Donald Trump is a convicted felon.

Three PhD positions are open in the University of Bath Astrophysics group, one on nuclear physics and neutron stars with Dr David Tsang (me), one on GRB afterglow simulations with Dr Hendrik Van Eerten, and one on AGN outflows with Dr Carolin Villforth. Closing date of Feb 11.

Interested in GRBs and GRB Host Galaxies? Come to the University of Bath! We have a position open for a postdoctoral research associate working with Dr Patricia Schady on host galaxy properties and local environments of GRBs. Deadline Jan 18. jobregister.aas.org/ad/0748f8cc

Dave’s project: findaphd.com/phds/project...
Hendrik’s project: findaphd.com/phds/project...
Carolin’s project: findaphd.com/phds/project...

Three PhD positions are open in the University of Bath Astrophysics group, one on nuclear physics and neutron stars with Dr David Tsang (me), one on GRB afterglow simulations with Dr Hendrik Van Eerten, and one on AGN outflows with Dr Carolin Villforth. Closing date of Feb 11.

Note that Astro theorists are certainly encouraged to apply, even though the ad doesn't mention Astro specifically (approval to change the ad text from a previous search would have required extra approvals)

Come join us in the Theoretical Physics group at the University of Bath! A Lectureship position is now open with a closing date of Feb 13. Open to any theoretical physicists (including Astro theorists, photonics, nano, and biophysics). bath.ac.uk/jobs/Vacancy...

Black and white photo of a young Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, seated at a table with shelves full of books behind him. His hands are folded on the table in front of him and he is looking directly at the camera. Chandrasekhar wears a dark suit and tie, with a white, collared shirt.

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar was born OTD in 1910. He established an upper limit on the mass of stable white dwarf stars. Above this Chandrasekhar Limit – about 1.44 solar masses – stars eventually explode and then collapse into a neutron star or black hole. 🧪 🔭

Photo: Stephen Lewellyn / AIP

HOLY CRAP

A 12.4 day periodicity in a close binary system after a supernova Neutron stars and stellar-mass black holes are the remnants of massive star explosions. Most massive stars reside in close binary systems, and the interplay between the companion star and the...

Amidst all the sadness surrounding the past week I am happy to share that a paper I contributed to, led by researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, has been accepted for publication in Nature arxiv.org/abs/2310.07784

The Franco-Chinese SVOM satellite successfully passed vibration, shock and acoustic tests. Another important step toward the launch scheduled for early next year. Looking forward to the first GRB observations ! 🔭

www.svom.eu/en/integrati...

The University of Bath is offering 5 university graduate student fellowships based on academic excellence for international students to do their PhDs. Contact me if you are interested in working with me on the theoretical astrophysics of neutron stars and would like to be nominated.

Transmission spectrum graphic of the exoplanet K2-18b made by NASA

𝗥𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲 𝘀𝗰𝗲𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 '𝗼𝗰𝗲𝗮𝗻 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗲𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗲'.

Ok, probably everyone has seen the headlines about K2-18b by now.

I've put together this thread to collate some thoughts on why many exoplanet astronomers are pretty sceptical about these claims - THREAD (1/N)

Come join us in the Astrophysics Group at the University of Bath Department of Physics! Job opening for a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Astrophysics, with applications due Nov 1, 2023.

www.bath.ac.uk/jobs/Vacancy...

Re-upping for the 🔭 feed!

Since so many have asked, here’s my hot take on the spherules Loeb found and the manuscript he’s loudly rushed to the world. These are pretty typical cosmic spherules. Had he done the *obvious*--a control sample 100 km away from the meteor--he’d have found the same thing. 1/20

It's that time of year again - updating my "how to apply for astro postdoc jobs" talk. Webpage and (draft) slides for the 2023 edition below - suggestions always appreciated.

rdalexander.github.io/jobs_2023.html

I'm glad Avi has submitted a paper for peer review.

However, given that none of the authors seem to have any background in meteoritics, spherules, or cosmic dust, it seems inappropriate to hold a press release prior to peer review.

What's the rush?

At least the orange of the jumpsuit will match his stupid face.

A selfie of me stood next to a blackboard. The word "Job?" is written next to me on the blackboard.

I'm on the academic job market this fall! 🥳

I recently completed my PhD, and I'm looking for a 3+ year postdoc position. I'm also applying to fellowships to potentially work on my own project ideas. 🔭

Buckle up! It's time for a thread of self-promo 😇

The whole piece is spectacular, but this bit in particular is just a perfect illustration of the axiom that the amount of effort required to refute bullshit is orders of magnitude greater than the effort required to produce it.

Long thread on the cursed detector:

Objects in JWST's mirrors are closer than they appear The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has revealed extremely distant galaxies at unprecedentedly early cosmic epochs from its deep imaging using the technique of photometric redshift estimation,...

I love this type of astro paper. @stephenserjeant.bsky.social & T Bakx show simply and convincingly, that high photometric redshifts are biased upwards. Using mostly counting statistics arguments a la Eddington (1913), it's shown that this gets worse with photo-z error.
Bonus points for the title!
🔭

A depiction of a pre-merger neutron star and black hole binary created for a LIGO/Virgo/KAGRS+ press release.

A visualisation of GRB 221009A - the brightest gamma ray burst ever observed.

A visualisation of the post-merger aftermath of a compact binary merger. Shown are the red and blue kilonovae components and the emittef short duration gamma ray burst.

Depiction of a gamma ray burst originating from an AGN disk.

Self-plug - If you'd like to have press release images for your papers, keep me in mind for commissioning!

I'm happy to work with you to create a bespoke visualisation of your work.

Here are some of the artworks I've created that have been featured on Washington Post, BBC, NYT and more.

🐡🧪🔭

Constellation of Orion, clouds of material along the eastern side, dots in clouds.

Yesterday was the 20th anniversary of the launch of the Spitzer Space Telescope. Its discoveries and archives continue to impact astronomy. Here are some personal highlights: Spitzer found 1000s of protostars and young stars with disks (green dots) in molecular clouds (red) such as those in Orion. 🔭

We’ve made it to 6k supporters and are 60% of the way to our goal! 🙏 When we reach 10k, LEGO will consider making an official JWST set! Share with your Facebook friends!

copypastecharacter.com/mathematical

But Doctor, Pagliacci is out of network!