Passerines (perching birds) are the largest order of birds and are mostly small and look kind of alike.
Also, the common raven is the largest passerine.
Conclusion: ravens are the capybaras of birds!

Just in time for #AAS245, we have posted my newest paper, presenting a broad-based classification of #exoplanet solar systems: arxiv.org/abs/2501.08191.
See attached chart, and if you're at the AAS, come see my talk at 3:00 in Session 337.

It's coming...

I was today years old when I learned this is how matrix multiplication *really* works. Why did we never learn this in math class? This makes so much more sense!🤯

It's finally here!
We've been working on this paper about the super-Jupiter HD 106906b for over 6 years now, analyzing its atmosphere with my APOLLO code. arxiv.org/abs/2309.10188
Our conclusion: clouds are hard.
And we really need JWST to sort them out... 1/3

Yoshida et al.: TOI-1420b is really low density.
Me: OK?
Yoshida et al.: No, we mean *really* low density.
Me: Oh, wow!
arxiv.org/abs/2309.09945

Just a couple weeks ago, we found one of the densest planets ever, and this one is even more extreme--73x Earth's mass and so dense we're not even sure if it has a hydrogen atmosphere. Credit: Naponiello et al.
arxiv.org/abs/2309.01464

This is a really important analysis of #exoplanet habitability from Turbet et al. There's a lot of stuff in there, but I'll summarize by focusing on this one. This is an analysis of where water condenses into oceans vs. where it forms a Venus-like greenhouse.
arxiv.org/abs/2308.15110

From @ProfSaraSeager & Team: calculations suggest that fluorine compounds make ideal technosignatures (signs of alien industry).
(Probably not likely to find them, but we know what to look for.)
arxiv.org/abs/2308.13667

From Osborn et al.: arxiv.org/abs/2308.12137
The planet itself is interesting--one of the densest we've found. But what's *really* interesting is that I think we're finally starting to get a feel for the population of "Neptune desert" planets.

You have to haul the mass up there in the first place, which is expensive. You need to get it from Earth to an orbit with semi-major axis 1.30 AU and eccentricity 0.26, with near-zero inclination...
What if I told you there's already 35 million tons of mass there? 2/3

Next up, Owen & Schlichting have their newest model of atmosphere loss from #exoplanets.
https://arxiv.org/abs/2308.00020
The details are kind of finicky, but this is one of the best models I've seen that compares the two main (theorized) models of mass loss in the population.

So, I've been kind of preoccupied with the superconductor stuff over the past couple weeks, but exoplanet science marches on. For example: https://arxiv.org/abs/2307.15875
Goyal et al. analyze the uniformity of resonant planetary systems. (That sounded more interesting in my head.) 1/