@rockyworlds
Monthly online seminars on all topics related to rocky planets & #exoplanets from chemistry to geology to astrophysics ☄️🧪🔭🪐🌍🌟 Sign up & more info: https://rockyworlds.org Watch previous talks: https://www.youtube.com/@rockyworlds
📢 Less than 1 hour left until this talk begins!
14:00 UTC = 15:00 CET = 09:00 EST = 06:00 PST = 23:00 JST
If you haven't signed up to our mailing list to access the Zoom-link, you can also watch it live on our YouTube channel 🔭☄️🧪 Livestream: www.youtube.com/watch?v=058C...
An image of the speaker, Miki Nakajima. She is smiling and looking into the camera. She has long dark hair and is wearing earrings & a white striped shirt with a black blazer. She is stood outdoors, leaning against a fence, with some trees visible but blurred in the background.
A photo of... a magma ocean?! Not quite, because that would be a really difficult picture to take since we do not have any on hand. Instead, this is a photo that was taken in the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, in May 1954 during the eruption of the Kilauea Volcano. The floor is literally lava, blackened and fragmented with what appears to be whirlpools of red and yellow lava in their centres. Close enough? Credit: Photo by J. P. Eaton, May 31, 1954
You've maybe heard of ocean planets 🌊🪐 but what about *electric magma* ocean planets?! 🔥⚡🌋
For our next #RockyWorldsDiscussion on Thu 5 March @ 14:00 UTC, Miki Nakajima will present exciting simulations on magma ocean dynamos in Earth and super-Earths
More: www.rockyworlds.org/event-detail...
🧪🔭
📢 Less than 1 hour left until this talk begins!
14:00 UTC = 15:00 CET = 09:00 EST = 06:00 PST = 23:00 JST
If you haven't signed up to our mailing list to access the Zoom-link, you can also watch it live on our YouTube channel 🔭☄️🧪 Livestream: www.youtube.com/watch?v=6t9B...
An image of the speaker, Moa Persson. She is smiling and looking into the camera over her shoulder. She has light brown hair down to her shoulders, and is wearing a blue shirt with glasses. She is holding a hammer as she is completing her "thesis nailing", a tradition at many Swedish universities for finishing PhD students.
An artist illustration of Venus, and its atmosphere eroding against solar winds. Credit: ESA (Animation by C. Carreau) Longer caption attached to the image on ESAs website, posted November 2007: "Mars, Earth and Venus are immersed in a flow of plasma, an ionised and highly variable gas originating from the Sun, called the solar wind. While Earth has a planetary magnetic field, which can deviate the flow of solar wind, Venus (and Mars) don’t. Gases in the upper atmospheres of these planets are ionised and can thus interact with the solar wind. Venus is as large as Earth and it is difficult for its atmosphere to escape due to the planet’s gravity. The solar wind is the best source of energy to accelerate the upper atmosphere’s charged particles, giving them enough energy to escape. This is why Venus loses its atmosphere due to interaction with the solar wind. To understand this phenomenon, the key questions that the instruments studying plasma on Venus Express must answer are: what and how much of the atmosphere is lost, and where is it lost? Right now, solar activity is at its minimum in the 11-year cycle, making the solar wind weaker than average. The critical question now is how solar wind interacts with Venus when solar activity is low."
Would you dare to stand up against the wrath of a star?! Brave little Venus does... and still has an atmosphere! ☀️💨🪐🧲
Next #RockyWorldsDiscussion on Thu 5 Feb @ 14:00 UTC features Moa Persson on "Venus: Defying the Solar Wind Without a Magnetic Shield"
More: www.rockyworlds.org/event-detail...
🧪🔭
A HUGE thank you to all attendees of the #RockyWorlds4 conference in Groningen! We had an absolutely incredible time talking astronomy, geoscience, biology, and so much more 🚀🌋🌱🪐✨🔭🧪
Catch the recorded talks on www.youtube.com/@rockyworlds
And see you in Berlin in 2028! berlin2028.rockyworlds.org
Had a great time at #RockyWorlds4 this week - presenting my PhD work on magnetic field generation in planetesimals 🧲 and learning lots about magma oceans 🔥ready for my post doc project. Thanks to everyone for such great discussions and @rockyworlds.bsky.social for organising a fantastic meeting!
🌍 Astronomers from all over the world are coming to Groningen for the #RockyWorlds4 conference.
'We would like to broaden the ideas about what a rocky planet could be made up of,' says Inga Kamp, astrophysicist @rug.nl.
Curious? Read more 👇
🔗 www.rug.nl/fse/news/mat...
🧪 #SciComm
Poster discussions at #RockyWorlds4 has been amazing! Coffee breaks are on 🔥🔥🔥Super creative posters with incredible science, I think we are improving as a community to communicate our research to other colleagues 🧐 Looking forward for the poster competition ✨ @rockyworlds.bsky.social
Another cool result shared at #RockyWorlds4: Nearly all sub-Neptunes, if they are gas dwarfs (as opposed to water worlds), should have magma oceans beneath their hydrogen atmospheres.
That includes the notorious K2-18b — if it is indeed a gas dwarf and not an ocean planet.
Preprint:
Looks like Planet Earth is a fan of #RockyWorlds4 as it gifted us with a gorgeous conference souvenir last night! 🤩🔭🧪
You're welcome! 🔭😊 The LOC of #RockyWorlds4 (groningen2026.rockyworlds.org/organisers/loc) is doing everything they can to make the conference an unforgettable experience. 😁
Frankie mouse made it to Groningen. Coming to #RockyWorlds4 tomorrow! And check out Magrathea for your MR relationship or planet composition needs: github.com/Huang-CL/Mag... v2 live now and v3 already on the horizon
First results from the Lava Lamps survey hunting for atmospheres on lava planets shared at #RockyWorlds4:
It looks like there could be some kind of transition in the way lava planets redistribute heat around ~2500 K, which could indicate that the very hottest worlds have atmospheres.
Mysterious!
I'm excited to spend the week hearing and talking about rocky worlds! This is one of my favorite meeting series, I leave energized and with new ideas. 😁 You can follow along with the talks on YouTube if you aren't joining us in person or on Zoom: www.youtube.com/@rockyworlds...
@johannateske.bsky.social's #RockyWorlds4 talk on TOI-561 b just reinforces my feeling that this weird little planet is one to keep an eye on.
It's among a handful of hot rocks challenging what we think we know about which planets have air.
I wrote about this last year for @sciam.bsky.social:
Poster entitled ”HARPS3 in commissioning” by William Brilliant from the University of Cambridge on behalf of the HARPS3 consortium
Really enjoyed this awesome poster at #RockyWorlds4 by William Brilliant about @terrahunting.bsky.social — can’t believe we are so close to starting our hunt for Earth-like #exoplanets in our cosmic neighbourhood!! 🤩🌍🔭
My visit to #RockyWorlds4 kicked off with a hot take from @nplinnspace.bsky.social's poster: Even in the best-case scenario, we couldn't tell how "Earth-like" an Earth-like planet is 🔥
She assumed TRAPPIST-1 e had Earth-like air and showed that vastly different climates would be indistinguishable.
At #RockyWorlds4 in Groningen, scientists explore rocky planets with radically different chemistries and atmospheres. With the LIFE mission, they aim to study exoplanets directly and look for unexpected signs of life — not aliens, but subtle atmospheric clues. Read more: www.rug.nl/fse/news/mat...
Hello #RockyWorlds4!
I'm Elise, a science journalist here hunting for awesome science stories about planets.
I'm cool, I promise — I used to be a scientist so I might even understand your science jargon 🤓Come say hi and tell me about your work!
A view of the canal in the city of Groningen, Netherlands. The sky is blue and the trees lining the water are green, so it's *definitely* not taken in January. Credit: https://www.hanze.nl/en/study/living-in-the-netherlands-and-groningen/groningen-is-waiting-for-you
A screenshot from our conference website: https://groningen2026.rockyworlds.org/ The text reads: Rocky Worlds 4 19–23 January 2026, Groningen, Netherlands In-person registrations for the conference are booked up. Registration for virtual participation is open.
Wondering why we've been so quiet this month? That's because we're busy preparing to welcome everyone *next week* to Groningen 🇳🇱 for...
🌋✨🚀 The ROCKY WORLDS 4 Conference 2026! 🪐✨☄️
Updates will be posted throughout the week from this account & others using the #RockyWorlds4 hashtag – stay tuned! 🔭🧪
📢 Don't forget to join us for this talk tomorrow (Thursday)!
14:00 UTC = 15:00 CET = 09:00 EST = 06:00 PST = 23:00 JST
If you haven't signed up to our mailing list to access the Zoom-link, you can also watch it live on our YouTube channel 🔭☄️🧪 Livestream: www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2jI...
An image of the speaker, Annelies Mortier. She is smiling and looking into the camera. She has brown hair down to past her shoulders, and is wearing a red top with a silver necklace. She is against a white wall background.
An artistic illustration of Earth and the Sun (not to scale). In the bottom of the right half the image, the top half of the Earth is visible, showing some cloud coverage over parts of North/Central America. In the top of the left half of the image, the Sun is visible as a flaming ball, with bright edges around it and some granulation + bright spots. In the background, a starry sky. Image credit: Shutterstock
6,000 #exoplanets have been found to date, but ZERO of them are Earth-like planets around Sun-like stars! Why is that? Do any exist? Or is it just hard? ☀️🌍🔭
Join us on Thu 4 Dec @ 14:00 UTC for a #RockyWorldsDiscussion with Annelies Mortier to find out!
More: www.rockyworlds.org/event-detail... ☄️🧪
📢 Don't forget to join us for this talk tomorrow (Thursday)!
14:00 UTC = 15:00 CET = 09:00 EST = 06:00 PST = 23:00 JST
If you haven't signed up to our mailing list to access the Zoom-link, you can also watch it live on our YouTube channel 🔭☄️🧪 Livestream: www.youtube.com/watch?v=6u7P...
An image of the speaker, Diogo Lourenço. He is smiling and looking into the camera. He has brown hair down to between his ears and shoulders, and facial hair. He is against a white-ish background.
Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) from 30 January 2018: "Venus at Night in Infrared from Akatsuki" - Image Credit: JAXA, ISAS, DARTS; Processing & Copyright: Damia Bouic. Description from the APOD caption: In the featured image taken by Akatsuki's IR2 camera, Venus's night side shows a jagged-edged equatorial band of high dark clouds absorbing infrared light from hotter layers deeper in Venus' atmosphere. The bright orange and black stripe on the upper right is a false digital artifact that covers part of the much brighter day side of Venus. Analyses of Akatsuki images and data has shown that Venus has equatorial jet similar to Earth's jet stream.
What sets our home planet 🌍 apart from our sister next door? 🌔☁️🔥 On Thu 6 Nov @ 14:00 UTC, Diogo Lourenço will be our next #RockyWorldsDiscussion speaker and tell us how bulk composition & lava flows impact long-term evolution of our neighbour Venus
More: www.rockyworlds.org/event-detail...
🧪🔭☄️
📢 Don't forget to join us for this talk tomorrow (Thursday)!
13:00 UTC = 15:00 CEST = 09:00 EDT = 06:00 PDT = 22:00 JST
If you haven't signed up to our mailing list to access the Zoom-link, you can also watch it live on our YouTube channel 🔭☄️🧪 #exoplanet livestream: www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMr2...
An image of the speaker, Kazumasa Ohno. He is smiling and looking into the camera. He is wearing a navy blue cable-knit jumper with a checkered shirt, and glasses. He is against a background of what appears to be other people as the photo is seemingly cropped from a group photo.
Artistic illustration of sub-Neptune TOI-421 b. A hypothetical exoplanet with similar banding to Jupiter, but in blue colours, is shown in the foreground. In the distant, the planet's host star is shown, which is a warm golden colour and shows diffraction spikes. Image credit: SciTechDaily.com
Cloudy with a chance of... haze? Aerosol? Carbon dioxide?!🌦️
Next #RockyWorldsDiscussion on Thu 2 Oct @ 13:00 UTC will feature Kazumasa Ohno (NAOJ) and recent JWST results that lift the hazy veil on the composition of sub-Neptune #exoplanet GJ 1214 b 🪐🔭🧪
More: www.rockyworlds.org/event-detail...
🗣️ Reminder: abstract submission for the Rocky Worlds 4 conference closes **Sunday 14 September**
Submit your abstract below and see you in Groningen in January 2026! 🪐🔭🧪
📢 Reminder: this talk is happening later TODAY (Thursday)!
Sign up to our mailing list to access the Zoom-link, or watch it live on our YouTube channel 🔭☄️🧪 www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoef...
16:00 UTC = 18:00 CEST = 12:00 EDT = 09:00 PDT = 01:00 (+1d) JST = 02:00 (+1d) AEST
An image of the speaker, Laura Schaefer. She is smiling and looking into the camera. She is wearing a purple-grey zip-up jumper and sunglasses on her head. She is against a background of a large rock with some grass visible near the bottom, clearly outdoors.
An artistic conception of early Earth showing the planet's surface impacted by asteroids. Earth is shown with partial oceans and the land that is visible is covered in clear craters. Part of the Earth (bottom left) is also shown as covered by lava or a magma ocean. Image credit: Simone Marchi, NASA. Taken from https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/early-earth-s-atmosphere-was-surprisingly-thin/
#RockyWorldsDiscussion is back from our summer break! 🔭🧪
Our next speaker is Laura Schaefer from Stanford University, who will tell us about redox gradients in planet formation simulations of terrestrial planets 🌍🌕🪨 Join us on Zoom on Thu 4 Sep @ 16:00 UTC
More: www.rockyworlds.org/event-detail...
Happening now! 🪐☄️🔭🧪
www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSSL...