Andrew Mann
@amann.bsky.social
Associate professor of Physics and Astronomy at UNC Chapel Hill studying young exoplanets and stars. Dad to one human and one cat. 🏳️🌈💗💜. Carrboro Citizen. http://andrewwmann.com
Dear Picasso toys. Whyyyyyyyyyyyy
October 29, 2025 at 10:36 PM
Dear Picasso toys. Whyyyyyyyyyyyy
It's been a long journey from a child who hated going to Synagogue to an adult that hasn't been inside a synagogue in 20 years. But all those years of being a terrible Jew have finally paid off.
October 28, 2025 at 1:44 PM
It's been a long journey from a child who hated going to Synagogue to an adult that hasn't been inside a synagogue in 20 years. But all those years of being a terrible Jew have finally paid off.
Prediction for this JWST cycle 🧪🔭
October 17, 2025 at 8:35 PM
Prediction for this JWST cycle 🧪🔭
Just because you can, doesn't mean you should. 🧪
May 22, 2025 at 7:33 PM
Just because you can, doesn't mean you should. 🧪
For a sense of scale, going from 2B/year to 1B/year does nothing for the deficit. The deficit is 1.8 trillion, so this is less than 0.06% (image from reddit).
You certainly lose more than that in tax revenue since most science spending gets about 8x worth of economic return.
You certainly lose more than that in tax revenue since most science spending gets about 8x worth of economic return.
May 22, 2025 at 2:33 PM
For a sense of scale, going from 2B/year to 1B/year does nothing for the deficit. The deficit is 1.8 trillion, so this is less than 0.06% (image from reddit).
You certainly lose more than that in tax revenue since most science spending gets about 8x worth of economic return.
You certainly lose more than that in tax revenue since most science spending gets about 8x worth of economic return.
Aside from the planet, there's a lot of work in the paper on updating the parent population age. This is something out group has been working on a lot lately - how to get better ages by combining a mix of age estimates (lithium, gyro, variability, lithium, CMD, etc). 🌌
May 14, 2025 at 6:20 PM
Aside from the planet, there's a lot of work in the paper on updating the parent population age. This is something out group has been working on a lot lately - how to get better ages by combining a mix of age estimates (lithium, gyro, variability, lithium, CMD, etc). 🌌
We did detect such a signal (grey dot below). But it's below our SNR cut. Meaning we don't consider it significant. Unofficially, the signal looked really unconvincing. More TESS data would help here.
May 14, 2025 at 6:20 PM
We did detect such a signal (grey dot below). But it's below our SNR cut. Meaning we don't consider it significant. Unofficially, the signal looked really unconvincing. More TESS data would help here.
As we kind of expected, the new planet is really close to an orbital resonance with the existing ones, as has been the trend for young systems.
Interestingly, it looks like one could fit another planet in between the two innermost ones. Indeed, such a planet would make a perfect set.
Interestingly, it looks like one could fit another planet in between the two innermost ones. Indeed, such a planet would make a perfect set.
May 14, 2025 at 6:20 PM
As we kind of expected, the new planet is really close to an orbital resonance with the existing ones, as has been the trend for young systems.
Interestingly, it looks like one could fit another planet in between the two innermost ones. Indeed, such a planet would make a perfect set.
Interestingly, it looks like one could fit another planet in between the two innermost ones. Indeed, such a planet would make a perfect set.
Because of this, we have an active survey just looking for smaller 'missed' planets in known young systems.
One thing to highlight here is how important the light curves are for this work. We have our own search algorithm, but it would have missed the planet if not for better light curves
One thing to highlight here is how important the light curves are for this work. We have our own search algorithm, but it would have missed the planet if not for better light curves
May 14, 2025 at 6:20 PM
Because of this, we have an active survey just looking for smaller 'missed' planets in known young systems.
One thing to highlight here is how important the light curves are for this work. We have our own search algorithm, but it would have missed the planet if not for better light curves
One thing to highlight here is how important the light curves are for this work. We have our own search algorithm, but it would have missed the planet if not for better light curves
One of our goals is to map out completeness/reliability in order to build a really large sample of stars with rotation measurements from TESS (like millions of stars) and to help find members of young clusters and associations. Completeness and reliability are very important for such large samples.
April 30, 2025 at 10:52 AM
One of our goals is to map out completeness/reliability in order to build a really large sample of stars with rotation measurements from TESS (like millions of stars) and to help find members of young clusters and associations. Completeness and reliability are very important for such large samples.
Interestingly, combining sectors doesn't seem to help. Merging consecutive sectors, for example, actually makes it harder to recover some periods. We think this is because you are stacking systematics (e.g., scattered light) more than stacking astrophysics.
April 30, 2025 at 10:52 AM
Interestingly, combining sectors doesn't seem to help. Merging consecutive sectors, for example, actually makes it harder to recover some periods. We think this is because you are stacking systematics (e.g., scattered light) more than stacking astrophysics.
As you might expect, short-periods are also pretty reliable. If the LS power is high, reliability is over 90%, and over 95% if you consider half-period aliases (common). Digging deeper, many of the remaining targets are binaries (so both periods might be 'correct') or have other complications.
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April 30, 2025 at 10:52 AM
As you might expect, short-periods are also pretty reliable. If the LS power is high, reliability is over 90%, and over 95% if you consider half-period aliases (common). Digging deeper, many of the remaining targets are binaries (so both periods might be 'correct') or have other complications.
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To the first question. TESS periods are remarkably precise. For fast rotators the periods are good to a few percent! This method should account for both astrophysical (e.g., spot evolution and differential rotation) and measurement uncertainties.
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April 30, 2025 at 10:52 AM
To the first question. TESS periods are remarkably precise. For fast rotators the periods are good to a few percent! This method should account for both astrophysical (e.g., spot evolution and differential rotation) and measurement uncertainties.
⭐🔭🧪🌌
⭐🔭🧪🌌
Our main tool is a set of stars with both K2 and TESS data. We use the K2 periods as 'ground truth'
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April 30, 2025 at 10:52 AM
Our main tool is a set of stars with both K2 and TESS data. We use the K2 periods as 'ground truth'
⭐🔭🧪🌌
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April edition of Sky and Telescope covered two papers from graduate students in the Young Worlds Lab (Madyson Barber and Pa Chia Thao). 🔭🧪🪐⚛️⭐🧑🎓
Check out the papers:
ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2024Natu...
ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2024AJ.....
Check out the papers:
ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2024Natu...
ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2024AJ.....
March 2, 2025 at 12:00 PM
April edition of Sky and Telescope covered two papers from graduate students in the Young Worlds Lab (Madyson Barber and Pa Chia Thao). 🔭🧪🪐⚛️⭐🧑🎓
Check out the papers:
ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2024Natu...
ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2024AJ.....
Check out the papers:
ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2024Natu...
ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2024AJ.....
Obviously TIDYE-1b aka iras 04125+2902b
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IRAS_04...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Youngest transiting planet at just ~3 Myr
Has a protoplanetary disk
The disk is misaligned from the planet
Has a binary companion
The companion is aligned with the star + planet but not the disk!
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IRAS_04...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Youngest transiting planet at just ~3 Myr
Has a protoplanetary disk
The disk is misaligned from the planet
Has a binary companion
The companion is aligned with the star + planet but not the disk!
February 28, 2025 at 2:05 AM
Obviously TIDYE-1b aka iras 04125+2902b
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IRAS_04...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Youngest transiting planet at just ~3 Myr
Has a protoplanetary disk
The disk is misaligned from the planet
Has a binary companion
The companion is aligned with the star + planet but not the disk!
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IRAS_04...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Youngest transiting planet at just ~3 Myr
Has a protoplanetary disk
The disk is misaligned from the planet
Has a binary companion
The companion is aligned with the star + planet but not the disk!
Federal remote workers right now.
February 6, 2025 at 9:26 PM
Federal remote workers right now.
btw it's almost impossible to reduce this number significantly without cutting the military, which is the one thing they won't do.
February 6, 2025 at 8:17 PM
btw it's almost impossible to reduce this number significantly without cutting the military, which is the one thing they won't do.
we really need to cut the federal workforce /sarcasm
February 6, 2025 at 8:16 PM
we really need to cut the federal workforce /sarcasm
Sometimes you laugh because if you don't, you might cry.
February 5, 2025 at 1:25 AM
Sometimes you laugh because if you don't, you might cry.
This student fucks up my LMS every damned time. Who are they, and how are they taking every class I've ever taught!?
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January 13, 2025 at 9:34 PM
This student fucks up my LMS every damned time. Who are they, and how are they taking every class I've ever taught!?
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January 2, 2025 at 7:54 PM
No such thing as too much data. 🪐🧪🔭⭐
December 19, 2024 at 6:17 PM
No such thing as too much data. 🪐🧪🔭⭐
Always fun when you see a really interesting paper on the arxiv just to find the github repo and... 🔭🧪🪐⭐
December 18, 2024 at 2:41 PM
Always fun when you see a really interesting paper on the arxiv just to find the github repo and... 🔭🧪🪐⭐