Jayne Birkby
@jaynebirkby.bsky.social
1.2K followers 120 following 42 posts
Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Oxford. I study the atmospheres of other worlds beyond the Solar system.
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
jaynebirkby.bsky.social
Happy 30th discovery day 51 Peg b! We're at Observatoire de Haute Provence where it all happened, listening to Michel Mayor & Didier Queloz tell us all about that extraordinary radial velocity discovery with ELODIE on the 1.93m in 1995 and the incredible exoplanet science that followed. What a day!
Reposted by Jayne Birkby
abbiestev.bsky.social
If any of you fine folks are planetarians in (or want to be in) mid-Michigan, the Abrams Planetarium is hiring a full-time-staff position for the first time in 11 years!! Come work with the astro, scicomm, and informal ed folks at MSU!! 🔭 🧪 (reskeets welcome) careers.msu.edu/jobs/educati...
Educational Program Coordinator II - East Lansing, Michigan, United States
Position Summary The program coordinator will maintain the planetarium, present live shows, and create new planetarium visualizations. In addition, this position will assist customers, assist in educa...
careers.msu.edu
jaynebirkby.bsky.social
Congratulations Dr Boldt-Christmas! Very much deserved 🥳
Reposted by Jayne Birkby
nplinnspace.bsky.social
We *absolutely* should celebrate it. Do your part by enjoying the 200+ page masterpiece in its entirety on ADS! ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1925PhDT... 🔭

Special shoutout to Figure 2, an incredible piece of art that I want on my wall (and suspect could even make an excellent tattoo if executed well?)
Figure caption:

Figure 2. The hydrogen atom. The ten innermost orbits possible for the single electron of the atom of hydrogen are diagrammatically represented. All possible quantum transitions are included as follows: — short dashes, Lyman series, terminating at a 1-quantum orbit; full lines, Balmer series, terminating at a 2-quantum orbit; long dashes, Paschen series, terminating at a 3-quantum orbit. Transfers are only possible between orbits with azimuthal quantum numbers differing by ±1.
Reposted by Jayne Birkby
hogg.bsky.social
Cantiello @kantyellow.bsky.social at @flatironinstitute.org explains, in terms of fundamental physics, why we won’t be simulating stars in full 3D, ever. I likey.
Reposted by Jayne Birkby
caltechipac.bsky.social
The official number of exoplanets has surpassed 6,000! And you can access data on all 6,007 of them right here at IPAC 📈 🪐

Watch the video & read all about the center of the exoplanet universe (also known as NExScI!) here:
www.ipac.caltech.edu/news/the-nas...
Reposted by Jayne Birkby
eso.org
ESO @eso.org · 26d
1/ A rising telescope under a rising Sun and Moon! 🔭☀️🌕

This montage is a kaleidoscope of moments from the construction of our Extremely Large Telescope.

Creating this #ELT collage took Boris Häußler, an ESO astronomer in Chile, years of meticulous planning.
The image shows seven hexagonal images put together like a flower. All the images show the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) in front of an orange sun or moon rise. All the hexagons are dated and show the ELT assembly at the specific date.
Reposted by Jayne Birkby
mattkenworthy.bsky.social
My periodic reminder for #astrosci #astrodon #exoplanets Early Career Researchers to please, please, please have a simple web site with your current email address on it - rationale here: kenworthy.space/advice/
A pen sketch of a web page for an astronomer, showing name, email, optional phone number, and professional contact details, with a one sentence summary of their research and an ADS link.
jaynebirkby.bsky.social
😮🤩 safe journey HARPS3!
terrahunting.bsky.social
Today HARPS3 is leaving the nest and migrating south!
Reposted by Jayne Birkby
nplinnspace.bsky.social
Serious Q for the 🔭 community: is anyone planning to observe the 3I/ATLAS comet with any of the large ground-based telescopes (VLT etc) any time soon before it gets too close to the Sun (which is when)? Or have maybe already done so? ☄️💫
Reposted by Jayne Birkby
jaynebirkby.bsky.social
Yes, high spectral resolution in space is surely the future for exoplanets. It doesn't even need to be that "high" res, JWST's R=2,700 is delivering great science, just think what could be done with a R=3,000-5,000 integral field spectrograph behind a coronagraph on HWO 🤯
drjovian.bsky.social
Next up is Jean-Baptiste Ruffio urging everyone to consider the potential of moderate-to-high resolution spectroscopy for HWO. We need to consider what is the optimal resolution for detecting biosignatures - trade off between spreading light over more pixels and increased information content. #HWO25
Reposted by Jayne Birkby
lkreidberg.bsky.social
gorgeous new JWST spectrum of the rogue planet PSO J318 from @paulmolliere.bsky.social ! Strong absorption at 10 microns likely due to small SiO particles, acting as seeds for cloud formation arxiv.org/pdf/2507.18691
Reposted by Jayne Birkby
astrafoxen.bsky.social
Hubble Space Telescope images of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS are out! These were taken 5 hours ago. Plenty of cosmic rays peppering the images, but the comet's coma looks very nice and puffy. Best of luck to the researchers trying to write up papers for this... archive.stsci.edu/proposal_sea... 🔭
Reposted by Jayne Birkby
jennywoods.bsky.social
Want to come and join our lovely facilitation team in Oxford Physics? my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...
Job Details
my.corehr.com
jaynebirkby.bsky.social
Stunning data, brightness maps of the supergiant star Antares showing its convective cells 😲 congrats Pilate et al.! ⭐
brettmorr.is
The brightest star in Scorpius, Antares, is nearing the end of its 15 million year life. It's so large that the orbits of Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars would be inside the star. 🔭🧪

Pilate et al. published brightness maps of the star, showing gigantic convective cells.

arxiv.org/abs/2507.08614
Relative brightness maps of Antares over the course of a year, showing the changing brightness and shapes of convective cells in the stellar photosphere.
Reposted by Jayne Birkby
climatebook.bsky.social
One of the many #ExoclimesVII groundhogs, enjoying a nibble of grass on a sunny Montreal day
Groundhog at U of Montreal
Reposted by Jayne Birkby
exoclimes.bsky.social
Exoclimes VII has officially begun!! 👽🧑‍🚀👩‍🚀🚀🚀 Things have kicked off with some welcoming words from our fearless leaders Lisa Dang @astrolisadang.bsky.social & Romain Allart! And now off to our first review talk from Nicolas Cowan about Exoplanet atmospheric Dynamics 🪐☄️
Reposted by Jayne Birkby
nichollsh.bsky.social
In our new paper we model the complete evolution of L 98-59 d from 'birth' up to the present day. We show that it cannot be a gas dwarf or a water world; it's a 'hybrid' planet with an H2-rich atmosphere containing H2S and SO2 (photochemistry!), and a deep magma ocean.

@timlichtenberg.bsky.social
jaynebirkby.bsky.social
Those of you at @exoclimes.bsky.social can hear all about Dr Vaughan's work on Wednesday next week!
jaynebirkby.bsky.social
Dr Vaughan's thesis work on studying exoplanet atmospheres in reflected light opens a vital avenue to seeking biosignatures on nearby habitable worlds with the Extremely Large Telescope in 2030, and beyond with the Habitable Worlds Observatory! @eso.org ras.ac.uk/news-and-pre...
jaynebirkby.bsky.social
Absolutely thrilled for Dr Sophia Vaughan, winner of the RAS Michael Penston Thesis Prize! Congratulations @sophiavaughan.bsky.social, very much deserved and it's been an absolute pleasure working with you! Bring on the ELTs! @oxfordphysics.bsky.social www.physics.ox.ac.uk/news/dr-vaug...
royalastrosoc.bsky.social
Time to hand out some prizes! 🏅🎉 🥳

The RAS is pleased to announce the winners of its prizes for the best PhD theses completed in the UK in 2024.

Dr Sophia Vaughan - Michael Penston Thesis Prize
Dr Graeme McGhee - Patricia Tomkins Thesis Prize
Dr Sihui Zhong - Keith Runcorn Thesis Prize

⤵️
From left to right, Dr Sophia Vaughan, Dr Sihui Zhong and Dr Graeme McGhee.
Reposted by Jayne Birkby
lkreidberg.bsky.social
New paper out! This is a review of the published JWST observations of rocky exoplanets so far: arxiv.org/abs/2507.00933

Quick summary of the key points:
arxiv.org