Flatland Astronomer, PhD @AlexNeedsSpace Twitter profile

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

2 years

Stephan's Quintet: From a photographic plate taken through a 6" refractor in the early 1900's to JWST. How far we have come in just a short amount of time.

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

1 year

Wait it just hit me that we made a galactic scale telescope. What a absolutely insane bunch of monkeys we are

Dr. Doctor 🌐

@actualdrdoctor

1 year

AT LONG LAST! Pulsar timing arrays show evidence of a low-frequency gravitational-wave background! It’s likely the signature of many orbiting supermassive black holes across the universe 🤯 What does this all mean? A little 🧵…

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

4 months

Remember kids, if someone says your paper has too many details and that you should remove them, there's a poor grad student trying to replicate results from a publication with barely any information

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

1 year

To add to this, I collected ~50 of the RV points that went into this paper across ~20 nights of observing. Numbers are similar for many other ECRs I work with. I was not offered coauthorship and Geoffrey Marcy was. ⬇️

Seven Machina Rasmussen

@toomanyspectra

1 year

“Who would publish with exoplanet’s most notorious sexual harasser?” oh, look, it’s these people ⬇️⬇️⬇️

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

2 years

@NAChristakis Be careful, it's a slippery slope from "trainees" to "unpaid interns" and then you'll find yourself grading many more papers on your own. Graduate students are the workforce a department runs on, don't patronize us.

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

2 years

The lack of consistency between matplotlib's "plt" comands and "ax" command is infinitely frustrating

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

2 months

I've been procrastinating by making fancy gifs, feel free to use them! :)

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

1 year

That all being said, I do not wish to be on papers with sexual offenders. As someone who is about to be on the job market in the not-so-distant future, this tweet scares me but I feel it needs to be said.

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

2 years

The day has finally come for this conversation

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

2 months

PhD done??

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

1 year

Finally, what sucks the most about this particular aspect of the issue is that this paper is the first in a series and is, effectively, a data release paper. If there was a time to credit the ones who collected the data, THIS paper is it.

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

1 year

Always puts comments in your code. Follow me for more coding tips

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

2 years

Now I'm a real astronomer ✨

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

1 year

However, the nights I spent collecting data along with my ECR colleagues in CPS were unpaid nights. I love observing and I like being able to contribute to incredibly cool projects but at the end of the day, the currency of academia is publications.

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

1 year

Galaxies aren't real, your telescopes are just out of focus

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

1 year

Large surveys like this are being made possible by early career researchers who volunteer multiple long nights. If you don't offer a chance for us to be credited for our work, one obvious outcome is that we will choose to use that time on furthering our own publications instead.

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

1 year

Peter Gao

@PlanetaryGao

1 year

Are you an astronomer who’s having a baby? Here are some astronomical names for your child: Nebula Nova Andromeda Eris Venus Quasar CCD Seeing HD 189733b IRAF Extinction Zerodur

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

2 years

I was happy to see the new #JWST paper cited my work. My first citation ever 🥲

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

1 year

People I meet: wow you're an astronomer, that must be such an exciting job! Me: how the fuck do I turn off minor ticks again

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

1 year

In before "privileged millennial" comments: I've always felt a bit weird about accepting coauthorship for publications where I only have contributed data and I have turned down authorship in cases where I feel like I hadn't made enough of a contribution.

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

4 months

@AstroDaria Asked if a postdoc was an undergrad ☠️

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

6 months

Started in community college, now about to start my dream postdoc. Shout-out to @elcaminocollege . Even if you're not in academia....it's 👏 an 👏 amazing 👏 option 👏

Dr. Daughter, first of my name

@CagneyElayna

6 months

Community college was life changing for me. Wouldn’t be a research scientist without my @bluegrassctc family.

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

1 year

Damn this guy just ended my whole career :///

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

1 year

I feel so incredibly lucky that I get to be an exoplanet researcher in a time where observations made are held in the same regard as ideas contributed. I've been offered coauthorship on papers where I have spent far less of my time collecting other people's data.

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

1 year

I started an overleaf document

Prof. Brian Keating

@DrBrianKeating

1 year

Your PhD thesis in five words. Go!

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

2 months

Found Clyde Tombaughs master's thesis 👀

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

10 months

Oh my god I actually submitted a postdoc application

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

1 year

Kip Thorne, the spacetime guru, asked me what time it was today.

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

5 months

Peace was never an option.

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

2 months

Hi 👋 I've been hesitant to post this (and its a little last minute lol) but if you're interested in seeing my defense talk, it's tomorrow! Time and zoom stuff below 👇

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

1 year

Ask @RyanRubenzahl about getting his first telescope for Christmas

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

4 months

I spend WAY too much time with matplotlib...

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

2 years

Oh yeah it was a paper day! Well, actually a research note, but we measured chemical abundances for 15 elements in 25 exoplanet hosts targeted by JWST's first year of observations!

Chemical Abundances for 25 JWST Exoplanet Host Stars with KeckSpec

Using a data-driven machine learning tool we report $T_{\text{eff}}$, $\log{(g)}$, $v\sin{(i)}$, and elemental abundances for 15 elements (C, N, O, Na, Mg, Al, Si, Ca, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Ni, Y)...

arxiv.org

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

1 year

Having science celebrities that I used to (emphasis on used to) look up to when I first started my career call me and my colleagues "pathetic posturing wimps" is kinda wild ngl

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

5 months

Other wordly but so uniquely of this world.

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

9 months

Pro tip: don't fucking do this.

Mushtaq Bilal, PhD

@MushtaqBilalPhD

9 months

Presentations — every academic has to give them and nobody likes preparing them. ChatGPT can help you prepare a presentation in minutes. This will save you a lot of time and labor. Here's how to do it:

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

10 months

I love when people say how exciting it must be to be an astronomer because right now I'm sitting in a motel room in Albany, drinking a beer, and writing postdoc apps.

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

2 years

"painting of an astronomer by Rembrandt" accurate

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

2 years

Very psyched (and still very much in disbelief) to say I will be at @caltechipac next February as a Visiting Graduate Fellow 🥲 I'll spend 6 months working with @aurora_kess to investigate hot Jupiter chemistry with high resolution spectroscopy!

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

1 year

People over science.

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

1 year

It's been a hard week. Enjoy this picture of my cat going on a walk

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

1 year

Well before everyone leaves gonna do some self-promotion ... I make art sometimes! Specifically posters based on space missions or ground based instruments and, inspired by my time at IPAC , I've made a new one for @ESPRESSO !

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

1 year

@toomanyspectra @sanjanacurtis

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

1 year

Anyone else in grad school have random thoughts like "damn, I should really start making money soon"

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

1 year

They let me press the button to open the dome and it one of the happiest moments of life

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

1 year

Just want to say a huge thank you to the support I and other ECRs have been receiving the past week. Especially a big shout out to the many mid and late career scientists who have been publicly and privately working to make sure this is addressed properly.

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

1 year

Hey #EPRV5 ! Do you like planet masses? Do you *precise* planet masses? Come see my poster (22) on the TESS-Keck Survey's Mass Catalog and data release! We have masses for over 100 planets and will be releasing our ~10,000 RVs soon.

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

7 months

JWST data is so exquisite

Hunter📈🌈📊

@StatisticUrban

7 months

No one’s told you this but California has quietly become almost completely solar-run from 10am-4pm each day.

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

1 year

Petition to stop using the word colloquium because it's hard to spell

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

5 months

I've reached peak nerd

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

4 months

Gonna write a grad school will and last testament where I reveal who gets my desk when I'm gone

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

5 months

Got to see my first glacier today 👍

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

1 year

And. It. Just. Gets. Worse.

Miki Nakajima

@DrMikiNakajima

1 year

I was listed as a co-author of a paper with GM. However, I (and some of us) had absolutely no idea that GM was part of the manuscript until ~ 10 days prior to submission. I was traveling with my family during the 10 day timeframe and I absolutely regret that I did not act in time

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

1 year

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

4 months

When I make a new collaborators

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

4 months

Happy tax day! Just a reminder that @turbotax is currently spending millions to lobby against the creation of a free government filing program.

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

5 months

Who wants to help organize a workshop to teach exoplanet people about geology??

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

2 months

Best tip for grad school is having friends like @EmDwarf who will send you emergency cookies before your defense

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

2 years

Next Fall I get to teach an astronomy class at a local high school and holy wow Im so excited to give these kids the class I never got to have in high school ya boy wasn't even ALLOWED to take physics 🥴

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

7 months

Just learned how to open a Jupyter notebook on a remote machine from my laptop

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

4 months

It was a good day because I held a space rock

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

6 months

How I feel translating IDL to python

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

5 months

You'll be hearing from my lawyer My lawyer

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

3 months

Writing the introduction to my thesis, exhausted, sick of overfull hbox errors but happy because I can go on as many dumb historical tangents as I want because it's my book and I can do what I want

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

1 year

Happy #InternationalCatDay to this stinky boy, he just finished moving across the country for the second time! Everyone say good job Atlas!

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

3 months

*starts hyperventilating *

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

1 year

"we assumed a constant temperature" What. Freaking. Temperature. Reproducibility is important

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

4 months

We're still waiting for people to fill out the poll so we can schedule the zoom meeting to decide

Prof. Abel Méndez 🔭 🔬

@ProfAbelMendez

4 months

Astronomers still haven’t decided if Planet 9 is real

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

1 year

My dad once bought a shirt with this on it because he thought it was cool and proceeded to walk around our white, middle-class, suburban neighborhood with it legitimately not knowing what it meant

feyisayo 💸

@feyiszn

1 year

Tell us one thing about ur Dad.

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

2 months

You can tell a lot about a person when their reaction to homelessness is "look at these freeloaders invading my public space" and not "where have we gone wrong to let this happen"

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

1 year

I love having a job where I can say things like "super Saturn in the hot Neptune desert" and it's not me just bullshitting

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

2 years

6 months will go by so fast 🙃

Caltech IPAC

@caltechipac

2 years

Alex Polanski ( @AlexNeedsSpace ) is our newest Visiting Graduate Student Fellow! He's come a long way from @univofkansas to study hot Jupiter atmospheres with advisor @aurora_kess . Fun Fact: Aurora was also a #VGSF ! She joined @NExScI_IPAC as an exoplanet scientist in 2022.

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

4 months

Hi friends, I've set my defense date? 😬😬 June 19th at 1 PM central, shoot me a DM if you'd like a zoom link ☺️

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

4 months

I'm tired of deblazing spectra so I made a little gif

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

8 months

I think this year we should stop using "et al" Consider: Polanski and the gang 2024

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

3 months

Me: I need to start getting rid of stuff I'm about to move Also me: hell yeah free chalkboard

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

1 year

I don't know what the "cvzf" flags for the tar command mean and at this point I'm too afraid to ask

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

1 year

An amazing example of faculty stepping up to ensure the protection of early career researchers. This was incredible to read...

Thaddeus Komacek

@tadkomacek

1 year

After discussions in the UMD Astronomy Exoplanet Group, BANG! Seminar, and EDI Committee, individuals at UMD drafted, signed, and sent this letter to the @AAS_Office Code of Ethics Committee to support and uplift early-career members of our community:

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

6 months

Also, I feel like today is an appropriate time to announce that I will be following in Clyde's footsteps... this September I will be starting a postdoc as the next Percival Lowell Fellow at @LowellObs 😁 I'm excited to join the awesome team they have and do some fun science!

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

7 months

Hold on let me put on my fancy socks

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

1 year

Tomorrow is my last day at IPAC 😭 but what an awesome experience...2 workshops, 4 visiting talks and 3 runs at Palomar. Thanks to all the new friends and collaborators who made the last 6 months simply amazing, especially my wonderful advisor @aurora_kess !

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

1 year

@quantum_graeme This sounds like its straight out of one of my nightmares wow

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

1 year

That's me 👇

UCI Physics & Astro

@UCIPhysAstro

1 year

This week's #astrophysics seminar features astrophysics #grad student Alex Polanski from the @UnivOfKansas , who will speak about leveraging Keck/HIRES for a holistic view of #exoplanetary systems. @UCIPhysSci @UCIrvine

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

1 year

@nksaunders Also an essential

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

1 year

I'll start writing JWST proposals when they start offering in-person observing

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Flatland Astronomer, PhD

@AlexNeedsSpace

2 years

My research note got picked up by the lovely folks at ExoCast! @StellarPlanet did a wonderful job summarizing the importance of looking at the chemical connection between stars and their planets 😄

Exocast: The Exoplanet Podcast

@exo_cast

2 years

. @StellarPlanet summarises @AlexNeedsSpace 's recent paper on the chemical abundances of 25 JWST exoplanet host stars in anticipation of the upcoming publication of a larger elemental abundance catolog derived from Keck/HIRES optical spectra: #podcast