aware of a recent UKRI funding restructure announcement (there is a discussion here:  . In STFC-funded science,  particle physics, …

UK Solar Physics early career researchers rightly deeply concerned at the savage cuts to #STFC science (and I'd add apparent contempt for their plight by #UKRI). They have an open letter... uksolphys.org/general-news...

I'm a Dr in physics, but in the UK...

📣Many researchers are facing the same reality: contracts ending, careers cut short, talent lost. 👥📉

UKRI needs to change course — now. 🧪🔭⚗️

If you’re affected, post your own photo and share this message. Visibility matters.

#stfc #ukri #saveSTFC

I've signed up to 4 mass participation events for 2026. In date (and insanity) order:

April: Wilmslow Olympic distance Triathlon

June: Bolton half Ironman

August: Leeds full Ironman

September: The North East Skinny Dip (charity fundraiser for MIND).

Already starting to worry...

STFC inflated costs are coming from the facilities (which serve multiple research councils). But curiosity-based physics researchers are the ones being chosen to lose out. The UK is a leader in many science areas, including physics. Are we over-indexed, or are others under-indexed?

Tracking the impact of curiosity-based within any science area is indirect. Doesn't mean the impact is not real. Funding only the "direct" stuff is borrowing from tomorrow - sticking plaster economics.

Physics-based sector accounts for ~11% of UK GDP. This isn't "special pleading" - physics is a motor of our economy. The rising costs in STFC stem not from curiosity-based physics research but from costs of facilities used across research councils. Why should physics get crushed for it?

U.K. physics community braces for deep funding cuts Research council to slash funding for particle physics, nuclear physics, and astronomy by 30%, prompting alarm across the research community

@iop.org found in 2019 alone #physics generated 11% of UK GDP. Now #STFC, which overseas much of UK physics public research funding, aims to cut curiosity-driven research by 30%. Robbing the future to pay for the present will never be a successful economic strategy. 🧪
www.science.org/content/arti...

A New STFC Funding Crisis

The outlook for UK astronomy now looks even more bleak than the dark days of the funding crisis following 2008. It looks like a return to the Bad Old Days.

Proposed budget cuts a catastrophe for UK astronomy The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) is gravely concerned at the drastic cuts to support for UK astronomy outlined by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (...

The Royal Astronomical Society is gravely concerned at the drastic cuts to support for UK astronomy outlined by the Science and Technology Facilities Council.

Read our statement 👉 ras.ac.uk/news-and-pre...

I think the BBC are better than most of the UK media when it comes to balance.

Why #nasa #artemis is important and why today's words from Artemis II astronaut #ChristinaKoch really spoke to me. Segment from #BBCNews channel.

No, this is an accurate reflection of yesterday's NASA press conference. The point was made that previous Apollo missions went at similar points in the lunar "day" when roughly the same face was lit by sunlight. It'll be different for #artemisII so they may well see regions unseen before by humans.

Statement on Superintelligence “We call for a prohibition on the development of superintelligence, not lifted before there is (1) broad scientific consensus that it will be done safely and controllably, and (2) strong public bu...

This letter could do with YOUR signature 🫵
superintelligence-statement.org

Proud to be part of this amazing team.

Can't tell for sure, to be fair. But i know this one is official: @nancyromansci.bsky.social

Attending (virtually) a @nasaromantelescope.bsky.social collaboration meeting this week where we are getting our heads around the science we'll do with 100,000 new exoplanets over its five year nominal mission. For perspective, the last 30 years has delivered 6000. Roman will be mind blowing! 🔭🧪🪐

Roman is expected to find 60,000-200,000 transiting planets, alongside mass measurements of cooler planets from microlensing.

Tories pledge to get 'all our oil and gas out of the North Sea' The government warns Kemi Badenoch's plans would "only accelerate the worsening climate crisis".

How to hasten the AMOC collapse and make Britain uninhabitable (or at least really miserable).

Global Renewable Energy Investment Still Reaches New Record as Investors Reassess Risks | BloombergNEF BloombergNEF’s annual Electric Vehicle Outlook (EVO) expects nearly 22 million battery electric and plug-in hybrid vehicle sales this year, up 25% from 2024, as the cost of lithium-ion batteries falls...

Global investment in new renewable energy a record $386bn in first half of 2025, according to BloombergNEF

- Global offshore wind and small-scale solar spurred growth

about.bnef.com/insights/cle...

If you plot only the discovery technique measurement, there's only place on the plot for each planet. Symbol shapes indicate if radius ratio (circle) or mass ratio (triangle) so there's no ambiguity. No need to convert in my view. I don't mind apples and pears both occupying the same fruit bowl.

And, to clarify, I'm plotting the discovery technique measurement. So one unique location per planet. Demographic studies are normally based on measurements of the discovery technique.

And these quantities are also closer to what is often directly measured. Eg transit lightcurves measure radius ratio, not radius. Microlensing measures mass ratio, not mass.

Sure, but the usual plots exclude one or more techniques by choosing either mass or radius as one of the axes. This plot doesn't choose, so can represent all. Also mass ratio, rather than mass, appears to be more fundamental. So, plotting both mass and radius by host ratio makes sense.

I like the way that the four #exoplanet detection methods are relatively well separated when plotting their bulk properties as ratios relative to their host. The scatter shape also reminds me of a hovering #hummingbird. So, I'm going to call this plot the hummingbird plot. 🧪🔭🪐

A plot showin the planet-to-host mass ratio versus planet-host separation (in astronomical units) for exoplanets discovered with microlensing, radial velocity or imaging methods. Also shown is the planet-to-host radius ratio for planets detected using the transit method. There are a total of around 3600 planets shown, sourced from the NASA Exoplanet Archive. This plot was made using ChatGPT4, which also created a clickable version that allows me to click on any planet and find out info on it from the NASA Exoplanet Archive.

Been bad mouthing #AI engines recently. So, for balance, i got #GPT4 to do some useful #exoplanet stuff today. From a csv i downloaded from the #NASA #ExoplanetArchive it made a clickable version of the plot below that takes you to the info page on that planet. Damn useful! 🧪🔭🪐

I guess some are better than others - Claude Opus 4.1 is not so easily fooled, it seems. Not on this test anyway.