From D1 football to earning a PhD in astrophysics.

What an honor for it all to culminate the day I was hooded as a doctor—being chosen to speak at UCLA’s Physics & Astronomy graduation.

Here’s a clip from my speech that I think applies not just to scientists, but to everybody

However, in the coming years there are a number of observatories slated to go online (Roman Space Telescope, Habitable Worlds Observatory) that will help fill out the census of known planets extending to orbital distances more comparable to the planets in our own solar system!

So now that we know that large planets have more elliptical (aka eccentric) orbits, how do we explain our solar system, in which that does not seem to be the case?

A couple things to keep in mind ⬇️

The largest planets have strong enough gravity to start pulling in hydrogen and helium gas which is by far the most abundant material around, allowing them to become behemoths

We generally know how planets form. Dust particles stick together until they become pebbles, pebbles stick together until they become boulders, boulder become mountains, and mountains become planets, you get the idea

This plot from the paper perfectly describes the situation. Large planets are rare, orbit stars with lots of metals, and have more elliptical orbits. This transition happens consistently at just under 4 Earth radii

This suggests planets above and below this size form differently!

Remember that Planets orbit their stars in ellipses not circles

This important discovery by Johannes Kepler proved that the Sun and NOT the earth was not the center of the solar system

🚨Breaking exoplanet discovery🚨UCLA astronomers uncover that Gas giants form via distinctly different pathways from smaller planets 🧵

What you’re seeing in the viral image is actually an artistic interpretation of a figure from the actual research paper

The figure shows the probability intensity distribution of these pseudomodes—basically, where the photon is most likely to be found under specific conditions

No, scientists didn’t discover the “shape” of a photon. The research behind this image is fascinating and important, but this viral claim is misleading. Let’s clear it up:

What you’re seeing in the viral image is actually an artistic interpretation of a figure from the actual research paper

The figure shows the probability intensity distribution of these pseudomodes—basically, where the photon is most likely to be found under specific conditions

Grateful to be alive in a time of daily miracles! Instant global communication, modern medicine, the ability to see galaxies billions of light years away from tiny pocket supercomputers. Our most fortunate ancestors couldn’t have imagined this

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!🦃

📸: NASA/ESA/CSA

Somebody posted this image and asked “do you think there is life in this picture?”

Most of the replies were some form of ‘yes, based on statistics’ BUT honestly I’m not so sure… let’s try and work it out a bit more quantitatively | 1/3

Of course, just because a planet is in the habitable zone doesn’t guarantee habitability (or even conditions for liquid water). Our own Solar System has three such planets—Venus, Earth, and Mars—but only Terra is even remotely suitable for liquid water on its surface

Kepler data shows that ~20% of Sunlike stars host an Earthlike planet in the habitable zone

Our galaxy has ~100 billion stars which means there are likely 10s of billions of Earthlike planets in our galaxy alone orbiting their stars at distances where water ~could~ exist as a liquid on its surface