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Posts by Tad Komacek

I don't know what I would do without @democracynow.org and Amy Goodman

6 days ago 1 2 0 0
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Interested in spending 3-12 months with us in Oxford as a senior visiting academic? The Leverhulme Trust has a scheme to help. Get in touch with an Oxford colleague soon, as the internal deadline for interest is on Apr 17. www.leverhulme.ac.uk/visiting-pro...

2 weeks ago 4 10 0 0
Three-dimensional transport-induced chemistry on temperate sub-Neptune K2-18b, Part II: the combined effects of atmospheric dynamics and chemical reactions The upper atmospheres of temperate sub-Neptunes are strongly influenced by atmospheric dynamics due to their cool equilibrium temperature and thereby longer chemical timescales than the atmospheric dynamical timescales. In this study, we used a three-dimensional (3D) general circulation model to investigate the transport-induced disequilibrium chemistry and vertical mixing on temperate gas-rich mini-Neptunes, using K2-18b as an example. We model K2-18b assuming 180 times solar metallicity and consider it as either a synchronous or an asynchronous rotator, exploring spin-orbit resonances of 2:1, 6:1, and 10:1. We find that the vertical transport affects the chemical structure significantly, making CO$_2$ and CO more abundant ($\sim$10$^{-3}$) in the upper atmosphere compared to the chemical equilibrium abundance (<10$^{-15}$), and horizontal winds further homogenize the chemical composition zonally in this region. Molecular abundances in the photosphere generally agree across different rotation periods. We employ a passive tracer in the model to estimate the one-dimensional (1D) equivalent eddy-diffusion coefficient ($K_{zz}$) of K2-18b, providing a parameter useful for future 1D atmospheric models. Additionally, synthetic transmission spectra generated from our model are compared with the JWST observations, and we find that our model can provide a comparable fit to the observations. This work offers a 3D perspective on transport-induced chemistry on a temperate sub-Neptune and derives vertical mixing parameters to support 1D modelling.

🎉 The latest paper by the great Jiachen Liu (@jiachenliu.bsky.social) on chemical transport in the atmosphere of K2-18b is now up on the arXiv. 🎉

arxiv.org/abs/2604.07987

1 week ago 4 2 1 0

I’m helping @astroyami.bsky.social and Keren Duer-Milner convene a session on gas giants from the Solar System to exoplanets, any and all abstracts welcome!

1 week ago 2 0 0 0

Me too bud

2 weeks ago 0 0 0 0

Huge congratulations to @hayleybeltz.bsky.social on being a part of the 2026 class of NASA Hubble Fellowship Program Sagan Fellows! Very well deserved, and I'm looking forward to your continued studies of the effects of 3D MHD on the atmospheres of exoplanets.

3 weeks ago 22 2 1 0
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Update: it was a blast! I enjoyed being in the front row for talks by Nick Tosca, Tim Woollings, Carly Howett, Hal Drakesmith, and Frankie Dunn alongside their associated panel discussions, as well as the traditional Planets Day 2 breakout discussion and pitch session.

1 month ago 7 2 0 0

Very excited for this!

1 month ago 6 1 1 0

I’ve been looking forward to this! Excited to read it in full.

1 month ago 2 0 0 0
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Mantle Convection and Nightside Volcanism on Lava World K2-141 b Ultra-short period lava worlds offer a unique window into the coupled evolution of planetary interior and atmospheres under extreme irradiation. In this study, we investigate the mantle dynamics, nigh...

Congratulations to Dr Tobias Meier (@tgmeier.bsky.social) on the publication of his paper "Mantle Convection and Nightside Volcanism on Lava World K2-141 b" featuring 12 former and current Oxoplanet members! You can read the paper here: arxiv.org/abs/2603.02408

1 month ago 16 7 2 3
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Noam Chomsky, Jeffrey Epstein and the Politics of Betrayal I don’t expect much from politicians, corporate tycoons, the presidents of prestigious universities, billionaire philanthropists, celebrities, royalty or oligarchs.

chrishedges.substack.com/p/noam-choms... ✅

2 months ago 3 1 0 1

Hi y'all
You still have a few days to apply for our open professor position in planetary science in Bern, Switzerland. See more details below! For any questions, feel free to reach out to me.

🔭🧪⚛️#planetSci

2 months ago 28 26 0 0

Congratulations, @nichollsh.bsky.social! Your thesis was a joy to read, and it was great to get to know you over the past 1.5 years. I look forward to seeing the research that you and Oli get up to at Cambridge. Perhaps almost as impressive was your AOPP champagne cork shot! Video below.

3 months ago 13 3 0 0
Four smiling individuals, Professor Suzanne Aigrain (credit: Keiko Ikeuchi), Dr Deaglan Bartlett, Professor Andrew Bunker, Associate Professor Paula Koelemeijer, are shown against a starry galaxy background.

Four smiling individuals, Professor Suzanne Aigrain (credit: Keiko Ikeuchi), Dr Deaglan Bartlett, Professor Andrew Bunker, Associate Professor Paula Koelemeijer, are shown against a starry galaxy background.

👏 Congratulations to Professor Aigrain, Dr Bartlett and Professor Bunker from the Department of Physics, and Associate Professor Koelemeijer from the Department of Earth Sciences, on their recognition in the Royal Astronomical Society Awards.

➡️ See: https://tinyurl.com/32wk7894

3 months ago 9 3 0 1

Happy birthday! And note that Somerville College at Oxford is named after her. A fitting tribute.

3 months ago 9 2 0 0
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Most Rocky Sub-Neptunes are Molten: Mapping the Solidification Shoreline for Gas Dwarf Exoplanets Sub-Neptunes are the most common type of detected exoplanet, yet their observed masses and radii are degenerate with several interior structures. One possibility is that sub-Neptunes have silicate/iro...

Paper day! A new paper on existence of subNeptune magma oceans, arising from a collaboration between Cambridge and my group. Lead author Robb Calder is Oli Shorttle's doctoral student. subNeptune Magma Oceans are getting to be a hot topic! arxiv.org/abs/2512.05816

4 months ago 11 5 0 0
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Large-amplitude variability driven by giant dust storms on a planetary-mass companion Global-scale storms composed of silicates and metals explain the extreme weather and variability of the super-Jupiter VHS 1256B.

Years ago Adam Showman described to me his long term plan to better understand brown dwarf variability by adding more cloud physics to his GCM. Thankful today to be part of team led by his former student Xianyu Tan growing and expanding the vision with this new paper. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

4 months ago 17 5 1 0
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2026 projects | Aerosol Science CDT

CDT in Aerosol Science is welcoming applications for fully-funded PhD studentships as part of our 8th cohort to start in autumn 2026: www.aerosol-cdt.ac.uk/2026-projects/
Aerosol science is crucial to so many things, check out the linked project catalogue for studentships!
#PhD #academicjobs

4 months ago 3 4 0 0

Impressive work, Richard!

5 months ago 6 0 0 0

Acquiring a white bowtie has been on my to-do list since the last viva I served as an internal examiner for! I'll be sure to get one by @nichollsh.bsky.social's viva in January.

5 months ago 12 0 3 0
Demystifying the Sub-Neptune Frontier with JWST by Anjali Piette
Demystifying the Sub-Neptune Frontier with JWST by Anjali Piette YouTube video by BOWIE+ Seminars

Dr. Anjali Piette of the University of Birmingham gave a wonderful talk on connecting sub-Neptune atmospheres to their interiors as a part of the BOWIE+ Seminar Series. The video is now available on Youtube. #exoplanets #astronomy

www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHrT...

6 months ago 17 4 0 0
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Really enjoying Dr. Shreyas Vissapragada's @carnegiescience.bsky.social seminar on three population-level surveys of atmospheric escape @oxoplanets.bsky.social!

6 months ago 11 1 0 1

Very exciting and well deserved @ntlewis.bsky.social, and I'm looking forward to seeing what you find!

7 months ago 3 0 0 0

I'm looking forward to the groundbreaking on Tuesday!

7 months ago 0 0 0 0
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Atmospheres on Rocky Exoplanets by Ryan Macdonald
Atmospheres on Rocky Exoplanets by Ryan Macdonald YouTube video by BOWIE+ Seminars

As a part of the launch of the BOWIE+ Seminar Series, Dr. Ryan MacDonald (@distantworlds.space) gave a great overview of our current understanding of rocky worlds thanks to JWST. The talk is now up on Youtube if you're interested. #exoplanets #astronomy

www.youtube.com/watch?v=hN3y...

7 months ago 12 5 1 0
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A Stellar Revolution: How Open-Source Tool MESA Changed the Way We Study Stars A Stellar Revolution: How Open-Source Tool MESA Changed the Way We Study Stars on Simons Foundation

Great article from the Simons Foundation about the open source MESA stellar evolution code, which has a had a huge impact on astrophysics over the past 15 years.
I had not heard that the code's architect, software guru Bill Paxton, had passed away in July.
www.simonsfoundation.org/2025/08/12/a...

7 months ago 17 6 0 0

Registration is open now for our fall workshop on Atmospheric Escape and Replenishment in Planetary Systems!

🔭 #exoplanets

7 months ago 3 2 0 1

Congratulations @timlichtenberg.bsky.social!! Very well deserved.

7 months ago 2 0 0 0
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Just how bad will climate change get? The only way to know is to fund basic research Predictions of climate change are uncertain. That’s why we need to keep finding out how our atmosphere works.

Predictions of climate change are uncertain. That’s why we need to keep finding out how our atmosphere works, says Tim Palmer

go.nature.com/414QrVV

8 months ago 51 16 3 1
Job Details

Two postdoc jobs available on our Arctic Butterflies project! (Not actual butterflies - basically Arctic dynamics and predictability - the butterfly effect in the Arctic...)

Oxford job: tinyurl.com/yc6h4b35

Reading job: tinyurl.com/ypn75jh2

Please help spread the word!

8 months ago 9 7 1 0