Rita Parai
@ritaparai.bsky.social
Pinned
Rita Parai
@ritaparai.bsky.social
· May 30
Did Venus Ever Have Oceans? (Exploring Space Lecture Series)
YouTube video by Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
www.youtube.com
I had the great privilege this week of giving a lecture at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum about the possibility that there were once oceans on the surface of Venus, and why missions like DAVINCI and VERITAS are critical to answering big picture questions about planetary habitability🧪🔭
Reposted by Rita Parai
My new paper is out in GCA: What do incipient metal–silicate differentiation processes look like in early Solar System feedstocks? Do HSE patterns link winonaites genetically to main-group IAB irons or only certain IAB subgroups? Give it a read here: authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...
ScienceDirect.com | Science, health and medical journals, full text articles and books.
authors.elsevier.com
November 10, 2025 at 10:36 PM
My new paper is out in GCA: What do incipient metal–silicate differentiation processes look like in early Solar System feedstocks? Do HSE patterns link winonaites genetically to main-group IAB irons or only certain IAB subgroups? Give it a read here: authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...
Reposted by Rita Parai
The Brawl, by Ernest Meissonier, 1855, 📸 by @kevsabitus
October 14, 2025 at 1:02 PM
The Brawl, by Ernest Meissonier, 1855, 📸 by @kevsabitus
Reposted by Rita Parai
We mapped exposure building-by-building across Africa, SE Asia, Central & South America using high-res satellite + elevation data.
Press Release and interactive map link: www.mcgill.ca/newsroom/cha...
Press Release and interactive map link: www.mcgill.ca/newsroom/cha...
Millions of buildings at risk from sea level rise, McGill-led study finds
Sea level rise could put more than 100 million buildings across the Global South at risk of regular flooding if fossil fuel emissions are not curbed quickly, according to a new McGill-led study publis...
www.mcgill.ca
October 3, 2025 at 7:44 PM
We mapped exposure building-by-building across Africa, SE Asia, Central & South America using high-res satellite + elevation data.
Press Release and interactive map link: www.mcgill.ca/newsroom/cha...
Press Release and interactive map link: www.mcgill.ca/newsroom/cha...
Reposted by Rita Parai
🌊 New study in npj Urban Sustainability: Sea level rise could put >100M buildings across the Global South at risk if fossil fuels keep burning. Even w/ ambitious cuts, ~3M buildings face flooding.
📄 Paper: www.nature.com/articles/s42...
📄 Paper: www.nature.com/articles/s42...
Assessing the exposure of buildings to long-term sea level rise across the Global South - npj Urban Sustainability
npj Urban Sustainability - Assessing the exposure of buildings to long-term sea level rise across the Global South
www.nature.com
October 3, 2025 at 7:44 PM
🌊 New study in npj Urban Sustainability: Sea level rise could put >100M buildings across the Global South at risk if fossil fuels keep burning. Even w/ ambitious cuts, ~3M buildings face flooding.
📄 Paper: www.nature.com/articles/s42...
📄 Paper: www.nature.com/articles/s42...
“Only who can prevent forest fires? <YOU / ME> You pressed YOU, referring to me. That is incorrect. The correct answer is YOU”
what's the stupidest/randomest Simpsons quote that lives in your head rent free? Mine is the urge to say "you said go to bread" every time I am about to head to bed.
October 1, 2025 at 10:35 PM
“Only who can prevent forest fires? <YOU / ME> You pressed YOU, referring to me. That is incorrect. The correct answer is YOU”
Reposted by Rita Parai
I voted for #Cuprosklodowskite not least because it’s a spiky, poisonous, radioactive rogue who’s mad, bad & dangerous to know. But I think the main reason I love it is that, like so many Mineral Cup entries, I had never heard of it before & now have an intense emotional attachment to it. #MinCup25
September 24, 2025 at 5:53 PM
I voted for #Cuprosklodowskite not least because it’s a spiky, poisonous, radioactive rogue who’s mad, bad & dangerous to know. But I think the main reason I love it is that, like so many Mineral Cup entries, I had never heard of it before & now have an intense emotional attachment to it. #MinCup25
Reposted by Rita Parai
📣 The 2026 EAG Award nominations 🏅 are open!
Please consider nominating a deserving peer, mentor or former student:
- Senior scientists: Geochemistry Fellows, H.C. Urey Award, Science Innovation award.
- ECRs: Houtermans award.
More info and to nominate: buff.ly/OLy4Plm
📅 Deadline 30 October
Please consider nominating a deserving peer, mentor or former student:
- Senior scientists: Geochemistry Fellows, H.C. Urey Award, Science Innovation award.
- ECRs: Houtermans award.
More info and to nominate: buff.ly/OLy4Plm
📅 Deadline 30 October
September 18, 2025 at 8:20 AM
📣 The 2026 EAG Award nominations 🏅 are open!
Please consider nominating a deserving peer, mentor or former student:
- Senior scientists: Geochemistry Fellows, H.C. Urey Award, Science Innovation award.
- ECRs: Houtermans award.
More info and to nominate: buff.ly/OLy4Plm
📅 Deadline 30 October
Please consider nominating a deserving peer, mentor or former student:
- Senior scientists: Geochemistry Fellows, H.C. Urey Award, Science Innovation award.
- ECRs: Houtermans award.
More info and to nominate: buff.ly/OLy4Plm
📅 Deadline 30 October
Reposted by Rita Parai
September 10, 2025 at 4:27 PM
Reposted by Rita Parai
AND IT WAS A SCORIGAMI?!
41-40 is scorigami, congrats everybody
September 8, 2025 at 3:39 AM
AND IT WAS A SCORIGAMI?!
Reposted by Rita Parai
You have discovered a planet. It is obscured by a dust cloud. It has clouds made of xenon. Maybe you could visit there.
September 7, 2025 at 9:29 PM
You have discovered a planet. It is obscured by a dust cloud. It has clouds made of xenon. Maybe you could visit there.
Wide right
Chicken wings
Country Ham
September 5, 2025 at 7:01 PM
Wide right
Reposted by Rita Parai
🚨New Paper Alert!🚨
I've got a new paper out in Science Advances where we show that the 2 byr old Chang'e 5 magma came from shallow depths in the lunar mantle, and that melting was likely driven by top-down heating of the mantle by radioactive decay in a sub-crustal KREEP layer.
⚒️🧪🔭
Check it out:
I've got a new paper out in Science Advances where we show that the 2 byr old Chang'e 5 magma came from shallow depths in the lunar mantle, and that melting was likely driven by top-down heating of the mantle by radioactive decay in a sub-crustal KREEP layer.
⚒️🧪🔭
Check it out:
A shallow mantle source for the Chang’e 5 lavas reveals how top-down heating prolonged lunar magmatism
The chemistry of the youngest lunar lavas and experiments show how the mantle stayed hot enough to melt for billions of years.
www.science.org
July 22, 2025 at 4:48 PM
🚨New Paper Alert!🚨
I've got a new paper out in Science Advances where we show that the 2 byr old Chang'e 5 magma came from shallow depths in the lunar mantle, and that melting was likely driven by top-down heating of the mantle by radioactive decay in a sub-crustal KREEP layer.
⚒️🧪🔭
Check it out:
I've got a new paper out in Science Advances where we show that the 2 byr old Chang'e 5 magma came from shallow depths in the lunar mantle, and that melting was likely driven by top-down heating of the mantle by radioactive decay in a sub-crustal KREEP layer.
⚒️🧪🔭
Check it out:
Reposted by Rita Parai
Dear Friends, sharing some news here about my upcoming transition. While I’m sad to be leaving @seseasu.bsky.social after 19 incredible years, I am excited and honored to have the opportunity to contribute to @scrippsocean.bsky.social in the years to come.
We are thrilled to announce that Meenakshi Wadhwa will serve as the Vice Chancellor for Marine Sciences, Director of Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and Dean of the School of Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at @ucsandiego.bsky.social!
July 18, 2025 at 2:22 AM
Dear Friends, sharing some news here about my upcoming transition. While I’m sad to be leaving @seseasu.bsky.social after 19 incredible years, I am excited and honored to have the opportunity to contribute to @scrippsocean.bsky.social in the years to come.
Reposted by Rita Parai
We are thrilled to announce that Meenakshi Wadhwa will serve as the Vice Chancellor for Marine Sciences, Director of Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and Dean of the School of Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at @ucsandiego.bsky.social!
July 17, 2025 at 9:15 PM
We are thrilled to announce that Meenakshi Wadhwa will serve as the Vice Chancellor for Marine Sciences, Director of Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and Dean of the School of Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at @ucsandiego.bsky.social!
Reposted by Rita Parai
July 8, 2025 at 7:02 AM
Reposted by Rita Parai
Planet ahoy! It is alone in space. Clouds made of xenon drift through the skies. We could eat a sandwich there, perhaps.
July 4, 2025 at 1:50 PM
Planet ahoy! It is alone in space. Clouds made of xenon drift through the skies. We could eat a sandwich there, perhaps.
Reposted by Rita Parai
Shocked to learn this incredibly tragic news - we have lost one of the most influential volcano scientists of our times.
RIP volcanologist Wes Hildreth, dead in a Nevada car crash south of Mina. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wes_Hil...
June 26, 2025 at 1:10 AM
Shocked to learn this incredibly tragic news - we have lost one of the most influential volcano scientists of our times.
Reposted by Rita Parai
Professor Anders spent his life trying to answer celestial, seemingly impossible questions, even as painful, seemingly inexplicable ones about his childhood haunted him.
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/19/s...
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/19/s...
Edward Anders, Who Duped Nazis and Illuminated the Cosmos, Dies at 98
www.nytimes.com
June 19, 2025 at 5:03 PM
Professor Anders spent his life trying to answer celestial, seemingly impossible questions, even as painful, seemingly inexplicable ones about his childhood haunted him.
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/19/s...
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/19/s...
Me: But Gildas doesn’t even mention him! And then the entire Arthurian tradition starts to look like a spectacular corpus of fanfiction, from Geoffrey of Monmouth pulling from Welsh sources through the medieval chivalric romances to AO3 Merthur fics
The soldier unlawfully quartered in my home: uhh
The soldier unlawfully quartered in my home: uhh
So when Robert Wyatt got kicked out of Soft Machine, the psych-prog band he had started, he moved to France and started Matching Mole (from "Machine molle" French for Soft Machine). Meanwhile SM moved to more instrumental jazz-rock ...
The soldier unlawfully quartered in my house: please kill me
The soldier unlawfully quartered in my house: please kill me
Me: the one piece of media that's actually pulled off having a morally-correct-but-still-evil villain was The Expanse. Marco Inaros is right that the Belters are oppressed--but he's also willing to hurt those same Belters just to settle petty grudges
the soldier, unlawfully quartered in my home:uh
the soldier, unlawfully quartered in my home:uh
June 12, 2025 at 5:23 PM
Me: But Gildas doesn’t even mention him! And then the entire Arthurian tradition starts to look like a spectacular corpus of fanfiction, from Geoffrey of Monmouth pulling from Welsh sources through the medieval chivalric romances to AO3 Merthur fics
The soldier unlawfully quartered in my home: uhh
The soldier unlawfully quartered in my home: uhh
Reposted by Rita Parai
US Earth Scientists: We know you have questions, come get them answered directly from NSF/EAR POs! Tuesday, June 17, 2p Eastern. Register here: www.nsf.gov/events/nsf-d...
NSF Division of Earth Sciences Informational Webinar
www.nsf.gov
June 9, 2025 at 7:24 PM
US Earth Scientists: We know you have questions, come get them answered directly from NSF/EAR POs! Tuesday, June 17, 2p Eastern. Register here: www.nsf.gov/events/nsf-d...
Reposted by Rita Parai
academics logging on to bluesky together on a friday afternoon
June 6, 2025 at 7:03 PM
academics logging on to bluesky together on a friday afternoon
I think that studying something is a way of loving it, and the care and detailed attention of a work like this really embodies that here:
When the Lunar Orbiter 4 spacecraft gave us our first good view of the Orientale basin it was revelatory. Not only was this giant multi ringed impact basin first revealed in its general form, other such basins were recognized across the Lunar near side. Oil paints on canvas panel.
June 4, 2025 at 6:53 PM
I think that studying something is a way of loving it, and the care and detailed attention of a work like this really embodies that here: