Just got back from a trip to Arches National Park. Got a lot of shots that I'm excited to process soon! 🌌🔭

Finally got around to processing this short Milky Way timelapse I took a few months ago. I hope to take an extended version soon! 🔭🌌

Hello new followers! I'm Shishir, and I study all things exoplanets. Below is an artist's rendition of Gliese 12 b, a planet I co-led the discovery of this year. I plan to post more cool things I come across in my research. I also love astrophotography, so stay tuned for pretty space pictures! 🪐🔭

I've watched the light fade from my officemate's eyes every day through postdoc application season this year

(5/6) If we take a look at the galactic kinematics of our sample and the earlier Kepler sample of pulsation timing binaries (Murphy+ 2018) we see suggestions that some stars are much older than the 2 Gyr lifetimes of δ Scuti stars. What's going on here?

(4/6) One highlight in our sample is the 3rd-mag α Pictoris! We present the first ever orbit for this system, incorporating Hipparcos astrometry in a novel joint fit. The α Pic system has an orbital period of 1316±2 days and α Pic B has a mass of 1.05±0.05 M☉.

(3/6) We apply this method to four years of TESS photometry of δ Scutis to find 53 new binaries! We get precise orbital parameters, incl. mass functions, orbital periods, eccentricities for 24 of these systems with a new jax-based forward model. Here are some cool examples ⬇️

(1/6) Background: Pulsation timing is a cool technique where pulsations of a star are leveraged as an astrophysical clock. If the pulsator is orbited by an unseen companion, the light arrival time from the pulsator will change as it moves towards and away from the observer.

(5/6) If we take a look at the galactic kinematics of our sample and the earlier Kepler sample of pulsation timing binaries (Murphy+ 2018) we see suggestions that some stars are much older than the 2 billion year lifetimes of δ Scuti stars. What's going on here?

(4/6) One highlight in our sample is the 3rd-mag α Pictoris! We present the first ever orbit for this system, incorporating Hipparcos astrometry in a novel joint fit. The α Pic system has an orbital period of 1316±2 days and α Pic B has a mass of 1.05±0.05 M☉.

(3/6) We apply this method to four years of TESS photometry of δ Scutis to find 53 new binaries! We get precise orbital parameters, incl. mass functions, orbital periods, eccentricities for 24 of these systems with a jax-based forward model. Here are some cool examples ⬇️

My new paper is out today on searching for stellar companions with pulsation timing in TESS photometry!
arxiv.org/abs/2410.19729
Paper thread below ⬇️

Venus, Comet A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS), the Milky Way, and Zodiacal light (if you can spot it) all in one shot! Taken at Mount Kent observatory 🪐🔭

I got to see (and photograph) aurora for the first time!!! Particularly crazy that this was at -27° 🔭🪐

Comet A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS Timelapse ☄️

I've been photographing this comet for the past couple days, and I've been blown away by how bright it is. Can't wait to get back out for more tonight!

Location: Queensland, Australia
Equipment: Sony A7IV with 100mm lens, tracked.

#astrophotography 🔭

Perks of doing a PhD in astronomy: sometimes you can borrow a 0.8m (!!!) telescope just to take pretty pictures