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Reposted by George Zhou

Shashank Dholakia @astroshashank.bsky.social · Jul 23

Everyone go check out Ryan's paper on one of the coolest star systems in the galaxy (not biased)

Also I was glad to contribute to this work in an artistic and scientific scope by creating this false color composite image!

🔭🧪

Ryan White @astroryan.bsky.social · Jul 22

Exciting news! My second first-author paper is out on the arXiv today!! arxiv.org/abs/2507.14610

We present a brand new JWST image of the Apep colliding wind binary in the mid-infrared, and we study what this nebula can tell us about the THREE stars in it's centre. Read on for more... 1/?🔭🧪

$The image shows a false-colour image of the Apep colliding wind nebula as taken by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) in the mid-infrared. In the centre of the image, there is an orange-coloured spiral coil of dust, not dissimilar in shape from a snail's shell. There are two concentric repeats of the coil that are larger and encompass the inner shell, and these further out shells of dust are coloured red and get dimmer as they get further from the centre of the image. These far out coils of dust look somewhat like translucent spheres. At the very centre of the image is a small spikey object which are the three stars in Apep that create and hide behind the dust shells. There are stars scattered throughout the image, each with a snowflake-like 'point spread function' that spreads the central brightness of the stars into diffraction spikes. Image credit: Shashank Dholakia for R M T White et al 2025. 'The Serpent Eating Its Own Tail: Dust Destruction in the Apep Colliding-Wind Nebula'. PI: Yinuo Han.$

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George Zhou @georgezhouastro.bsky.social · Jul 4

Here's I3/ATLAS from the 0.8m at Mt Kent as of 1 hr ago. The clip is a 50-min sequence.

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George Zhou @georgezhouastro.bsky.social · Jul 4

UniSQ PhD student Emma Nabbie has a cool paper about a Kepler system showing more than 24 hr of TTVs! They show that the system can be explained by a mutually inclined (15deg) non transiting interior planet at 2:1 resonance! See paper! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A high mutual inclination system around KOI-134 revealed by transit timing variations - Nature Astronomy

Using Kepler, this study identifies a compact multiplanetary system that is not flat, where gravitational interactions cause its planets’ periods to change by nearly a day per cycle and their orbital ...

www.nature.com

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Reposted by George Zhou

Jiayin Dong @jdong.bsky.social · Feb 12

Phil Armitage, Dan Tamayo @astrodan.bsky.social, and I will host a workshop April 22-25 at CCA @flatironinstitute.org in New York on methods and applications of ML for planetary dynamics and exoplanet population inference. Express your interest in attending by 3/3/25:
forms.gle/zgzkUDCs8Uzz...

Expression of interest for Machine Learning in Planetary System Dynamics

Please fill out this form to express your interest in attending the Machine Learning in Planetary System Dynamics workshop to be held at the Center for Computational Astrophysics, Flatiron Institute i...

forms.gle

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Reposted by George Zhou

Benjamin Pope @benjaminpope.bsky.social · Feb 7

I'm looking for a two year postdoc to work with me at Macquarie University building an Astrostatistics Research Group!

We're interested in diverse applicants with previous experience in applying stats/AI/ML in astronomy, especially in relation to exoplanets/stellar astrophysics/instrumentation.

Macquarie University hiring Postdoctoral Research Associate in North Ryde, New South Wales, Australia | LinkedIn

Posted 2:06:48 AM. PRIMARY DETAIL Salary Circa $106,089 to $113,697 + 17% superannuationNorth Ryde location; Hybrid, 2…See this and similar jobs on LinkedIn.

www.linkedin.com

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George Zhou @georgezhouastro.bsky.social · Jan 22

The tail of comet G3 is extraordinary! It was already visually stunning to me in dark skies, but in photographs there is so much detail in its striations and bands - the poor comet has been stripped apart. Taken over farmland in southern Queensland as thunderstorms rolled by.
50mm f2.2 36x10s 800D

Comet G3 ATLAS in dark skies over farm land in southern Queensland. The tail stretched 10s of degrees into the dark sky, showing structure including bands and striations

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George Zhou @georgezhouastro.bsky.social · Jan 21

Go work with Ben at Macquarie! A great opportunity to join one of the best research groups in Aus, and be part of the growing exoplanet community here!

Benjamin Pope @benjaminpope.bsky.social · Jan 15

In addition to the astrostatistics scholarship, the general International Scholarships are now advertised at @Macquarie_Uni - come work with us on exoplanets & stars; astronomical instrumentation; and stats in physics and astronomy!

Applications close 2 March.

Graduate research scholarships

Take advantage of one or more of our scholarships when you undertake a graduate research degree at Macquarie University. Learn about the application process.

www.mq.edu.au

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Reposted by George Zhou

Benjamin Pope @benjaminpope.bsky.social · Jan 21

PhD positions in exoplanets:

- with @georgezhouastro.bsky.social at the University of Southern Queensland bsky.app/profile/geor...

- with me at Macquarie in Sydney bsky.app/profile/frin...

Others - reply in thread?

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George Zhou @georgezhouastro.bsky.social · Jan 20

Some team members may include

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George Zhou @georgezhouastro.bsky.social · Jan 20

Come join the exoplanets team at UniSQ in Australia. Our team is seeking multiple PhD positions to understand the formation and evolution of planetary systems, involving ongoing programs on JWST, HST, and VLT. See AAS advert. Applications before March 07.

aas.org/jobregister/...

PhD Positions in Exoplanet Atmospheres and Demographics | American Astronomical Society

The Exoplanet group at University of Southern Queensland is inviting candidates for two fully funded PhD scholarships (3 years). Successful candidate will work with Dr George Zhou and Dr Chelsea Huang...

aas.org

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George Zhou @georgezhouastro.bsky.social · Jan 20

Sorry it's now a southern hemisphere only object

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George Zhou @georgezhouastro.bsky.social · Jan 19

Comet G3 is getting exciting! Here it is from my back porch overlooking Toowoomba just an hour after sunset.

110mm 26x4s

Comet G3 ATLAS over with broad tail, taken from my backyard over Toowoomba

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George Zhou @georgezhouastro.bsky.social · Jan 17

I love comets - there are very few things visible to the naked eye that come and go in the night sky. Comet G3 low in the horizon soon after sunset, only 11deg from the sun. Hoping it will remain bright for a week or more.

Comet G3 ATLAS soon after sunset, low over Toowoomba

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Reposted by George Zhou

Shishir Dholakia @astroshishir.bsky.social · Oct 28

My new paper is out today on searching for stellar companions with pulsation timing in TESS photometry!
arxiv.org/abs/2410.19729
Paper thread below ⬇️

A graph showing a purple line resembling a sine wave, with a label at the top saying "Alpha Pictoris Phase modulations"

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Reposted by George Zhou

Shishir Dholakia @astroshishir.bsky.social · Oct 22

Venus, Comet A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS), the Milky Way, and Zodiacal light (if you can spot it) all in one shot! Taken at Mount Kent observatory 🪐🔭

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George Zhou @georgezhouastro.bsky.social · Oct 21

Comet Tsuchinshan Atlas has been quite a show over the last month. Some final shots before it fades away from us. One of the best comets I’ve see for a long time.

Comet tsuchinshan-atlas was over mt kent observatory

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George Zhou @georgezhouastro.bsky.social · Oct 21

We were joined by a special guest while setting up for comet photos. Joys of Queensland

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George Zhou @georgezhouastro.bsky.social · Oct 11

From 27deg S, our part of Queensland is not well know for its Aurora displays

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Reposted by George Zhou

Shashank Dholakia @astroshashank.bsky.social · Oct 7

My first PhD paper is on arxiv today!
Rotating planets are slightly wider at their equator compared to the poles. Saturn in our Solar System (below, minus the rings), is about 10% oblate! Can we detect this shape difference in transits from JWST? (1/N)

arxiv.org/abs/2410.03449

A General, Differentiable Transit Model for Ellipsoidal Occulters: Derivation, Application, and Forecast of Planetary Oblateness and Obliquity Constraints with JWST

Increasingly precise space-based photometry uncovers higher-order effects in transits, eclipses and phase curves which can be used to characterize exoplanets in novel ways. The subtle signature induce...

arxiv.org

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George Zhou @georgezhouastro.bsky.social · Sep 30

The tail of Comet Tsuchinshan-Atlas stretching dozen degrees, amazing in dark skies :)

With @astroshishir.bsky.social

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George Zhou @georgezhouastro.bsky.social · Sep 30

The long tail of Comet Tsuchinshan-Atlas stretched over Toowoomba

70mm

Comet Tsuchinshan Atlas, looking out from toowoomba

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George Zhou @georgezhouastro.bsky.social · Sep 25

Rising above the clouds in a Timelapse

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George Zhou @georgezhouastro.bsky.social · Sep 25

Tsuchinshan-ATLAS growing a nice tail now. Still difficult to see without binoculars, so low to the horizon before sunrise.

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George Zhou @georgezhouastro.bsky.social · Sep 22

Getting up at 4am to see Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS rising over the Toowoomba range

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Reposted by George Zhou

Benjamin Pope @benjaminpope.bsky.social · Sep 7

To kick off the group, we're recruiting a 2-year postdoc and have an international open PhD scholarship, plus domestic PhD students.

We're looking for people with strong experience & interest in stats, especially connecting differentiable physics models, HMC, GPs, NNs, and SVI.

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