Malena Rice

This year's New York Area Exoplanets Meeting (NYAEM III) will take place at the American Museum of Natural History on Friday, May 15th. Abstracts are due March 10th (1 month from today!) and registration is due April 15th - see the conference website for more information: nyexoplanets.github.io

The Accidental Astrophysicist - Science Politics She never imagined she would reach the stars.

some musings on the pursuit of passion, and reflections on my journey into astrophysics: sciencepolitics.org/2026/01/30/t...

Group photo of participants at Scialog LSST

The 2nd meeting of #Scialog: Early Science with the #LSST closes with pitches for team projects to ignite discovery with @vrubinobs.bsky.social. Initiative cosponsored with @heisingsimonsfdn.bsky.social, with additional support from Leinweber Foundation and Kevin Wells.

Picture looking up at the sky, with the Royal Observatory Edinburgh East Tower in the lower right-hand corner and stars overhead surrounded by the pink/purple glow of the Northern Lights.

Astro PhD applications for Edinburgh are open! Deadlines are:
* 24 Nov: Career Development Scholarship (for students of Black heritage)
* 5 Dec: Bell Burnell Scholarship (for all URM students)
* 5 Jan: all applications
Come to beautiful Scotland! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
Applying is free! 🔭🧪
ifa.roe.ac.uk/phds-jobs-fe...

Astrophysics applications for this scholarship are open and due 24 November!
ifa.roe.ac.uk/phds-jobs-fe...

NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory Observations of Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS (C/2025 N1) We report on the observation and measurement of astrometry, photometry, morphology, and activity of the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS, also designated C/2025 N1 (ATLAS), with the NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin ...

New paper on arXiv, analyzing Rubin Observatory data of interstellar object 3I/ATLAS. This is the first science paper with data from LSSTCam!!!!!

arxiv.org/abs/2507.13409

Enjoyed a rowboat and conversations with @malenarice.bsky.social over the weekend!

Beyond Funding: How the 51 Pegasi b Fellowship Provides Transformational Support to Researchers in Planetary Astronomy - Heising-Simons Foundation Heising-Simons Foundation is investing in a cleaner, healthier transportation sector.

And, find me and other fellowship alums gushing about how incredible this program is, and how much it has changed our lives for the better, here: www.hsfoundation.org/news-stories... ♡

Learn more about Yale's planetary science community here: astronomy.yale.edu/research/hei...

51 Pegasi b Fellowship The 51 Pegasi b Fellowship provides exceptional postdoctoral scientists with the opportunity to conduct theoretical, observational, and experimental research in planetary astronomy.

Applications for the 2025-2026 cycle of the 51 Pegasi b Postdoctoral Fellowship in Planetary Astronomy are now open! Please don't hesitate to reach out if you are interested in applying with Yale as a host institution :) www.hsfoundation.org/programs/sci...

:^)

A photo of the slide with the December 2026 release date

Finding out about Gaia at #EAS2025Cork! ☄️

Just announced: Gaia DR4 will be released in December 2026!

The mainstream media has enabled Trump’s war on universities | Jason Stanley For the past decade, the US press has fueled a moral panic over leftists on campus while failing to report on the right’s assault

Essential reading (by @jasonstanley.bsky.social) for every American. The media, aided by a handful of reactionary academics and compliant university administrations, has sold the public a huge lie about wokeness on college campuses, enabling the extreme right. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Please watch the @aas.org Press Conference where @balmer.bsky.social presented this thrilling result: THE NEW(even if expected from astrometry)LY IMAGED, COLD (~2ºC), MATURE giant exoplanet 14 Her c with JWST/NIRCam!!!

Congrats Daniella, William and the whole team 😀

www.youtube.com/live/Z7niXAH...

The agenda will include:
- NASA programmatic updates, including a briefing from Acting NASA Astrophysics Division Director Shawn Domagal-Goldman
- Open mic sessions
- Project updates from TESS, Roman, HWO, and SPHEREx
- Presentations from early-career scientists

Exoplanet Program: Registration NASA’s Exoplanet Exploration Program, the search for planets and life beyond our solar system.

Join us for NASA's ExoPAG 32 Meeting on June 3rd! This free virtual meeting is open to all, but please register to receive the access link: exoplanets.nasa.gov/exep/exopag/...

#exoplanets #astronomy

Yale’s newest 51 Pegasi b fellow will sort through stellar ‘noise’ with AI The fellowship provides up to $450,000 in support over three years.

Delighted that Yan Liang will be joining us at Yale this fall as our newest 51 Pegasi b Fellow, leveraging AI to disentangle planetary signals from stellar spectra!

Our 51 Peg family grows 💜

news.yale.edu/2025/04/04/y...

We are excited for a fantastic program that is coming together for NYAEM, which will take place on May 22nd at the CCA! We will be accepting additional poster abstracts on a first-come, first-serve basis up through the registration deadline (April 22nd). #exoplanets

Thanks Jessie — also for doing such a great job repping HWO exoplanet science, and for sharing your story as well! 👑

spike: A tool to drizzle HST, JWST, and Roman PSFs for improved analyses Point spread functions (PSFs) describe the distribution of light for a pure point source in an astronomical image due to the instrument optics. For deconvolution, as for point source photometry and fo...

Paper day! I introduce a new all-in-one tool to generate and drizzle/resample space-based point spread functions for more accurate photometry 🔭🧪

arxiv.org/abs/2503.02288

CCA Pre-Doc Program Stage 1 Applications (2025)

Applications are open for our visiting grad student program (pre-doc program) at the CCA @flatironinstitute.org!

Reach out if you're a student interested in:
- Preparing for Gaia DR4
- Stellar streams
- Data-driven methods for spectroscopy
(and want to apply!)

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
🔭

Nominations to the Exoplanet Exploration Program Analysis Group (ExoPAG) Executive Committee, including nominations for the ExoPAG Chair, are due March 7.

ExoPAG is a community-based forum coordinating input to NASA Astrophysics. Reach out with any questions! 🔭🪐 exoplanets.nasa.gov/exep/exopag/...

Flyer for Anna Frebel’s Picture an Astronomer public lecture at the University of Chicago. Tomorrow at 6:30pm on campus and online.

Tomorrow! Join us — in person or online at 6:30pm Chicago time — for the last Picture an Astronomer public lecture with galactic archaeologist Anna Frebel (MIT), who will describe the cosmic origin of the heaviest elements.

More (incl. registration) at pictureanastronomer.github.io

🔭🧪👩‍🔬

Abstract deadline for this year's New York Area Exoplanets Meeting (NYAEM II) is coming up in just under 2 weeks (March 10th)!

It'll be a 1-day regional meeting at the CCA, bringing together astronomers in the greater New York area working on exoplanets + adjacent topics 🔭🪐

nyexoplanets.github.io

The “Picture an Astronomer” Symposium Today we highlight the "Picture an Astronomer" Symposium, with lectures and events happening in February and March!

From Huei Sears @starlights.bsky.social and Jessie Thwaites @jthwaites.bsky.social: Today we highlight the “Picture an Astronomer” Symposium at UChicago, created primarily by grad student Ava Polzin, with lectures and events in February/March! Registration ends 2/15.✨🔭
astrobites.org/2025/02/11/t...

Registration ends Feb. 15! 🔭🧪👩‍🔬

We encourage *all* professional astronomers/astrophysicists to attend (in person or remotely)!

More at pictureanastronomer.github.io/symposium

Letter reading, "Dear agency employees, We are taking steps to close all agency DEIA offices and end all DEIA-related contracts in accordance with President Trump’s executive orders titled Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing and Initial Rescissions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions. These programs divided Americans by race, wasted taxpayer dollars, and resulted in shameful discrimination. We are aware of efforts by some in government to disguise these programs by using coded or imprecise language. If you are aware of a change in any contract description or personnel position description since November 5, 2024 to obscure the connection between the contract and DEIA or similar ideologies, please report all facts and circumstances to DEIAtruth@opm.gov within 10 days. There will be no adverse consequences for timely reporting this information. However, failure to report this information within 10 days may result in adverse consequences. Thank you for your attention to this important matter. Janet Petro"

Here's an e-mail that just went out to NASA agency wide. 🔭

Donate to Support NASA JPL HabWorlds teammates in the Pasadena fires, organized by Jason Tumlinson We are raising money to assist friends of ours who are displa… Jason Tumlinson needs your support for Support NASA JPL HabWorlds teammates in the Pasadena fires

#PlanetaryScience 🔭🧪: GoFundMe for JPL employees and Habitable Worlds Observatory team members suffering amidst the #LAFires. Confirmed organized on the HWO slack by @astrodave2.bsky.social.

www.gofundme.com/f/support-na...

Satellite imagery captured by MAXAR showing the extent of the Eaton Fire in North Pasadena and Altadena.

Folks, a huge number of people at JPL have been affected by the LA wildfires, with many losing their homes.

If you can, consider contributing to a fund that's been set up to help them:

(Link looks sketch but site is legit)

caltech.imodules.com/controls/ema...

Donate to Supporting Jenn & Sam after the Eaton Fire, organized by Jenn Burt Hi friends, As many of you already know, the wildfires that tore through Alta… Jenn Burt needs your support for Supporting Jenn & Sam after the Eaton Fire

Hey folks - like many people, our friends have lost their house and everything in it. If you are able to help support them through a long, slow recovery, please do. #LAFires

gofund.me/a24b7e39