Prof. Abel Méndez

Trying to explain the #WowSignal in one slide. 🧠🧵📡🤯 #AreciboWow

Are aliens receiving radio signals from Earth? – Sciworthy Scientists calculated the maximum distance at which extraterrestrials could detect radio signals from Earth.

Are aliens receiving radio signals from Earth? – Sciworthy sciworthy.com/are-aliens-r...

These gases could signify intelligent life beyond Earth – Sciworthy Astronomers proposed new industrial gases that could provide measurable signs of advanced technology on distant exoplanets.

These gases could signify intelligent life beyond Earth – Sciworthy sciworthy.com/these-gases-...

Thank you! I’m glad you enjoyed it.

Latest talk at IAU404:Technosignatures - a fascinating talk on the reanalysis and true natural origin of the Wow signal by @profabelmendez.bsky.social 🧪🔭 The level of technoarchaeology necessary here is awesome!

The #WowSignal is the most famous and credible SETI candidate signal to date. For decades, eight different telescopes have searched for it. We’ll present new results on Monday, March 2, at IAUS 404: Advancing the Search for Technosignatures. iaus404.bmsis.org #AreciboWow

YouTube video by BOWIE+ Seminars Head in the Silicate Clouds - Sarah Moran and Elijah Mullens

There are lots of aspects of silicate clouds in substellar objects that we don't often think about. Luckily, Sarah Moran (@offallingstars.bsky.social) and Elijah Mullens are here to fill us in on the interesting details. #exoplanets #astronomy

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYWZ...

The ESO studentship was probably one of the best experiences of my academic career so far; recommend it 100%!

Please spread into your networks. Happy to answer questions or even host a student with one of my fellow #exoplanets people. Just get in touch!💙

TESS Planet Occurrence Rates Reveal the Disappearance of the Radius Valley Around Mid-to-Late M Dwarfs We present the deepest systematic search for planets around mid-to-late M dwarfs to date. We have surveyed 8134 mid-to-late M dwarfs observed by TESS with a custom built pipeline and recover 77 vetted...

Very exciting paper on the arxiv today! No radius valley around M-stars! It's been great seeing the different models of the formation of the valley around FGK stars get whittled down over the last decade and this is another piece in that puzzle

arxiv.org/abs/2602.23364
🔭 #exoplanets

TESS Planet Occurrence Rates Reveal the Disappearance of the Radius Valley Around Mid-to-Late M Dwarfs We present the deepest systematic search for planets around mid-to-late M dwarfs to date. We have surveyed 8134 mid-to-late M dwarfs observed by TESS with a custom built pipeline and recover 77 vetted...

Interesting new M dwarf #exoplanet occurrence rates paper! I'm glad to see that the new TESS result (with much lower uncertainties) is consistent with our Kepler result!

arxiv.org/abs/2602.23364

Astronomical image of double boomerang galaxy PKS 2014-55. The image shows jets emanating from both sides of the black hole, each shaped like a boomerang and indicated in blue.

Radio #ImageoftheWeek

Meet 'Double Boomerang' Galaxy PKS 2014-55, located 800 million light years from Earth.

Two powerful jets of radio waves (🔵blue) originate from a massive black hole at the center of the galaxy.

📸 Credit: NRAO/AUI/NSF, S. Dagnello & W. Cotton; SARAO; DES

#RadioAstronomy

The #WowSignal is the most famous and credible SETI candidate signal to date. For decades, eight different telescopes have searched for it. We’ll present new results on Monday, March 2, at IAUS 404: Advancing the Search for Technosignatures. iaus404.bmsis.org #AreciboWow

Arecibo Telescope Upgrade Initiative — Now Featuring 4,000 Years of Backward Compatibility. 😜 #AreciboWow

Reposting in #RadioAstronomy!

ALMA Creates Largest-Ever Image of the Milky Way’s Core - National Radio Astronomy Observatory Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), of which the U.S. National Science Foundation National Radio Astronomy Observatory...

NEW: ALMA Creates Largest-Ever Image of the Milky Way’s Core

Astronomers using ALMA have produced the largest and most detailed image ever made of the Milky Way’s Central Molecular Zone.

#Astronomy #RadioAstronomy #MilkyWay #ALMA

It took a lot of work at both JPL and HQ to make it happen this year.

For relevant, interested folks, please apply! I’m one of the science mentors. Feel free to ask questions!

Because it's been a while, here is an update of my plot on the altitude of the Hubble Space Telescope versus time

Beautiful work! I really love the paper calculators that were produced before mechanical computers. The number of nomograms produced was also amazing.

Are we alone in the universe? Five times we thought we found extraterrestrial life Though scientists failed to confirm the presence of extraterrestrial life in these instances, these misconceptions provide valuable lessons for future searches.

Are we alone in the universe? Five times we thought we found extraterrestrial life www.sequencermag.com/are-we-alone...

Spending my last week as IAC* researcher in Vienna for the WALTzER team meeting, an ESA F-class mission concept to study the atmospheres of giant exoplanets (*next week i'll move to the University of La Laguna, "almost" the same) 🔭#exoplanets

Yes, clouds, dust and hazes are considered which ussualy obscure the interesting things. 🙁

That certainly looks like Saharan dust, which is fairly common in the Caribbean. During these events, the sky often takes on a hazy, pinkish hue. Not good for the air quality. On the positive side, Saharan dust can help suppress hurricane formation by disrupting tropical wave development.

A Quintillion-to-One: Giant Stars, Tiny Dust - National Radio Astronomy Observatory Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have discovered that some...

🌟 Giant stars, 🤏 Tiny dust grains?

Astronomers using ALMA + NASA's JWST have discovered that some of the most massive stars in our galaxy are emitting unbelievably tiny grains of carbon dust—dust that one day could form future stars and planets.

#Astronomy #RadioAstronomy #ALMA

A diagram of the inner part of the Solar System, showing Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars orbiting the Sun. A green band illustrates the area around the Sun where liquid water can exist.

We often hear news about habitable #exoplanets, but what does "habitable" actually mean? Is an "Earth-like" planet truly like the Earth?

In our latest ESO blog we clarify some of the confusion around these terms. Check it out!

www.eso.org/public/blog/...

🔭 🧪

Call for papers : Habitable World Observatory Mission Concept

🛰️ Attention researchers in astrophysics, instrumentation, and mission design! 📢 Submit your work, reviews, or short communications to #RASTI for the Habitable World Observatory Mission.

🗓 Deadline: Aug 31, 2026.
🔗 oxford.ly/4r4rYKJ
@rasjournals.bsky.social
#Exoplanets #Astrophysics

Astrophotography image of the ALMA sign at the observatory, with the Milky Way visible in the night sky above it.

Save the Date! 🗓️

The international conference ALMA at 15 Years: Science, Synergies, and the Road Ahead will be held Feb. 22-26, 2027 in Taiwan.

Further details coming in March.


📸 Credit: NSF/AUI/NSF NRAO/J.Hellerman


#astronomy #radioastronomy #alma

Avro Canada VZ-9 Avrocar - Wikipedia

The real secrecy is in military experimental technologies and defense projects inspired by sci-fi and #UFO ideas, rather than any discovery of extraterrestrial life. This is a self-reinforcing feedback loop. (2/2) #Astrobiology For example en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Ca...

What many people overlook is that the U.S. and other governments are funding and competing in the search for extraterrestrial life, yet none has been found. Meanwhile, sci-fi and #UFOs narratives have influenced military research and technological development. (1/2) #Astrobiology

Editor's choice: Studies of #exoplanet demographics usually exclude binary stars. Sullivan et al. investigate those and find that exoplanets are only half as common orbiting binary stars (compared to single stars), and have a different radius distribution. ☄️🔭🧪
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Ten years later, this data archive helped us refine the Wow! Signal’s original properties and enabled the study of decades of legacy radio astronomy data. #AreciboWow