Dr Joanna Barstow
@drjovian.bsky.social
STFC Ernest Rutherford Fellow at the Open University. Astromum x 2. FRAS. Christian, singer, bookworm, musical theatre super fan.
I’m in an amateur production of Beauty and the Beast and in rehearsals last week we got around to learning/setting the Mob Song (the one with repeated calls to ‘Kill the Beast!’) I confess I never paid much attention to the details of the lyrics in the film…
September 18, 2025 at 9:00 AM
I’m in an amateur production of Beauty and the Beast and in rehearsals last week we got around to learning/setting the Mob Song (the one with repeated calls to ‘Kill the Beast!’) I confess I never paid much attention to the details of the lyrics in the film…
Reposted by Dr Joanna Barstow
If you don't know what's going on with anti-trans stuff in the UK, read this.
If you're similarly disgusted with the way anti-trans people have gotten away with demonising and assaulting an innocent minority, send this to your friends, family and MP to demand change.
They won't stop with us.
If you're similarly disgusted with the way anti-trans people have gotten away with demonising and assaulting an innocent minority, send this to your friends, family and MP to demand change.
They won't stop with us.
the UK's new anti-trans rules are indefensible & will make global fascism stronger
my latest with @liberalcurrents.com
www.liberalcurrents.com/britains-bat...
my latest with @liberalcurrents.com
www.liberalcurrents.com/britains-bat...
Britain’s Bathroom Ban
The UK has gone from a bathroom ban being unthinkable to a Labour government implementing one without a vote
www.liberalcurrents.com
September 18, 2025 at 7:06 AM
If you don't know what's going on with anti-trans stuff in the UK, read this.
If you're similarly disgusted with the way anti-trans people have gotten away with demonising and assaulting an innocent minority, send this to your friends, family and MP to demand change.
They won't stop with us.
If you're similarly disgusted with the way anti-trans people have gotten away with demonising and assaulting an innocent minority, send this to your friends, family and MP to demand change.
They won't stop with us.
I had lots of fun last week recording a podcast episode for our OpenLearn team, which meant i got to wave my hands around a lot whilst talking about everything exoplanets - and of course, Habitable Worlds Observatory got an honourable mention. youtu.be/KXbo6OAKfoI?...
OpenLearn Podcast #3: Looking for life on exoplanets with Dr Jo Barstow
YouTube video by OpenLearn from The Open University
youtu.be
August 13, 2025 at 11:09 AM
I had lots of fun last week recording a podcast episode for our OpenLearn team, which meant i got to wave my hands around a lot whilst talking about everything exoplanets - and of course, Habitable Worlds Observatory got an honourable mention. youtu.be/KXbo6OAKfoI?...
That's a wrap folks, #HWO25 is done! In 20 years I'll be posting on whatever social media platform then exists about Earthlike planet detections and maybe even signs of life 👀
July 31, 2025 at 10:02 PM
That's a wrap folks, #HWO25 is done! In 20 years I'll be posting on whatever social media platform then exists about Earthlike planet detections and maybe even signs of life 👀
Now our final talk, by Akash Gupta on the story of hydrogen and water - new insights into the interaction of planet atmospheres and interiors. Planet formation entails interaction of hydrogen envelope with interior - are these important? Yes - likely impact structure and thermal evolution #HWO25
July 31, 2025 at 9:46 PM
Now our final talk, by Akash Gupta on the story of hydrogen and water - new insights into the interaction of planet atmospheres and interiors. Planet formation entails interaction of hydrogen envelope with interior - are these important? Yes - likely impact structure and thermal evolution #HWO25
Now we have Megan Gialluca on assessing the impact of stray light due to micrometeoroid damage. Micrometeoroid damage is unavoidable for space missions. JWST has seen a rate of a couple per month, consistent with pre-launch expectations - excepting the high energy event on the C3 mirror #HWO25
July 31, 2025 at 9:32 PM
Now we have Megan Gialluca on assessing the impact of stray light due to micrometeoroid damage. Micrometeoroid damage is unavoidable for space missions. JWST has seen a rate of a couple per month, consistent with pre-launch expectations - excepting the high energy event on the C3 mirror #HWO25
Now we have Nicole Wolff talking about impacts of correlated noise on retrievals of exo-Earth atmospheres. Direct images contain chromatic speckles that move radially outward with wavelength. They are a source of spectrally correlated noise coupling adjacent wavelength bins. #HWO25
July 31, 2025 at 9:18 PM
Now we have Nicole Wolff talking about impacts of correlated noise on retrievals of exo-Earth atmospheres. Direct images contain chromatic speckles that move radially outward with wavelength. They are a source of spectrally correlated noise coupling adjacent wavelength bins. #HWO25
Next we have Thomas Stuber, talking about hot exozodiacal dust and its effect on HWO's performance. Debris disks are circumstellar discs, gas poor, optically thin, composed of dust fragments left over from planetesimal fragmentation. Hot dust resides within ~1 au of the star, seen in near-IR #HWO25
July 31, 2025 at 9:04 PM
Next we have Thomas Stuber, talking about hot exozodiacal dust and its effect on HWO's performance. Debris disks are circumstellar discs, gas poor, optically thin, composed of dust fragments left over from planetesimal fragmentation. Hot dust resides within ~1 au of the star, seen in near-IR #HWO25
Now we have Kara Brugman talking about goechemical habitability. Volcanoes are a crust factory for planets and also a mechanism for transporting volatiles from the interior to the surface and therefore atmosphere. Geochemical context is therefore critical for interpreting biosignatures. #HWO25
July 31, 2025 at 8:47 PM
Now we have Kara Brugman talking about goechemical habitability. Volcanoes are a crust factory for planets and also a mechanism for transporting volatiles from the interior to the surface and therefore atmosphere. Geochemical context is therefore critical for interpreting biosignatures. #HWO25
Now we have Martin Barstow, taking the opportunity to embarrass me slightly (parental prerogative I suppose?) before going on to talk about white dwarfs as probes of exoplanet compositions. White dwarfs eat exoplanets for breakfast - they are good probes of rocky exoplanet composition. #HWO25
July 31, 2025 at 8:32 PM
Now we have Martin Barstow, taking the opportunity to embarrass me slightly (parental prerogative I suppose?) before going on to talk about white dwarfs as probes of exoplanet compositions. White dwarfs eat exoplanets for breakfast - they are good probes of rocky exoplanet composition. #HWO25
Thanks Laura for posting about my presentation!
Barstow is presenting work on behalf of all of us on the dynamics and chemistry of transiting exoplanets scdd #HWO25
July 31, 2025 at 8:28 PM
Thanks Laura for posting about my presentation!
We are back for the last session of #HWO25 with Michiel Min, describing the science case for observing cold gas giants via coronagraphy with HWO. The gas giants of our solar system have varied atmospheirc properties, clouds and chemistry. We need more targets to understand processes at work.
July 31, 2025 at 8:20 PM
We are back for the last session of #HWO25 with Michiel Min, describing the science case for observing cold gas giants via coronagraphy with HWO. The gas giants of our solar system have varied atmospheirc properties, clouds and chemistry. We need more targets to understand processes at work.
Now we have Kaz Gary, on masses of directly-imaged planets via ultra-high precision astrometry with HWO. Mass determination is important to correctly interpret spectra of potential biosignature host planets. Mass affects atmospheric structure, lack of knowledge hampers retrieval accuracy #HWO25
July 31, 2025 at 6:57 PM
Now we have Kaz Gary, on masses of directly-imaged planets via ultra-high precision astrometry with HWO. Mass determination is important to correctly interpret spectra of potential biosignature host planets. Mass affects atmospheric structure, lack of knowledge hampers retrieval accuracy #HWO25
Next we have Marco Landoni, speaking about AI-assisted observation strategies for HWO. One of the things can that profitably be automated is scheduling, which can optimize the use of time. Bayesian inference and machine learning methods can both be used for this. #HWO25
July 31, 2025 at 6:46 PM
Next we have Marco Landoni, speaking about AI-assisted observation strategies for HWO. One of the things can that profitably be automated is scheduling, which can optimize the use of time. Bayesian inference and machine learning methods can both be used for this. #HWO25
Next we have Taro Matsuo speaking about the green sea hypothesis - the coevolution of Earth and life. The colour of the Earth is driven by the atmosphere but also the ocean. Cyanobacteria, the first organisms to use oxygen photosynthesis, used a range of pigments rather than chlorophyll. Why? #HWO25
July 31, 2025 at 6:34 PM
Next we have Taro Matsuo speaking about the green sea hypothesis - the coevolution of Earth and life. The colour of the Earth is driven by the atmosphere but also the ocean. Cyanobacteria, the first organisms to use oxygen photosynthesis, used a range of pigments rather than chlorophyll. Why? #HWO25
Next is Anna Grace Ulses, talking about characterizing terrestrial exoplanet surfaces with reflected light spectroscopy. Oceans (habitability indicator), continents (oxygen false positive discriminator), vegetation and microbial mats are all important. #HWO25
July 31, 2025 at 6:16 PM
Next is Anna Grace Ulses, talking about characterizing terrestrial exoplanet surfaces with reflected light spectroscopy. Oceans (habitability indicator), continents (oxygen false positive discriminator), vegetation and microbial mats are all important. #HWO25
Vanderburg: HWO will enable measurement of many many more contaminated white dwarf spectra and neural networks can be a big part of this. #HWO25
July 31, 2025 at 6:11 PM
Vanderburg: HWO will enable measurement of many many more contaminated white dwarf spectra and neural networks can be a big part of this. #HWO25
In the exoplanets/astrobiology parallel session this afternoon we start with Andrew Vanderburg, speaking about determining composition of rocky planets using AI. It's important to understand the range of rocky planet compositions in the solar neighbourhood to contextualise biosignatures #HWO25
July 31, 2025 at 6:05 PM
In the exoplanets/astrobiology parallel session this afternoon we start with Andrew Vanderburg, speaking about determining composition of rocky planets using AI. It's important to understand the range of rocky planet compositions in the solar neighbourhood to contextualise biosignatures #HWO25
Now we have the synthesis and vision discussion, led by Evgenya Shkolnik and John O'Meara. Shkolnik: HWO feels like a community-driven flagship mission. Aim is to keep that level of engagement throughout. Everyone here has been very excited, and despite challenging times the mood is hopeful. #HWO25
July 31, 2025 at 4:13 PM
Now we have the synthesis and vision discussion, led by Evgenya Shkolnik and John O'Meara. Shkolnik: HWO feels like a community-driven flagship mission. Aim is to keep that level of engagement throughout. Everyone here has been very excited, and despite challenging times the mood is hopeful. #HWO25
And, on that topic.... the next panel is on international partnerships. Panelists: Shawn-Domagal Goldman, Caroline Harper, Keigo Enya, Paul McNamara, Jean Dupuis; moderator Megan Ansdell. Representation from NASA, UKSA, JAXA, ESA and CSA. Long history of collaboration between all these. #HWO25
July 31, 2025 at 3:41 PM
And, on that topic.... the next panel is on international partnerships. Panelists: Shawn-Domagal Goldman, Caroline Harper, Keigo Enya, Paul McNamara, Jean Dupuis; moderator Megan Ansdell. Representation from NASA, UKSA, JAXA, ESA and CSA. Long history of collaboration between all these. #HWO25
We now have an industry partnerships panel, panelists Jon Arenberg, Jeanette Domber, Matthew East and Alison Nordt; moderator Jim Oschman. Training the next generation of engineers and scientists is key because this is a long-duration mission. Advocacy for science (in general) also needed #HWO25
July 31, 2025 at 3:28 PM
We now have an industry partnerships panel, panelists Jon Arenberg, Jeanette Domber, Matthew East and Alison Nordt; moderator Jim Oschman. Training the next generation of engineers and scientists is key because this is a long-duration mission. Advocacy for science (in general) also needed #HWO25
Now we have J. Scott Smith, discussing the road to mission concept review. We will be drawing on expertise and lessons learned from Hubble, JWST and Roman. MCR takes place prior to mission phase A. Traditionally, tech development happens in phase A, we are doing it early to mitigate risk #HWO25
July 31, 2025 at 2:56 PM
Now we have J. Scott Smith, discussing the road to mission concept review. We will be drawing on expertise and lessons learned from Hubble, JWST and Roman. MCR takes place prior to mission phase A. Traditionally, tech development happens in phase A, we are doing it early to mitigate risk #HWO25
We now have a second panel on emerging technologies, panelists Andrew Vanderburg, Tania Bedrax-Weiss, Dan Sirbu, Bernard Rauscher, Susan Redmond, John MacKenty; moderator Ruslan Belikov. AI technology is something that is emerging, could be used to speed up e.g. predictions/simulations. #HWO25
July 31, 2025 at 1:41 PM
We now have a second panel on emerging technologies, panelists Andrew Vanderburg, Tania Bedrax-Weiss, Dan Sirbu, Bernard Rauscher, Susan Redmond, John MacKenty; moderator Ruslan Belikov. AI technology is something that is emerging, could be used to speed up e.g. predictions/simulations. #HWO25
We now have a panel on astrophysics beyond 100 parsecs. Panelists: Sarah Tuttle, Eric Burns, Adam Smercina, Thaisa Storchi Bergmann, Allison Strom; moderator Janice Lee. First question is on the ideal lowest wavelength cutoff. 100 nm seems to be the consensus. #HWO25
July 31, 2025 at 1:11 PM
We now have a panel on astrophysics beyond 100 parsecs. Panelists: Sarah Tuttle, Eric Burns, Adam Smercina, Thaisa Storchi Bergmann, Allison Strom; moderator Janice Lee. First question is on the ideal lowest wavelength cutoff. 100 nm seems to be the consensus. #HWO25