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Jayne Birkby

@jaynebirkby.bsky.social

Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Oxford. I study the atmospheres of other worlds beyond the Solar system.

1,158 Followers  |  120 Following  |  42 Posts  |  Joined: 17.07.2023  |  1.9854

Latest posts by jaynebirkby.bsky.social on Bluesky

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Happy 30th discovery day 51 Peg b! We're at Observatoire de Haute Provence where it all happened, listening to Michel Mayor & Didier Queloz tell us all about that extraordinary radial velocity discovery with ELODIE on the 1.93m in 1995 and the incredible exoplanet science that followed. What a day!

06.10.2025 08:59 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 16    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Educational Program Coordinator II - East Lansing, Michigan, United States Position Summary The program coordinator will maintain the planetarium, present live shows, and create new planetarium visualizations. In addition, this position will assist customers, assist in educa...

If any of you fine folks are planetarians in (or want to be in) mid-Michigan, the Abrams Planetarium is hiring a full-time-staff position for the first time in 11 years!! Come work with the astro, scicomm, and informal ed folks at MSU!! ๐Ÿ”ญ ๐Ÿงช (reskeets welcome) careers.msu.edu/jobs/educati...

29.09.2025 16:21 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 50    ๐Ÿ” 38    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 3    ๐Ÿ“Œ 6

Congratulations Dr Boldt-Christmas! Very much deserved ๐Ÿฅณ

26.09.2025 22:32 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

We *absolutely* should celebrate it. Do your part by enjoying the 200+ page masterpiece in its entirety on ADS! ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1925PhDT... ๐Ÿ”ญ

Special shoutout to Figure 2, an incredible piece of art that I want on my wall (and suspect could even make an excellent tattoo if executed well?)

23.09.2025 20:03 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 43    ๐Ÿ” 20    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 4    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Cantiello @kantyellow.bsky.social at @flatironinstitute.org explains, in terms of fundamental physics, why we wonโ€™t be simulating stars in full 3D, ever. I likey.

19.09.2025 21:45 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 15    ๐Ÿ” 3    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 3    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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The official number of exoplanets has surpassed 6,000! And you can access data on all 6,007 of them right here at IPAC ๐Ÿ“ˆ ๐Ÿช

Watch the video & read all about the center of the exoplanet universe (also known as NExScI!) here:
www.ipac.caltech.edu/news/the-nas...

18.09.2025 00:19 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 92    ๐Ÿ” 32    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 3    ๐Ÿ“Œ 4
The image shows seven hexagonal images put together like a flower. All the images show the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) in front of an orange sun or moon rise. All the hexagons are dated and show the ELT assembly at the specific date.

The image shows seven hexagonal images put together like a flower. All the images show the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) in front of an orange sun or moon rise. All the hexagons are dated and show the ELT assembly at the specific date.

1/ A rising telescope under a rising Sun and Moon! ๐Ÿ”ญโ˜€๏ธ๐ŸŒ•

This montage is a kaleidoscope of moments from the construction of our Extremely Large Telescope.

Creating this #ELT collage took Boris HรคuรŸler, an ESO astronomer in Chile, years of meticulous planning.

15.09.2025 07:02 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 81    ๐Ÿ” 24    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 2    ๐Ÿ“Œ 3
A pen sketch of a web page for an astronomer, showing name, email, optional phone number, and professional contact details, with a one sentence summary of their research and an ADS link.

A pen sketch of a web page for an astronomer, showing name, email, optional phone number, and professional contact details, with a one sentence summary of their research and an ADS link.

My periodic reminder for #astrosci #astrodon #exoplanets Early Career Researchers to please, please, please have a simple web site with your current email address on it - rationale here: kenworthy.space/advice/

12.09.2025 04:22 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 72    ๐Ÿ” 31    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 3

๐Ÿ˜ฎ๐Ÿคฉ safe journey HARPS3!

08.09.2025 10:51 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 7    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Serious Q for the ๐Ÿ”ญ community: is anyone planning to observe the 3I/ATLAS comet with any of the large ground-based telescopes (VLT etc) any time soon before it gets too close to the Sun (which is when)? Or have maybe already done so? โ˜„๏ธ๐Ÿ’ซ

19.08.2025 12:04 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 3    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 4    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Planetary Science MS/PhD Positions for Fall 2026 Crowd sourced list of people who are looking for MS/PhD students to help connect prospective students with advisors so we can do even more fabulous planetary science! (Submitting a response indicates ...

I am community sourcing a list of people who are actively in search of MS/PhD students in planetary science/astrobiology/exoplanets for Fall 2026. If you are such a person, please fill out the following google form:
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

05.08.2025 18:03 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 59    ๐Ÿ” 51    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 2    ๐Ÿ“Œ 5

Yes, high spectral resolution in space is surely the future for exoplanets. It doesn't even need to be that "high" res, JWST's R=2,700 is delivering great science, just think what could be done with a R=3,000-5,000 integral field spectrograph behind a coronagraph on HWO ๐Ÿคฏ

29.07.2025 13:26 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 9    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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gorgeous new JWST spectrum of the rogue planet PSO J318 from @paulmolliere.bsky.social ! Strong absorption at 10 microns likely due to small SiO particles, acting as seeds for cloud formation arxiv.org/pdf/2507.18691

28.07.2025 11:43 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 34    ๐Ÿ” 5    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 1
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Hubble Space Telescope images of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS are out! These were taken 5 hours ago. Plenty of cosmic rays peppering the images, but the comet's coma looks very nice and puffy. Best of luck to the researchers trying to write up papers for this... archive.stsci.edu/proposal_sea... ๐Ÿ”ญ

21.07.2025 21:28 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 730    ๐Ÿ” 157    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 13    ๐Ÿ“Œ 20
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Want to come and join our lovely facilitation team in Oxford Physics? my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...

14.07.2025 15:14 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 4    ๐Ÿ” 2    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Stunning data, brightness maps of the supergiant star Antares showing its convective cells ๐Ÿ˜ฒ congrats Pilate et al.! โญ

14.07.2025 16:25 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 7    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
Limits on the atmospheric metallicity and aerosols of the sub-Neptune GJ 3090 b from high-resolution CRIRES+ spectroscopy The sub-Neptune planets have no solar system analogues, and their low bulk densities suggest thick atmospheres containing degenerate quantities of volatiles and H/He, surrounding cores of unknown size...

You can read more about how high resolution spectroscopy can constrain sub-Neptune atmospheres (and provide constraints that are comparable with JWSTโ€ฆ) in the paper we published this year! (ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2025MNRA...)

12.07.2025 04:21 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 9    ๐Ÿ” 3    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
Groundhog at U of Montreal

Groundhog at U of Montreal

One of the many #ExoclimesVII groundhogs, enjoying a nibble of grass on a sunny Montreal day

11.07.2025 14:22 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 5    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Exoclimes VII has officially begun!! ๐Ÿ‘ฝ๐Ÿง‘โ€๐Ÿš€๐Ÿ‘ฉโ€๐Ÿš€๐Ÿš€๐Ÿš€ Things have kicked off with some welcoming words from our fearless leaders Lisa Dang @astrolisadang.bsky.social & Romain Allart! And now off to our first review talk from Nicolas Cowan about Exoplanet atmospheric Dynamics ๐Ÿชโ˜„๏ธ

07.07.2025 13:38 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 12    ๐Ÿ” 4    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

In our new paper we model the complete evolution of L 98-59 d from 'birth' up to the present day. We show that it cannot be a gas dwarf or a water world; it's a 'hybrid' planet with an H2-rich atmosphere containing H2S and SO2 (photochemistry!), and a deep magma ocean.

@timlichtenberg.bsky.social

04.07.2025 15:10 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 28    ๐Ÿ” 7    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 1

Those of you at @exoclimes.bsky.social can hear all about Dr Vaughan's work on Wednesday next week!

03.07.2025 06:53 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 3    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Dr Vaughan's thesis work on studying exoplanet atmospheres in reflected light opens a vital avenue to seeking biosignatures on nearby habitable worlds with the Extremely Large Telescope in 2030, and beyond with the Habitable Worlds Observatory! @eso.org ras.ac.uk/news-and-pre...

03.07.2025 06:49 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Absolutely thrilled for Dr Sophia Vaughan, winner of the RAS Michael Penston Thesis Prize! Congratulations @sophiavaughan.bsky.social, very much deserved and it's been an absolute pleasure working with you! Bring on the ELTs! @oxfordphysics.bsky.social www.physics.ox.ac.uk/news/dr-vaug...

03.07.2025 06:49 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 21    ๐Ÿ” 2    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 2    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

New paper out! This is a review of the published JWST observations of rocky exoplanets so far: arxiv.org/abs/2507.00933

Quick summary of the key points:

02.07.2025 08:34 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 63    ๐Ÿ” 16    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 3    ๐Ÿ“Œ 3
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Measuring the Suns radial velocity variability due to supergranulation over a magnetic cycle In recent years supergranulation has emerged as one of the biggest challenges for the detection of Earth-twins in radial velocity planet searches. We used eight years of Sun-as-a-star radial velocity ...

Itโ€™s paper day ๐ŸŽ‰!! If you are interested in seeing how supergranulation changes over a solar cycle in RVs give it a read! arxiv.org/abs/2506.23693

01.07.2025 08:07 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 28    ๐Ÿ” 9    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 2    ๐Ÿ“Œ 2
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PSA: ExoMol has a special high res data base, ExoMolHR which now also contains a column with โœจenergy uncertaintiesโœจ You can now choose to leave out lines with high uncertainty when making high res model spectra! #AllTheWavelengths @trovemaster.bsky.social

28.06.2025 13:56 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 3    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Mitchell Yzer (Oxford): The Prospects of Using High-Resolution Spectroscopy to Search for Technosignature Gases on Nearby Rocky Exoplanets with the ELT.

#AllTheWavelenghts

28.06.2025 08:46 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 10    ๐Ÿ” 2    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 2    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Mitchel Yzer: techno signatures in exoplanets using high resolution methods #Allthewavelengths

28.06.2025 08:47 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Wakeford: near-infrared wavelength spectra are not good predictors of what happens at UV/optical wavelengths. We need the information from the broader spectral range. #exoplanets #allthewavelengths

28.06.2025 08:17 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 4    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Thank you for the summary thread Ryan @distantworlds.space! #AllTheWavelengths

27.06.2025 10:11 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 4    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

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