Dr Joanna Barstow
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drjovian.bsky.social
Dr Joanna Barstow
@drjovian.bsky.social
850 followers 360 following 1.1K posts
STFC Ernest Rutherford Fellow at the Open University. Astromum x 2. FRAS. Christian, singer, bookworm, musical theatre super fan.
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drjovian.bsky.social
Schedule to MCR, subject to funding. #HWO25
Timeline with four strands - project, SE and modelling, science, technology development. MCR is in late 2029. Key milestones are down-select to single architecture (project, in 2027); instrument studies (SE, completed by end 2028); journal special edition (science, early 2026); final L1 document (science, early 2028); TRL 5 reached (tech, early 2029).
July 31, 2025 at 3:08 PM
drjovian.bsky.social
I had a particularly intransigent splinter in my finger. I googled 'how to draw a splinter.' (as in, draw one OUT.)

I got:
To draw a splinter, start by drawing a long, thin, irregular shape, slightly curved. Add a jagged edge at one end to represent the broken or embedded part. You can also add a small, dark area at the embedded end to indicate the foreign object.
July 29, 2025 at 8:40 PM
drjovian.bsky.social
Bolcar: the roadmap for HWO and how we aim to achieve each strand (key points in image alt text) #HWO25
Slide showing the HWO technology roadmap. Three main systems are highlighted, the ultra stable telescope system (leverage expertise of industry partners); coronagraph system (use new and existing test beds at multiple institutions); high sensitivity vis and UV instrument technologies (develop through strategic directed and competed investments)
July 29, 2025 at 6:15 PM
drjovian.bsky.social
The kids were also asked to go in wearing something a bit spacey so this is me with my adorable two before the day started.
Image shows a woman standing with two girls, one either side of her. The woman is wearing a dark green dress with a design of planets and stars. The girls are both wearing dark blue short-sleeved jumpsuits with appliqué planets and stars in blue, green, white and yellow on the top.
July 18, 2025 at 2:06 PM
drjovian.bsky.social
Space day done ✔️

The thing I always forget about schools outreach is how much of a toll it can take projecting your voice. Plus it is hot today. Hydration required!
Image shows a woman with glasses standing in bright sunlight. She is wearing a dark green dress with a design of multicoloured planets and suns. She is also wearing a necklace with different coloured beads representing the planets of the solar system.
July 18, 2025 at 1:56 PM
drjovian.bsky.social
A prism, a spectrograph and a bag of multicoloured sports bibs 🤔 I must be the space day guest at my kids’ school! Looking forward to telling years 1-6 all about Habitable Worlds Observatory
Photo of a prism, a mini spectrograph in a leather case, a net bag of sports bibs and two rolls of stickers on a table
July 18, 2025 at 8:01 AM
drjovian.bsky.social
Eclipse time - seen with the aid of a menu and a bath toy
Image shows a girl in a blue hoodie holding a menu and a small bath toy with several holes in. Each hole projects an image of the Sun onto the menu. The sun has a noticeable shadow over it in the bottom right of each image where the moon is in front.
March 29, 2025 at 10:58 AM
drjovian.bsky.social
It’s her birthday tomorrow and this is the most last minute I’ve been yet with her card… but I did it. Disney Descendants this year.
Cartoon picture of Mal and Evie from Descendants. Mal has purple hair and is wearing her purple jacket with dragon-scale style shoulders. Evie has blue hair and wears a blue denim jacket. She has a red rose charm on a gold chain.
January 24, 2025 at 11:52 PM
drjovian.bsky.social
Merry Christmas!
Photo shows a table laid with plates and glassware. A chocolate Yule log with holly decorations is the centrepiece. There are lit candles behind the dessert.
December 24, 2024 at 10:52 PM
drjovian.bsky.social
I have jigsaws of exoplanet spectra (used for a hands on demo) that can be photographed (and neatened up).
Image is of a plot of an exoplanet transit spectrum with coloured jigsaw shapes overlaid showing the contributions from different gases. The spectrum contains water vapour (blue), carbon dioxide (pink), carbon monoxide (green) and sulphur dioxide (yellow)
November 19, 2024 at 9:59 AM
drjovian.bsky.social
Update! Not starting it yet, it’s being saved for holiday. Hoping it goes well with sitting by a swimming pool sipping nice drinks.
Book cover of ‘The Potent Solution’ by Ashley Nova on a kindle screen
October 18, 2024 at 10:17 PM
drjovian.bsky.social
Some more red and green London aurorae. This was naked-eye bright, I could see the red without the camera
Red and green aurorae over trees and a row of lighted houses
October 10, 2024 at 9:45 PM
drjovian.bsky.social
Aurora!
Image of red and green Aurora over trees and a row of lighted houses
October 10, 2024 at 9:37 PM
drjovian.bsky.social
Bluesky now has over 10 million users, and I was #248,046!
Celebrating 10M users image showing I was user number 248,046 (within the first 10%) having joined on July 4th 2023.
September 17, 2024 at 11:01 AM
drjovian.bsky.social
This seems like a good way to make more connections/introduce myself a bit better on here so let's go. One like = one answer in the thread below.
Meme image - 30 questions to get to know me. 1 like on the post = 1 response below. I will post the question in the response each time since this would be rather a lot for alt text. First few are: 1. favourite colour, 2. favourite food, 3. favourite book... you get the idea.
September 10, 2024 at 9:50 AM
drjovian.bsky.social
Hopefully bittersweet counts? Tiny human has her last day at nursery tomorrow, she starts nursery class in September at primary school. This ends almost 7 years of one of our kids going there. She has decorated a card for every staff member and we are gifting keepsake seeds from Wildflower Favours.
Image shows a blank card decorated with sticky felt flowers, shapes and sparkly jewels. The arrangement is a bit random but (hopefully) in a cute, done by a toddler way. This image shows a seed packet with a sketch of a forget-me-not. It reads ‘Dear [redacted], thank you for helping me grow. Please plant these seeds and forget-me-not! Love from [redacted].
August 22, 2024 at 2:30 PM
drjovian.bsky.social
7 year old’s school are having a science day today. Since many of her friends were going to wear lab coats she wanted to as well and we decorated it together last night.
Image shows a girl with her back to the camera and her arms outstretched, wearing a white lab coat. It is sunny. The planets of the solar system, a rocket and a telescope have been drawn on the back of the coat. One sleeve has a picture of the Sun and the other a picture of the Earth. Explore space is written on both sleeves.
July 11, 2024 at 8:58 AM
drjovian.bsky.social
Me + WASP-39b #summerscience #JWST1styears
Image shows me in a dark blue velvet, sleeveless, long dress, holding a champagne glass. I am standing next to a light box on which the WASP-39b JWST spectrum is displayed with the gas contributions shown as translucent coloured jigsaw pieces.
July 4, 2024 at 10:47 PM
drjovian.bsky.social
#summerscience soirée ready #JWST1styears
Image shows a dark blue velvet clutch bag embroidered with gold and silver stars. Some stars are the cartoon style 5 point shape and others look more like bright stars with a diffraction pattern (point sources with spikes) Image shows me wearing a dark blue velvet slash neck sleeveless dress. I am also wearing a necklace with the solar system planets on, each represented by an appropriately coloured bead. I have a JWST mirror pin on the left side of the dress bodice. Image shows a pale blue chiffon scarf with a white and gold star pattern.
July 4, 2024 at 5:20 PM
drjovian.bsky.social
All #JWST ready! On my way in for press preview morning at the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition. We’re celebrating JWST science from exoplanets to distant galaxies and everything in between. #JWST1styears #summerscience
Image shows me at a tube station wearing a black t-shirt with an image of JWST on it, a black jacket with a gold coloured JWST mirror lapel pin, and a pendant necklace that looks like Saturn.
July 2, 2024 at 7:55 AM
drjovian.bsky.social
So sad to be leaving #Exoplanets5 today - first ever exoplanet meeting to feature a rhino (and probably also the last?) Hope everyone has a wonderful last day.
Picture shows a ‘rhino’ inhabited by two actors, following another actor dressed as its keeper down a path in Leiden’s Hortus Botanicus. Astronomers look on in a mixture of confusion and amusement.
June 21, 2024 at 8:00 AM
drjovian.bsky.social
Domagal-Goldman cites Meadows+22 for the tests for detecting life. Not all required in a first publication but ultimately need to be satisfied.
Question 1: have you detected an authentic signal? Question 2: have you adequately identified the signal? Question 3; are there abiotic sources for your detection? Question 4: is it likely life would produce this expression in this environment? Question 5: are there independent lines of evidence to support a biological (or non biological) explanation?
June 18, 2024 at 9:18 AM
drjovian.bsky.social
#Exoplanets5 #Exo5 @stellarplanet.bsky.social shows a word cloud of responses to the question ‘why do we study giant exoplanets?’
‘Because they are not burdened by the messiness of life’ 🤣 (actually pretty profound since exoplanet science is basically escapism in many ways… 😳)
Word cloud including: architecture, test models, cloudy, high SNR, diversity, composition, atmosphere, links-to-formation, populations, dynamics, structure, spectra. At the bottom is a quote: ‘They are high pressure, high temperature laboratories not burdened by the messiness of life’
June 17, 2024 at 7:55 AM
drjovian.bsky.social
Ready for a week of #exoplanets and canals #Exo5 #Exoplanets5
Image shows a canal lined by tall houses on one side with trees on the other. It is sunny and the sky is blue with a few white clouds.
June 17, 2024 at 7:14 AM
drjovian.bsky.social
Can’t believe I just saw the aurora from my extremely light polluted home and got a photo with my extremely useless camera!
Image shows a night time horizon with rooftops. Above the rooftops are faint reddish streaks of light in the sky.
May 10, 2024 at 11:35 PM