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wardhoward.bsky.social
Ward Howard
@wardhoward.bsky.social
270 followers 270 following 310 posts
Husband to Kate, father, follower of Jesus. NASA Sagan Fellow at CU Boulder in the department of Astrophysical & Planetary Sciences working on stellar flares, exoplanets, and extragalactic foregrounds. Website: https://www.wardshowardastronomer.com
www.wardshowardastronomer.com
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wardhoward.bsky.social
Ward Howard @wardhoward.bsky.social · Nov 14
🔭🧪 1/n Our flare science paper on the Early eVolution Explorer (EVE) is accepted and on the arXiv:
arxiv.org/abs/2411.08092

EVE is a NASA astrophysics Small Explorer concept led by PI
@mmacgreg.bsky.social, being proposed by JPL to explore how young stars drive their planets' early evolution.
Preparing for the Early eVolution Explorer: Characterizing the photochemical inputs and transit detection efficiencies of young planets using multiwavelength flare observations by TESS and Swift
Ultraviolet flare emission can drive photochemistry in exoplanet atmospheres and even serve as the primary source of uncertainty in atmospheric retrievals. Additionally, flare energy budgets are not w...
arxiv.org
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wardhoward.bsky.social
Ward Howard @wardhoward.bsky.social · 7d
They did this at UNC CH to nonviolent student protestors pretty regularly when I was there. Weird seeing it happen on the national stage
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wardhoward.bsky.social
Ward Howard @wardhoward.bsky.social · 10d
Are these values from Table 2 of Benneke & Seager 2013?
ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013ApJ....
How to Distinguish between Cloudy Mini-Neptunes and Water/Volatile-dominated Super-Earths
One of the most profound questions about the newly discovered class of low-density super-Earths is whether these exoplanets are predominately H<SUB>2</SUB>-dominated mini-Neptunes or volatile-rich wor...
ui.adsabs.harvard.edu
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Reposted by Ward Howard
danielbolnick.bsky.social
Daniel Bolnick @danielbolnick.bsky.social · 15d
The GRFP announcement from NSF cuts out an entire cohort of 2nd year students from consideration, without warning. This is so deeply unfair that it warrants a formal protest from the scientific community. If someone wants to work with me to craft an open letter and solicit signatures, LMK.
dangaristo.bsky.social
Dan Garisto @dangaristo.bsky.social · 15d
New: After a long wait, the GRFP solicitation is live! Deadlines have been extended to early November, so applicants have a bit over a month to submit. www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...
NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)
www.nsf.gov
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wardhoward.bsky.social
Ward Howard @wardhoward.bsky.social · 23d
Great example of how motivated reasoning and biblical illiteracy can be a (literally) lethal combination 😭
wardhoward.bsky.social
Ward Howard @wardhoward.bsky.social · Sep 9
Great breakdown of the new T1e results:
distantworlds.space
Dr Ryan MacDonald @distantworlds.space · Sep 9
We observed the habitable zone planet TRAPPIST-1e with JWST to search for an atmosphere.

You've seen the headlines, now let's dive into the science! 🧪

THREAD (1/N)

#Exoplanets 🔭
A rocky planet in its star’s ‘habitable zone’ could be the first known to have an atmosphere – here’s what we found
The largest telescope in space has been trained on a rocky exoplanet.
theconversation.com
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wardhoward.bsky.social
Ward Howard @wardhoward.bsky.social · Sep 9
Isn’t the atmospheric retrieval statistically consistent with a flat line and stellar surface contamination?
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wardhoward.bsky.social
Ward Howard @wardhoward.bsky.social · Sep 6
Sleep deprived, but well 🙏
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wardhoward.bsky.social
Ward Howard @wardhoward.bsky.social · Sep 6
This has been our first full “normal” week with a newborn, so your message hits different this time.
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Reposted by Ward Howard
mmacgreg.bsky.social
Dr./Prof. Meredith MacGregor @mmacgreg.bsky.social · Sep 4
Paper #1 led by @jhuartssciences.bsky.social graduate student Jay Chittidi here: arxiv.org/abs/2509.02825
High Resolution ALMA Data of the Fomalhaut Debris Disk Confirms Apsidal Width Variation
We present long-baseline observations of the Fomalhaut outer debris disk at 223 GHz (1.3 mm) from ALMA Cycle 5, which we use along with archival short-baseline observations to produce a 0".57 resoluti...
arxiv.org
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wardhoward.bsky.social
Ward Howard @wardhoward.bsky.social · Sep 4
Way to go, Dr. Davis!!
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wardhoward.bsky.social
Ward Howard @wardhoward.bsky.social · Sep 2
You beat me to it. Also, congrats on the Chandra time!
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wardhoward.bsky.social
Ward Howard @wardhoward.bsky.social · Aug 31
Ngl I misread this as “Einstein having alien DNA or getting massages from aliens” and did double take😬
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wardhoward.bsky.social
Ward Howard @wardhoward.bsky.social · Aug 30
Ahh-- I just looked at the fine print. It's mandated for employees on Anthem plans. Sorry!
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wardhoward.bsky.social
Ward Howard @wardhoward.bsky.social · Aug 29
CU Boulder mandates CVS pharmacy for all employees, so yeah 😭
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wardhoward.bsky.social
Ward Howard @wardhoward.bsky.social · Aug 20
(3) the commitment to launching/funding Roman, (4) the scale of layoffs at the NASA centers adjusting to adm priorities (5) informal nature of the FOX interview and explicit mention of Earth Sciences suggest Duffy is following traditional GOP climate denial arguments for defunding climate monitoring
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wardhoward.bsky.social
Ward Howard @wardhoward.bsky.social · Aug 20
A few factors: (1) I would argue the presence of bipartisan Congressional support in both chambers for NASA astrophysics is not meaningless, even if significant unknowns exist on the final bill, (2) lack of interest in decommissioning HST or withdrawing from JWST in the PBR, ...
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wardhoward.bsky.social
Ward Howard @wardhoward.bsky.social · Aug 20
The aggresive nature of the PBR, likelihood Duffy will decommission NASA facilities prior to passing of the final FY2026 bill, and general lack of value placed on science in this administration mean of course Earth Sciences won't be the only casualty as we cede space science leadership to CNSA.
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wardhoward.bsky.social
Ward Howard @wardhoward.bsky.social · Aug 20
I have read the FY2026 PBR as well as the Senate draft budget (my own salary is on the line...) and neither budget zeroes out the SMD. Given the similarity in the House and Senate drafts maintaining ~FY2025 levels for NASA astrophysics, it's unlikely to suffer to the same degree as Earth Sciences.
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wardhoward.bsky.social
Ward Howard @wardhoward.bsky.social · Aug 20
I am also alarmed at the (illegal) direction Duffy is taking the agency. I’ve been personally impacted by the cancellation of the Small Explorer call. The article’s description sounds like Duffy is cutting funding to all SMD, although he is mostly targeting Earth Sciences, which is still bad enough.
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Reposted by Ward Howard
mast-news.bsky.social
MAST - Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes @mast-news.bsky.social · Aug 20
New HLSP: OWLS, a long-term spectroscopic stellar activity monitoring program with the ARC 3.5 m Telescope at Apache Point Observatory led by @brettmorr.is . OWLS produces time series Ca II H & K emission measurements to probe activity levels + search for activity cycles. archive.stsci.edu/hlsp/owls
Time series of S-indices for five targets with a range of spectral types. The top three panels show data from 1965 to 2024 for HD 78366 (F dwarf), HD 81809 (G dwarf), and the K-dwarf HD 26965, including historic MWO data (timespan in yellow) and newly obtained OWLS measurements (timespan in blue). We plot a curve on the G and K stars with three Lomb-Scargle (sinusoidal) terms, with periods ranging from 8 to 15 years. The OWLS S-indices from 2020-2024 for two M~dwarfs GJ 388 B and GJ 494 are shown in the bottom row.
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Reposted by Ward Howard
brettmorr.is
Brett Morris @brettmorr.is · Jul 29
Neat! @flarelord.bsky.social used ground-based photometry to measure the flare temperature on an M7 dwarf.

How do you measure temperature without spectroscopy? Trick question! You use the Earth's atmosphere as a prism and watch the star appear to jump across the sky. 🔭🧪

arxiv.org/abs/2507.19584
Figure 1. Panel A: Light curve of the DWF030225.574- 545707.45 flare expressed as g magnitudes in excess of the quiescent stellar brightness. As noted in Webb et al. (2021), the lightcurve does not return to pre-flare brightness before the end of the observing period. Panel B: Raw d∥ measured on the images, relative to source position at t0. The weighted average d ∥ of 91 reference stars, weighted by the stars’ astrometric standard deviation across the entire time series, is shown as a grey line and the standard deviation of their relative position itself is shown as a filled region. Panel C: detrended d∥ of the flare star generated by subtracting the weighted average d∥ of the reference stars shown in Panel B. A 9-point rolling median is shown by the dashed black line. Panel D: Rolling median over an 9-point window of the detrended data shown in Panel C, and the time series used for subsequent analysis in this work.
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wardhoward.bsky.social
Ward Howard @wardhoward.bsky.social · Jul 29
You two look so happy!
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Reposted by Ward Howard
afeinstein20.bsky.social
💀Adina Feinstein PhD 💀 @afeinstein20.bsky.social · Jul 23
summer project presentations from Ryan and @adalyngibson.bsky.social at the @michiganstateu.bsky.social MidSURE conference today!
Undergraduate student talking to three people at their research poster Undergraduate student talking to someone at their research poster
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wardhoward.bsky.social
Ward Howard @wardhoward.bsky.social · Jul 23
I told myself that urge would probably go away when I move into a permanent position eventually. For now, I’m the proud new owner of some unwanted deck chairs!😂
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Reposted by Ward Howard
jfoust.bsky.social
Jeff Foust @jfoust.bsky.social · Jul 18
Sixty-four House members have signed a letter to NASA's acting administrator, Sean Duffy, asking him to "ensure no actions are taken at NASA to implement the proposed funding cuts" to science in the FY26 proposal until Congress passes a spending bill. foushee.house.gov/imo/media/do...
foushee.house.gov
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