Harrison Nicholls
@nichollsh.bsky.social
Studying the atmospheres and interior interactions of rocky planets.
University of Oxford AOPP (DPhil)
https://www.h-nicholls.space
University of Oxford AOPP (DPhil)
https://www.h-nicholls.space
Reposted by Harrison Nicholls
TLDR; The PSF has made the decision to put our community and our shared diversity, equity, and inclusion values ahead of seeking $1.5M in new revenue. Please read and share. pyfound.blogspot.com/2025/10/NSF-...
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The official home of the Python Programming Language
www.python.org
October 27, 2025 at 2:47 PM
TLDR; The PSF has made the decision to put our community and our shared diversity, equity, and inclusion values ahead of seeking $1.5M in new revenue. Please read and share. pyfound.blogspot.com/2025/10/NSF-...
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Reposted by Harrison Nicholls
Success! @noaa.gov GOES-West full disk, without (left) the Rayleigh correction that 99% of the published imagery uses. I still need to tweak the settings, but I always thought the removal of atmospheric scattering makes Earth look too flat.
Thanks to @stim3on.bsky.social & @simonsat.bsky.social
Thanks to @stim3on.bsky.social & @simonsat.bsky.social
July 28, 2025 at 10:27 PM
Success! @noaa.gov GOES-West full disk, without (left) the Rayleigh correction that 99% of the published imagery uses. I still need to tweak the settings, but I always thought the removal of atmospheric scattering makes Earth look too flat.
Thanks to @stim3on.bsky.social & @simonsat.bsky.social
Thanks to @stim3on.bsky.social & @simonsat.bsky.social
In our now-published paper we model the early history of three exoplanets to specifically study the role of tidal heating on their capacity to solidify. A physically robust feedback mechanism can keep them molten, even with relatively thin atmospheres, which may extend to lots of rocky exoplanets.
Published in #MNRAS: "Self-limited tidal heating and prolonged magma oceans in the L 98-59 system", Nicholls et al. This is Fig. 1: for the caption & to read the paper please visit academic.oup.com/mnras/articl... @oxfordacademic.bsky.social @royalastrosoc.bsky.social
July 25, 2025 at 9:04 AM
In our now-published paper we model the early history of three exoplanets to specifically study the role of tidal heating on their capacity to solidify. A physically robust feedback mechanism can keep them molten, even with relatively thin atmospheres, which may extend to lots of rocky exoplanets.
In our new paper we model the complete evolution of L 98-59 d from 'birth' up to the present day. We show that it cannot be a gas dwarf or a water world; it's a 'hybrid' planet with an H2-rich atmosphere containing H2S and SO2 (photochemistry!), and a deep magma ocean.
@timlichtenberg.bsky.social
@timlichtenberg.bsky.social
New paper on the molten Super-Earth L98-59d by @nichollsh.bsky.social in our group. arxiv.org/abs/2507.02656
Volatile-rich evolution of molten super-Earth L 98-59 d
Small low-density exoplanets are sculpted by strong stellar irradiation but their origin is unknown. Two competing scenarios are that they formed either with rocky interiors and H2-He atmospheres (`ga...
arxiv.org
July 4, 2025 at 3:10 PM
In our new paper we model the complete evolution of L 98-59 d from 'birth' up to the present day. We show that it cannot be a gas dwarf or a water world; it's a 'hybrid' planet with an H2-rich atmosphere containing H2S and SO2 (photochemistry!), and a deep magma ocean.
@timlichtenberg.bsky.social
@timlichtenberg.bsky.social
Reposted by Harrison Nicholls
New paper on arXiv today: "Absence of a Runaway Greenhouse Limit on Lava Planets" by Iris Boer,
@nichollsh.bsky.social, and me (arxiv.org/abs/2505.11149). The runaway greenhouse limit is non-existent on molten planets (which is how planets form), questioning the general "habitable zone" concept.
@nichollsh.bsky.social, and me (arxiv.org/abs/2505.11149). The runaway greenhouse limit is non-existent on molten planets (which is how planets form), questioning the general "habitable zone" concept.
Absence of a Runaway Greenhouse Limit on Lava Planets
Climate transitions on exoplanets offer valuable insights into the atmospheric processes governing planetary habitability. Previous pure-steam atmospheric models show a thermal limit in outgoing long-...
arxiv.org
May 19, 2025 at 7:21 AM
New paper on arXiv today: "Absence of a Runaway Greenhouse Limit on Lava Planets" by Iris Boer,
@nichollsh.bsky.social, and me (arxiv.org/abs/2505.11149). The runaway greenhouse limit is non-existent on molten planets (which is how planets form), questioning the general "habitable zone" concept.
@nichollsh.bsky.social, and me (arxiv.org/abs/2505.11149). The runaway greenhouse limit is non-existent on molten planets (which is how planets form), questioning the general "habitable zone" concept.
Reposted by Harrison Nicholls
A time-lapse of some images of asteroid (52246) Donaldjohanson during the encounter by Lucy!
Images taken on April 20, 2025, from a distance of 1,600 to 1,100 km.
Credit: NASA/Goddard/SwRI/Johns Hopkins APL
science.nasa.gov/image-articl...
#PlanetSci #SciComm 🧪
Images taken on April 20, 2025, from a distance of 1,600 to 1,100 km.
Credit: NASA/Goddard/SwRI/Johns Hopkins APL
science.nasa.gov/image-articl...
#PlanetSci #SciComm 🧪
April 21, 2025 at 6:48 PM
A time-lapse of some images of asteroid (52246) Donaldjohanson during the encounter by Lucy!
Images taken on April 20, 2025, from a distance of 1,600 to 1,100 km.
Credit: NASA/Goddard/SwRI/Johns Hopkins APL
science.nasa.gov/image-articl...
#PlanetSci #SciComm 🧪
Images taken on April 20, 2025, from a distance of 1,600 to 1,100 km.
Credit: NASA/Goddard/SwRI/Johns Hopkins APL
science.nasa.gov/image-articl...
#PlanetSci #SciComm 🧪
Reposted by Harrison Nicholls
Reposted by Harrison Nicholls
February 21, 2025 at 3:05 AM
Reposted by Harrison Nicholls
Our new paper on atmospheric convection on lava worlds is now on arXiv (accepted in MNRAS).
We model the early time-evolution of two terrestrial-mass planets, and find that their atmospheres are not always convective. However, they can still have permanent magma oceans!
arxiv.org/abs/2412.11987
We model the early time-evolution of two terrestrial-mass planets, and find that their atmospheres are not always convective. However, they can still have permanent magma oceans!
arxiv.org/abs/2412.11987
December 17, 2024 at 10:08 AM
Our new paper on atmospheric convection on lava worlds is now on arXiv (accepted in MNRAS).
We model the early time-evolution of two terrestrial-mass planets, and find that their atmospheres are not always convective. However, they can still have permanent magma oceans!
arxiv.org/abs/2412.11987
We model the early time-evolution of two terrestrial-mass planets, and find that their atmospheres are not always convective. However, they can still have permanent magma oceans!
arxiv.org/abs/2412.11987
Excited to share that our paper on atmospheres on lava planets has been accepted in JGR: Planets!
You can find it on arXiv here:
arxiv.org/abs/2411.19137
You can find it on arXiv here:
arxiv.org/abs/2411.19137
December 2, 2024 at 9:08 AM
Excited to share that our paper on atmospheres on lava planets has been accepted in JGR: Planets!
You can find it on arXiv here:
arxiv.org/abs/2411.19137
You can find it on arXiv here:
arxiv.org/abs/2411.19137