Leigh Fletcher

China Scholarship Council and University of Leicester joint PhD scholarships | Postgraduate research | University of Leicester China Scholarship Council and University of Leicester joint PhD scholarships

Leicester has partnered with the China Scholarship Council to provide #PhD funding for Chinese students, with astro/planetary @physicsuol.bsky.social specifically mentioned as a priority. If you have contacts with Chinese undergrads, please do share - deadline Dec 11th.

le.ac.uk/study/resear...

Grainy space image, with white dots on a dark background. At the centre of the image is a larger, bright white blob with a faint white line stretching towards the top of the frame.

Grainy space image, with white dots on a dark background. At the centre of the image is a larger, bright white blob with a faint white line stretching towards the top of the frame. Key elements of the image are labelled: coma, plasma tail, potential dust tail. An inset shows the location of the Sun, Juice and comet 3I/ATLAS during the observation.

☄️ Our #ESAJuice team couldn't wait until February, when they will receive data on #3IATLAS from the mission's science instruments.

So they downloaded just a quarter of an image from its navigation camera to get a surprise sneak preview.

More info and annotations 👉 www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed...
🔭 🧪

After a whirlwind week of deadlines, I finally had a moment to download some data from a telescope run I was leading.... and.... they managed to point it at the wrong planet. I mean, seen one giant planet, seen 'em all, right? Time for a beer....

The full document is here, and it's great to see this encouraging outcome for #ESA over the next 3 years. Of course, international partners need to get their acts together first.... 🔭🪐https://esamultimedia.esa.int/docs/corporate/ESA_CM2025_2_LOR_Resolution.pdf

Reading through ESA's draft #CM25 resolution on the level of resources to be committed between now and 2030 - strong support for the proposal to complete #CosmicVision and get #Voyage2050 (M7, L4) underway. Particularly like that line on international flagship partnerships (HabWorlds? Uranus?).

Uranus’s Small Moons Are Dark, Red, and Water-Poor - Eos …Except for Mab, which is even weirder than expected.

🎵 One of these moons is not like the others, one of these moons just doesn’t belong… 🎵 (it’s Mab, so weird, we love her) 🧪🔭🪐

My latest for @eos.org ahead of #AGU25:

eos.org/articles/ura...

Couldn't make out #Saturn's rings at all just now through my telescope (admittedly from a light-polluted vantage point). We are now at the secondary "almost ring-plane crossing" due to Earth's orbit, and we'll have #JWST taking some infrared spectra of Saturn's southern spring next week.. exciting!

It's Friday, and apparently bluesky is ready for this fun revelation:

Dinosaurs lived on the other side the Galaxy.

With #Uranus and #Neptune being among the best Solar System targets for JWST, I'm hoping to offer a #PhD studentship for Sep'2026 analysing NIRSpec and MIRI observations of both Ice Giant atmospheres. Contact me for details, deadline Jan 18th! #planetsci

Ice Giants Pre-Decadal Survey Mission Study Report The Ice Giants Study was commissioned by NASA to take a fresh look (as of 2017) at science priorities and concepts for missions to the Uranus and Neptune systems in preparation for the third Planetary...

My most important service to solar system planetary science was being a part of the Science Definition Team (SDT), nearly a decade ago, that made the science case for an NASA Ice Giants Orbiter and Entry Probe. Check out our 2017 document: arxiv.org/abs/2511.13946

Our #ESAJuice meeting is over, so a quick moment for some sightseeing. This is the Gänseliesel "goose girl" statue in Göttingen... apparently it's tradition for newly minted PhDs to climb the fountain, kiss the statue, and present a bunch of flowers...

Although it's not an easy journey (involving planes, trains, & automobiles), I finally made it to @mpsgoettingen.bsky.social for the #ESAJuice Science Team Meeting (our 26th!). Personal first for me: I've never been to Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research and this bit of Germany before.

U.K. science sector is ‘bleeding to death,’ lawmakers say in report House of Lords committee urges government to stem exodus of science and technology companies

UK science and technology is suffering from a lack of investment, a hostile immigration system, and fragile university finances, reports @cathleenogrady.bsky.social 🧪 #scipolicy
www.science.org/content/arti...

Thanks! Be great to expand the team again 👍

Looking to start a PhD in Physics & Astronomy in 2026? The team @physicsuol.bsky.social have announced their STFC-funded projects on offer next year, spanning astrophysics, planetary science, and space instrumentation. Deadline: Jan 18th, contact us to learn more!

le.ac.uk/study/resear...

In 2023, #NASAWebb observed a spectacular light show on Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system. The planet’s auroras are hundreds of times brighter and more energetic than Earth’s. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, J. Nichols (University of Leicester), M. Zamani (ESA/Webb). 🔭 🧪

Thanks for sharing this - utterly chilling.

Next time, Andy!

End of an amazing week @stsci.edu, enormous thanks to @chrisinbaltimore.bsky.social & the ESA team for making me feel so welcome, and to all the researchers from STScI, Johns Hopkins, and APL that came to chat. I'm going home brimming with ideas, and in awe of the work everyone's doing with #JWST.

Fourth day of meetings and talks here in Baltimore, and I'd like to say a massive thank-you to those who decided that I was only allowed to meet people called Sarah on Thursday afternoon. Some top-quality trolling there, almost spat out my coffee. #SarahThursday

Thanks to the team at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory for hosting me today: home of Dragonfly quadcopter to Titan (model below), Parker Solar Probe, New Horizons to Pluto, DART asteroid impactor, and more. Talked HabWorlds, JWST, heliophysics and exoplanets, all in one exhausting day.

On the plus side, it gave me an extra day to settle into ESA's visitor office at Space Telescope, and to meet with some of the team working tirelessly to keep Hubble and JWST at the top of their games, despite <<waves hands at everything>>

I'll be back on this side of the Atlantic before too long, so hopefully I get to visit under happier circumstances.

Over in the *alternate timeline*, I'm at Goddard Spaceflight Centre today chatting to colleagues about JWST and future missions to explore the furthest reaches of our Solar System. But unfortunately we appear to be stuck in *this timeline,* with my NASA colleagues furloughed due to the shutdown.

I'm in Baltimore this week, meeting colleagues at Space Telescope and staying near Johns Hopkins' Homewood campus: a beautiful, peaceful campus in the autumn sun, all red brick and marble styled after the Homewood house (1800s, now a museum).

Artist's impression of ESA's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) spacecraft

Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS seen by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope

ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) spacecraft is ready to aim its instruments at interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS! 🪐☄️

Here’s what’s happening and why it’s such a rare opportunity 🧵

Tiny Uranian Moon Likely Had a Massive Subsurface Ocean - Eos Ariel’s tempestuous subsurface ocean may have once composed more than half its total volume.

Maybe “it’s easier to make an ocean world than we thought.”

Research by Caleb Strom @uofnorthdakota.bsky.social, comments by Richard Cartwright and Chloe Beddingfield @jhuapl.bsky.social. Story by @astrokimcartier.bsky.social. eos.org/articles/tin...

Before #NASAWebb, it had been 30+ years since astronomers looked closely at Neptune. With Webb, scientists imaged the planet’s auroras and studied its atmosphere, including unexpectedly finding a significant drop in temperature—all at a distance.

Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI. 🔭 🧪

A day off to decompress, despite the stormy skies. #Leicester's Bradgate Park is fabulous in the autumn colours, fallow deer everywhere. This 850-acre park, a rocky moorland covered in bracken and woodland with the River Lin running through it, is just north of the city and spectacular year round.

wanna feel old?

the date Marty traveled to in the future was ten years ago today