Mike Kuhn

Spitzer/IRAC mosaic of the Ser OB2 region in the 3.6 µ (blue), 5.8 µm (green), and 8.0 µm (red) bands. The yellow contours indicate the surface–density distribution of cluster members (Section 4), with the 60 x 60 pc box used for this analysis indicated (green rectangle). Several sub-regions are labelled.

Published in #MNRAS: "On the origin of kinematic structure in the young association Serpens OB", Kuhn et al. This is Fig. 1: please visit academic.oup.com/mnras/articl... to read the paper. @royalastrosoc.bsky.social @academic.oup.com

New paper about the kinematics of young stellar objects in a large association, featuring Serpens OB2/Sh 2-54.

On the Origin of Kinematic Structure in the Young Association Serpens OB2
Kuhn, Benjamin, Singh
arxiv.org/abs/2512.16708

🔭 🧪 ⚛️ #galactic #stellarastro

Solar, Stellar and Time-domain Astrophysics Star formation and Stellar Evolution PhD Projects.

The @herts.ac.uk astronomy MSc and PhD applications are open.

I'm offering PhD projects on JWST spectroscopy of young stars in Tr 14 and star-cluster formation.

I'm also offering an MSc project on variability of YSOs.

www.herts.ac.uk/research/cen...

#galactic #stellarastro #astro #Physics

I wonder if some of these might be jokes.

A good strategy is just to pick bright colors, use high contrast, and consider patterns for shading in addition to colour.

static.primary.prod.gcms.the-infra.com/static/site/...

Giving a Zoom talk at NAM this afternoon on 'The Imprint of Clustered Star Formation on Kinematics of Young Stars in the Solar Neighbourhood' (room TLC116; Anne Buckner's Star Clusters session)
🔭☄️🧪 #galactic

🎉 #50YearsOfESA: for half a century, we've been serving Europe as its space agency and inspiring its citizens. Join us this anniversary year to reflect not only on our past achievements, but also on our future perspectives!

About The UK & Ireland Discs Meeting 2025

We are hosting the 2025 UK & Ireland Discs meeting at the University of Hertfordshire (8-10 September). Topics include discs of all sorts, but especially protoplanetary discs and white dwarf debris discs.

Abstract submission deadline is 15 May:
ukidiscs.github.io/discs2025/
🔭🧪⚛️☄️

Skylarks and other birds (Hatfield, Hertfordshire)

The time of year where England turns into fairyland. #Bluebells around the corner from my office at @herts.ac.uk. #uniofherts

First bluebells in UH’s coppiced woods.

Airplane + internal reflection image of the sun (upside down) from my phone camera 🔭

Eclipse, as seen using shopping receipts. 🔭

Looking forward to a high-resolution view of Tr 14 with JWST pre-imaging.

🔭

A Deep, High-Angular Resolution 3D Dust Map of the Southern Galactic Plane We present a deep, high-angular resolution 3D dust map of the southern Galactic plane over $239^\circ < \ell < 6^\circ$ and $|b| < 10^\circ$ built on photometry from the DECaPS2 survey, in combination...

Very excited to start using this dust map! You can query it with the dustmaps Python package. #galactic

Their dust map at various different distance ranges. Note how good the angular resolution is.

A top-down view of their 3D dust map, also compared to the Bayestar19 map (which this map complements really well.)

A schematic overview of their pipeline. It's cool how much open source software they use!

So many cool new #galactic papers came out today! ☄️

Paper #1 on my list is by @catherinezucker.bsky.social et al. They use the DECaPS2 photometric survey to create a massive, 6.1 billion voxel 3D catalogue of dust in the southern galactic plane! It complements the existing Bayestar map really well.

Here, in the UK, this doesn’t seem to be a (de facto) requirement. We still get lots of applicants, but I can think of many of examples of PhD students who didn’t have papers before starting their PhD. (Possibly because the whole timescale is shorter.)

Full moon from St Albans.

Are these blooming already?

Our next talk on Café Scientifique - Harpenden would be effects of micro-organisms on climate change. Please see the attached flyer for details, and hope that you can join us.

P.E.I. homeowner captures sound and video of meteorite strike on camera, and scientists believe it's a first | CBC News A man in Prince Edward Island got doubly lucky last July, recording a meteorite's impact on his home security cameras. The space rock also landed in the exact spot he'd been standing minutes earlier.

"If I'd have seen it, I probably would've been standing right there, so it probably would've ripped me in half."

Wow!

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

An artist's impression of the Gaia spacecraft.

The @esa.int Gaia satellite will take its final scientific measurements on Wednesday. 🔭

This will conclude a 12 year series of continuous observations.

Larger Gaia data releases are still in progress, but Gaia has already had a HUGE impact on our understanding of the #milkyway.

(Image: ESA)

Aurora over my building #Hatfield

Morning commute. #Herts

Just got my copy of the Protostars and Planets VII book! 🤩

The 2022-2023 accretion outburst of the young star V1741 Sgr V1741 Sgr (= SPICY 71482/Gaia22dtk) is a Classical T Tauri star on the outskirts of the Lagoon Nebula. After at least a decade of stability, in mid-2022, the optical source brightened by ~3 mag...

A SPICY new EXor outburst!
arxiv.org/abs/2401.09522
One intriguing result is that, while the outburst faded, TiO absorption appeared but then disappeared, a behavior not previously seen. This unexpected finding places strong constraints on where the outburst emission originates.
🔭 🧪⚛️

Solar, Stellar and Time-domain Physics Star formation and Stellar Evolution PhD Projects.

If you're applying for grad school in astronomy, the University of Hertfordshire (just north of London) is accepting PhD applications (due by the end of the month). I have two projects (linked below), one on mapping the Galaxy and the other on the variability of young stars. 🔭 🧪