Hannah Wakeford
@stellarplanet.bsky.social
Exoplanet scientist. Science communicator. Author. Podcaster. Miniature painter. Wife. Cat mum.
Got a wonderful gift from a former postdoc today! A terrarium based on The forest moon of Endor complete with its own little Ewok & R2D2 😁
The tank was previously used on BBC The Sky at Night to demonstrate optical depth in a planetary atmosphere. A happy repurposing & joyful addition to my office
The tank was previously used on BBC The Sky at Night to demonstrate optical depth in a planetary atmosphere. A happy repurposing & joyful addition to my office
December 18, 2025 at 4:28 PM
Got a wonderful gift from a former postdoc today! A terrarium based on The forest moon of Endor complete with its own little Ewok & R2D2 😁
The tank was previously used on BBC The Sky at Night to demonstrate optical depth in a planetary atmosphere. A happy repurposing & joyful addition to my office
The tank was previously used on BBC The Sky at Night to demonstrate optical depth in a planetary atmosphere. A happy repurposing & joyful addition to my office
Doing some filming for a potential project this morning. I always get so nervous before filming things. The more prep for something there is the more nervous I become. Very much more comfortable with the hit and hope method. But nevertheless here we go!
December 16, 2025 at 8:59 AM
Doing some filming for a potential project this morning. I always get so nervous before filming things. The more prep for something there is the more nervous I become. Very much more comfortable with the hit and hope method. But nevertheless here we go!
At the wonderful venue of the Balmoral ship docked in Bristol Quay to preset to the Bristol Science Cafe. A great team of volunteers on the ship and the science cafes lead Bob who has been running this for over 2 decades bring science to Bristolian life. #exoplanets #scicomm
December 2, 2025 at 7:30 PM
At the wonderful venue of the Balmoral ship docked in Bristol Quay to preset to the Bristol Science Cafe. A great team of volunteers on the ship and the science cafes lead Bob who has been running this for over 2 decades bring science to Bristolian life. #exoplanets #scicomm
Had a fabulous week at Ringberg for the “Signal in the Noise“ workshop hosted by two brilliant ECRs in the #exoplanet field @eahrer.bsky.social & @lili-alderson.bsky.social. Loads of ideas on how to get the most out of #jwst data & many new collaborations formed across an eager cohort of scientists
November 21, 2025 at 3:17 PM
Had a fabulous week at Ringberg for the “Signal in the Noise“ workshop hosted by two brilliant ECRs in the #exoplanet field @eahrer.bsky.social & @lili-alderson.bsky.social. Loads of ideas on how to get the most out of #jwst data & many new collaborations formed across an eager cohort of scientists
We have snow in Ringberg! ❄️🏰❄️ the sky has fallen, wonderful rainout of the atmosphere followed by a clearing and lowered opacity.
November 17, 2025 at 5:01 PM
We have snow in Ringberg! ❄️🏰❄️ the sky has fallen, wonderful rainout of the atmosphere followed by a clearing and lowered opacity.
Beautiful lessons in opacity from normal versus slant geometries from the plane as I left Abu Dhabi, some beautiful cloud formations over the Iranian mountains, and beautiful sunset over Romania
November 16, 2025 at 8:28 PM
Beautiful lessons in opacity from normal versus slant geometries from the plane as I left Abu Dhabi, some beautiful cloud formations over the Iranian mountains, and beautiful sunset over Romania
Taught the next door neighbors kids about eclipses and they loved looking through the glasses! They were so excited ☀️😁
Space is the best!
Space is the best!
March 29, 2025 at 11:27 AM
Taught the next door neighbors kids about eclipses and they loved looking through the glasses! They were so excited ☀️😁
Space is the best!
Space is the best!
Hey bluesky there is beautiful blue sky above the fog today in Bristol 😁🌁
March 4, 2025 at 9:24 AM
Hey bluesky there is beautiful blue sky above the fog today in Bristol 😁🌁
Feeling mildly like a traitor that my first time at Burlington House is to the Royal Society of Chemistry and not over the courtyard to Astrophysicists but found some planets 🪐 represented in here so all is good. Man I love old buildings with so much history 🤓
February 5, 2025 at 10:03 AM
Feeling mildly like a traitor that my first time at Burlington House is to the Royal Society of Chemistry and not over the courtyard to Astrophysicists but found some planets 🪐 represented in here so all is good. Man I love old buildings with so much history 🤓
My little Pearl-z is in a cone of shame after getting an infected cat bit that resulted in a massive abscess and now hole in her leg last week. All was healing nicely until today she decided to use the cone to attack the wound and scrape off any scab that formed so we are back to square one!
December 14, 2024 at 9:46 PM
My little Pearl-z is in a cone of shame after getting an infected cat bit that resulted in a massive abscess and now hole in her leg last week. All was healing nicely until today she decided to use the cone to attack the wound and scrape off any scab that formed so we are back to square one!
The main take away You cannot use IR data to easily predict the UV/optical spectrum of an #exoplanet predominantly due to the presence of clouds in the atmosphere which cause additional absorption that has less impact on long wavelength data.
@NASAHubble is key!
@NASAHubble is key!
March 14, 2024 at 8:44 AM
The main take away You cannot use IR data to easily predict the UV/optical spectrum of an #exoplanet predominantly due to the presence of clouds in the atmosphere which cause additional absorption that has less impact on long wavelength data.
@NASAHubble is key!
@NASAHubble is key!
We looked at the results from our models as a population but find no clear linear trends in cloudiness of the atmosphere with temperature or amount of water vapour, however, more complex trends are likely.
We do show that the model determined temperature is similar to GCMs!
We do show that the model determined temperature is similar to GCMs!
March 14, 2024 at 8:43 AM
We looked at the results from our models as a population but find no clear linear trends in cloudiness of the atmosphere with temperature or amount of water vapour, however, more complex trends are likely.
We do show that the model determined temperature is similar to GCMs!
We do show that the model determined temperature is similar to GCMs!
We show that the inclusion of data below 0.6 microns (@nasawebb-mirror.bsky.social lower limit) is important to constrain information on the clouds in the #exoplanets atmosphere and that near-IR data alone is a poor predictor of the UV/optical spectrum measurable by @NASAHubble - associated with☁️
March 14, 2024 at 8:42 AM
We show that the inclusion of data below 0.6 microns (@nasawebb-mirror.bsky.social lower limit) is important to constrain information on the clouds in the #exoplanets atmosphere and that near-IR data alone is a poor predictor of the UV/optical spectrum measurable by @NASAHubble - associated with☁️
To assess changes to the measured parameters from one model fit to the next containing more data we compute the change in Information Content - a metric to define the increase in information you have with the new model. Higher number == more information gained with new model
March 14, 2024 at 8:41 AM
To assess changes to the measured parameters from one model fit to the next containing more data we compute the change in Information Content - a metric to define the increase in information you have with the new model. Higher number == more information gained with new model
We took 14 #exoplanet spectra from the literature and used the open-source retrieval code POSEIDON (@distantworlds.space ) to ask the question: "what information do I gain as I add in more optical data?" to demonstrate the need for @NASAHubble UV/optical measurements
March 14, 2024 at 8:40 AM
We took 14 #exoplanet spectra from the literature and used the open-source retrieval code POSEIDON (@distantworlds.space ) to ask the question: "what information do I gain as I add in more optical data?" to demonstrate the need for @NASAHubble UV/optical measurements
This work shows what an excellent team @HUBBLE_space and @ESA_Webb make for studying clouds in exoplanet atmospheres & the combination helped solidify the detection of quartz as our clouds in the atmosphere of this hot (1700K) giant thanks to the scattering & water Hubble found
October 16, 2023 at 2:12 PM
This work shows what an excellent team @HUBBLE_space and @ESA_Webb make for studying clouds in exoplanet atmospheres & the combination helped solidify the detection of quartz as our clouds in the atmosphere of this hot (1700K) giant thanks to the scattering & water Hubble found
Another key aspect we were able to measure thanks to data from the Hubble Space Telescope (@lili_alderson), was that these quartz crystals are just a fraction of a micron across (0.01micron) - in fact 10,000x smaller than width of a hair!
October 16, 2023 at 2:12 PM
Another key aspect we were able to measure thanks to data from the Hubble Space Telescope (@lili_alderson), was that these quartz crystals are just a fraction of a micron across (0.01micron) - in fact 10,000x smaller than width of a hair!
We didn't stop there! We also ran a suite of comprehensive retrievals (@MartianColonist, Elijah Mullens, Ana Glidden), which step through millions of potential combinations of models to match the spectrum. We found that clouds were vital to fit the spectrum by 3.5-sigma
October 16, 2023 at 2:11 PM
We didn't stop there! We also ran a suite of comprehensive retrievals (@MartianColonist, Elijah Mullens, Ana Glidden), which step through millions of potential combinations of models to match the spectrum. We found that clouds were vital to fit the spectrum by 3.5-sigma
Here we show the breakdown of the PICASO+VIRGA model. Each color represents what the atmosphere would look like without a particular material. In yellow we show what we would have measured if there was no quartz clouds in WASP-17b's atmosphere
October 16, 2023 at 2:11 PM
Here we show the breakdown of the PICASO+VIRGA model. Each color represents what the atmosphere would look like without a particular material. In yellow we show what we would have measured if there was no quartz clouds in WASP-17b's atmosphere
We used models from PICASO+VIRGA (@NatashaBatalha) and ATMO (Jayesh Goyal) to fit the spectrum with & without quartz clouds. We tested thousands of models & found that those with quartz clouds were preferred over those without by 4.2 sigma (>3 is used for a significant detection)
October 16, 2023 at 2:10 PM
We used models from PICASO+VIRGA (@NatashaBatalha) and ATMO (Jayesh Goyal) to fit the spectrum with & without quartz clouds. We tested thousands of models & found that those with quartz clouds were preferred over those without by 4.2 sigma (>3 is used for a significant detection)
This result come from #JWST's Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI) which measured the transit of WASP-17b over the course of nearly 10 hours. Two teams (led by David Grant and @NikoleKLewis) carried out a reduction of the data to get the spectrum in different chunks to check it
October 16, 2023 at 2:10 PM
This result come from #JWST's Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI) which measured the transit of WASP-17b over the course of nearly 10 hours. Two teams (led by David Grant and @NikoleKLewis) carried out a reduction of the data to get the spectrum in different chunks to check it
These measurements were part of the JWST-TST DREAMS program where we are conducting a deep reconnaissance of exoplanet atmospheres using multi-instrument spectroscopy. In this program led by the amazing @NikoleKLewis we took a deep dive into WASP-17b with all #JWST can offer
October 16, 2023 at 2:09 PM
These measurements were part of the JWST-TST DREAMS program where we are conducting a deep reconnaissance of exoplanet atmospheres using multi-instrument spectroscopy. In this program led by the amazing @NikoleKLewis we took a deep dive into WASP-17b with all #JWST can offer
We expected clouds made of a mix of magnesium and silicates, like sand on our beaches, but this pure quartz may suggest they act as seeds for larger cloud particles to form onto. Clouds in the atm. of WASP-17b are the first in a cloud sequence we hope to examine with #JWST
October 16, 2023 at 2:04 PM
We expected clouds made of a mix of magnesium and silicates, like sand on our beaches, but this pure quartz may suggest they act as seeds for larger cloud particles to form onto. Clouds in the atm. of WASP-17b are the first in a cloud sequence we hope to examine with #JWST
Happy #OSIRISREx capsule landing day! We were lucky to attend the launch just over 7 years ago at the cape in Florida. Good luck to the whole team today 🫡🔭🪨🛰️
September 24, 2023 at 1:28 PM
Happy #OSIRISREx capsule landing day! We were lucky to attend the launch just over 7 years ago at the cape in Florida. Good luck to the whole team today 🫡🔭🪨🛰️