Dr. Susan E. Mullally's Avatar

Dr. Susan E. Mullally

@mustaric.bsky.social

Astronomer -- Baltimore -- Exoplanets -- Mother -- Choir -- Games Posts my own.

1,219 Followers  |  282 Following  |  166 Posts  |  Joined: 25.07.2023
Posts Following

Posts by Dr. Susan E. Mullally (@mustaric.bsky.social)

Post image

OPPORTUNITY: The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, MD, is searching for a Chief Engineer to deliver on the our goals and strategies to ensure that technical solutions are to be implemented to meet the current and future needs of all STScI missions and project: https://bit.ly/4c0SuRd

20.02.2026 21:13 β€” πŸ‘ 19    πŸ” 8    πŸ’¬ 3    πŸ“Œ 2
Post image

OPPORTUNITY: The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, MD, is searching for a post-doctoral researcher to work on spectroscopic studies of young, low-metallicity brown dwarfs in a young Small Magellanic Cloud star cluster: https://bit.ly/3ZESuyS

13.02.2026 15:06 β€” πŸ‘ 7    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
NASA’s TESS Reobserves Comet 3I/ATLAS - NASA Science NASA’s TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) observed the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS during a special observation run from Jan. 15 to 22. Scientists

Have you seen this video of the Comet 3I/ATLAS of observations from TESS? science.nasa.gov/blogs/3iatla... Data available at MAST.

28.01.2026 14:33 β€” πŸ‘ 5    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

New job opportunity at @stsci.edu: Senior Astronomical Data Scientist for data analysis tools, working closely with my team and me.

This role is very similar to mine. If you have questions, I'm happy to answer them. πŸ§ͺπŸ”­

27.01.2026 21:27 β€” πŸ‘ 23    πŸ” 17    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 1

Such great work by the community with all that TESS data.
May I recommend this paper if you are interested in publication rates by mission. arxiv.org/abs/2512.18101

12.01.2026 20:07 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
MAST: IUE Preview The Multimission Archive at STScI (MAST)

It also links to previews of the IUE spectra. archive.stsci.edu/cgi-bin/mast...

12.01.2026 14:34 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
MAST Β· STScI The Barbara A. Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST)

For example, here is a search for IUE observations of one of my favorite white dwarf stars, G29-38. mast.stsci.edu/search/ui/#/...

12.01.2026 14:34 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Dozens of papers are still published every year using this mission that ended back in 1996.

Aren't public astronomical archives great!

12.01.2026 14:34 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
Introducing a New IUE Search Form

For those astronomers who still use the International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) data, a NASA+ESA mission that flew for 19 years starting in 1978, there is a new IUE specific search form and API at @mast-news.bsky.social for you to find IUE data
archive.stsci.edu/contents/new...
#Astronomy #NASA

12.01.2026 14:34 β€” πŸ‘ 10    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
elmo is standing on a rock with his arms up in the air ALT: elmo is standing on a rock with his arms up in the air

SPARCS and Pandora launched together!!! Two small sats I’m very excited about, and thrilled for my friends and colleagues who have worked on them! πŸ”­

11.01.2026 17:18 β€” πŸ‘ 35    πŸ” 4    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
Home - Pandora SmallSat NASA Pandora Satellite

To learn more about Pandora science, check out our website here!

pandorasat.com

11.01.2026 06:07 β€” πŸ‘ 10    πŸ” 3    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0
Pandora spacecraft in front of an exoplanet

Pandora spacecraft in front of an exoplanet

It's happening!!! Pandora is going to space in just over 16 hours (if all goes well). Pandora is going to help us study exoplanet atmospheres, even when their host stars are misbehaving. I am headed up to Vandenberg to watch the launch shortly, and will make a thread about the mission/launch here!

10.01.2026 20:41 β€” πŸ‘ 100    πŸ” 23    πŸ’¬ 7    πŸ“Œ 3

Come work at STScI!

09.01.2026 22:14 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

I always forget.. #astronomy #telescope #launch #nasa #exoplanets #giddyexcitment

09.01.2026 21:20 β€” πŸ‘ 15    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0

Come work at STScI!

09.01.2026 21:17 β€” πŸ‘ 4    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
NASA Scientific Visualization Studio | NASA’s Pandora Satellite to Explore Exoplanets and Stars Artist’s concept of NASA’s Pandora mission, which will help scientists untangle the signals from exoplanets’ atmospheres β€” worlds beyond our solar system β€” and their stars.Credit: NASA's Goddard Space...

It's finally here. Pandora is launching this weekend! svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14945/.
Led by Elisa Quintana and Jesse Dotson (I sit on the science team with many amazing scientists), it has been such fun watching this telescope go from proposal to launch. Get ready to observe some stars and exoplanets!

09.01.2026 20:55 β€” πŸ‘ 19    πŸ” 4    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 1
Post image Post image Post image Post image

Packed splinter session at #AAS247 for the announcement of The Eric and Wendy Schmidt Observatory Systemβ€”a modular, rapid-response network of four novel observatories designed to democratize access to the cosmos.

Read more about the initiatives here: www.schmidtsciences.org/focus-area-a...

07.01.2026 23:05 β€” πŸ‘ 23    πŸ” 9    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 2
Post image

πŸš€ The Roman Research Nexus is now LIVE! πŸš€

A new cloud-based platform built to help the community prepare forβ€”and fully exploitβ€”data taken with the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.

A thread 🧡
1/5

#AAS247 #RomanResearchNexus #Nexus #NexusLaunch
πŸ”­β˜„οΈ

06.01.2026 16:14 β€” πŸ‘ 17    πŸ” 8    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 2

I messed up the link to the paper, here is a better link, now without the extra period. arxiv.org/pdf/2512.08191

18.12.2025 14:46 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Γ‰rika thank you for being part of the team.

18.12.2025 14:45 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

@bot.astronomy.blue signup

18.12.2025 03:18 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

It was my first quiet night in over a month, thanks for reminding me to post something.

18.12.2025 02:42 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
a pair of cartoon eyes with arms and legs saying i am still looking for it ALT: a pair of cartoon eyes with arms and legs saying i am still looking for it

It was a small search, only 4 WDs. And we weren't gifted with a resolved planet this time. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't keep looking. We showed that JWST allows us to find nearby giant planets around WDs. We just have to look twice to rule-out those pesky galaxies lurking in the background.

18.12.2025 02:20 β€” πŸ‘ 6    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
Post image

We were really expecting to find planets with this tiny survey of 4 WDs and we still have 2 unresolved candidates left to confirm.
For resolved planets we were able to rule-out planets as small as half the mass of Jupiter out to hundreds of au.

18.12.2025 02:20 β€” πŸ‘ 8    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 1
Preview
a young man wearing sunglasses is adjusting his glasses . ALT: a young man wearing sunglasses is adjusting his glasses .

Or it could be from a WD dust disk.

18.12.2025 02:20 β€” πŸ‘ 5    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
snoopy is jumping in the air with the words yay yay yay written below him ALT: snoopy is jumping in the air with the words yay yay yay written below him

However, earlier @johndebes.bsky.social showed that two of the white dwarfs are too bright in the mid infrared, consistent with a 1.4 Jupiter-mass, unresolved planet. For one of those stars, our data show the excess also moves with the WD. So it is bound to the WD and could be a planet.

18.12.2025 02:20 β€” πŸ‘ 9    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
Post image

Here is the key image from the paper. The red cross marks the candidate planet and the green triangle is on top of the white dwarf star. The WD moves several pixels, the red dots do not. Those red dots are likely distant, background galaxies.

18.12.2025 02:20 β€” πŸ‘ 6    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
patrick star from spongebob squarepants is pointing at someone with a long nose . ALT: patrick star from spongebob squarepants is pointing at someone with a long nose .

Sadly, in a paper by @fergalm.bsky.social, @johndebes.bsky.social and others, arxiv.org/pdf/2512.081.... JWST shows that those two spots do not move across the sky like the white dwarf star. The separation between the spot and the star (green triangle) change between the two observations. Boo!

18.12.2025 02:20 β€” πŸ‘ 8    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
a purple and gold object with a hole in the middle is in space ALT: a purple and gold object with a hole in the middle is in space

If they are planets, they would be bound to the white dwarf star and would move across the sky in the same way that the nearby white dwarf does. So we asked for second observations of the white dwarf to see if the spots moved too.

18.12.2025 02:20 β€” πŸ‘ 5    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Remember those red spots next to two white dwarf stars that looked like possible planets in JWST images that we found?
We just had a paper accepted that continues to tell the story.

18.12.2025 02:20 β€” πŸ‘ 27    πŸ” 5    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 3