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Luis Welbanks @luiswel.bsky.social · 11d

The deadline for the 51 Pegasi b Fellowship is right around the corner. www.hsfoundation.org/programs/sci...

Interested in theory, modeling, and discovery? Join @nixonmatthew.bsky.social, Sagnick, and me at the Exoteric Lab at ASU @seseasu.bsky.social

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Luis Welbanks @luiswel.bsky.social · Aug 12

What does it mean to detect a gas in an exoplanet atmosphere? Listen to what @nixonmatthew.bsky.social and I had to say.

It was a pleasure chatting with @startswithabang.bsky.social !!

Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · Aug 9

Starts With A Bang podcast #120 – Exoplanet biosignatures

Remember exoplanet K2-18b?

Dr. Luis Welbanks and Dr. Matt Nixon did, and have a lot to say about what a positive detection of an inhabited world beyond Earth will actually look like.
bigthink.com/starts-with-...
#space #astrobiology #astro

Starts With A Bang podcast #120 - Exoplanet biosignatures

In the search for life in the Universe, the ultimate goal is to find an inhabited planet beyond Earth. How will we know when we've made it?

bigthink.com

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Luis Welbanks @luiswel.bsky.social · Jul 20

What are your thoughts?

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Luis Welbanks @luiswel.bsky.social · Jul 9

We need to understand the limits of our models and our data for reliable interpretations of exoplanetary spectra.

First paper by my first PhD student! Happy advisor moment. Congrats @yoavrotman.bsky.social

Check out his paper on the Arxiv and his thread below #exoplanets 🔭

Yoav Rotman @yoavrotman.bsky.social · Jul 8

Paper day! A 🧵

JWST transmission spectra are showing more and more signs of new exciting physics, which is awesome! But if our models don't take that into account, it can propagate as correlated noise and bias our inferences. What do we do?

arxiv.org/abs/2503.21702

(1/n)

A meme saying "Correlated noise? In my JWST data? It's more likely than you think. FREE GP CHECK!"

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Luis Welbanks @luiswel.bsky.social · Jun 13

I think the full title was an unfortunate Ceres of events btw, but I am no Lemoony Snicket expert

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Luis Welbanks @luiswel.bsky.social · Jun 12

And sanctioned by the journal :P

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Luis Welbanks @luiswel.bsky.social · Jun 3

Call them out ;)

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Luis Welbanks @luiswel.bsky.social · May 28

Great show. 10/10

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Reposted by Luis Welbanks

Matt Nixon @nixonmatthew.bsky.social · May 25

I agree with you that saying K2-18 b “can’t” have an ocean or “isn’t” an ocean world is a stretch - we can’t totally rule it out with the present data, but it does appear that Neptune-like or gas dwarf models are consistent with what we know about the planet and require much less fine-tuning

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Luis Welbanks @luiswel.bsky.social · May 25

"Relies on the obfuscation of how, exactly, they are defining [...] in order to garner press coverage. "

&
"An exceedingly generous observer might chalk up this divergence to the perennial conflict between scientists and their PR machines"

Great title: [Fill in the blank] Can’t Have It Both Ways

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Reposted by Luis Welbanks

Carl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · May 23

Here's my follow-up story on K2-18b, the distant planet where scientists claimed to see a possible sign of life last month. In three preprints, other researcher argue that the signal is noise. nyti.ms/4jaqQRv

There’s Probably No Life on K2-18b After All, Three Studies Conclude

In April, astronomers said they had detected a possible signature of life on the exoplanet K2-18b. Now, three independent analyses discount the evidence.

nyti.ms

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