Thomas Carpentier
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thocarp.bsky.social
Thomas Carpentier
@thocarp.bsky.social
7.4K followers 520 following 930 posts
PhD Researcher at the EUI in Firenze, studying the history of the European Space Agency.
Processing space telescopes data for fun

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thocarp.bsky.social
A really nice book by the way! I bought it at the shop in the Galileo Museum in Firenze, and I really don't regret that purchase 👏
November 15, 2025 at 3:28 PM
thocarp.bsky.social
Recently I started to learn how to obtain and process data from Herschel, a former ESA space telescope (2009-13). Here's an image from one observation of that telescope! 🔭

This is the Eagle Nebula seen in infrared, and if you zoom in: the Pillars of Creation are there!

HD: flic.kr/p/2rD4JDu
An infrared observation of a dense gas cloud region, the Eagle Nebula. The whole image is covered by the gas, mostly appearing orange and blue. On the right hand side of the image lie the Pillars of Creation: three finger-like gas formations, looking like a claw. Some bright dots can be spotted as well: stars being born in that region! A focus on the Pillars of Creation
November 2, 2025 at 5:49 PM
thocarp.bsky.social
A JWST wonder, once again! 🔭

This is the image of the NGC-2440 planetary nebula as seen by the JWST one year ago, that I processed last night! Look how wonderful that thing is 😍
And if you zoom on the centre, you can see a little dot which is suspect is the white dwarf!

HD: flic.kr/p/2rCzjR1
The NGC-2440 planetary nebula seen in infrared light. The outer part looks like a bubble that is expanding in every directions, appearing mostly in grey and violet colours. In the middle of that bubble lie the outer layers, appearing in orange, of the dead star being pushed away, mostly towards the right and left side of the bubble. In the very centre of that lies a little white dot, which I suspect is the remnant of the dead star: the white dwarf. Several stars and far away galaxies can be spotted in the background.
October 31, 2025 at 3:25 PM
thocarp.bsky.social
Achievement of the day: one of my images on the cover of a French journal, "Les Reflets de la Physique" 😎 🔭

A big thank you to @oliberne.bsky.social who made it possible!
October 22, 2025 at 12:21 PM
thocarp.bsky.social
The violent beauty of stars being born in full display thanks to the JWST! 🔭

This is the region around the HOPS-108 protostar in the Orion Nebula. There are so many beautiful jets produced by baby stars tantrum 🤩

HD: flic.kr/p/2rAgnuW
A gas region seen in infrared light. At the centre of the image lies a protostar creating jets. Other jets can be spotted in the image. The gas appears brown and blue where there is no star; orange, red and violet where stars are.
October 19, 2025 at 3:38 PM
thocarp.bsky.social
Welcome to Westerhout 3 (or W3) as seen by the JWST! 🔭

This is just a small part of the giant molecular cloud, which is itself located 6,000 light years away from us. It is actively producing new massive stars at a high rate!

HD: flic.kr/p/2rz8d85
Observation of a gas cloud in infrared light. The gas can be seen in the whole image in different colours: some blue parts, which are hotter, beige, orange and violet. A orange/red little cloud can be spotted on the left handside of the image, in front of the giant cloud. Dozens of stars can be seen as well. A nice detail: a faint bubble-like cloud can be seen on the right handside!
October 13, 2025 at 4:02 PM
thocarp.bsky.social
Last night, the JWST observed Uranus for calibration. Even like that the result is awesome, so here you go with my processed image of that observation! 🔭

HD: flic.kr/p/2ry78y3
Observation of Uranus by the JWST. The planet itself appears mostly blue, but the pole, a big patch, is white. Some storms can also be spotted near the pole. The rings of the planet can be spotted in infrared light, so they appear in that image (in orange color).
October 8, 2025 at 2:23 PM
thocarp.bsky.social
The best part of processing space telescopes' data is to discover new regions that I didn't even know existed in the first place! 🔭

This is G054.093+01.748, a star forming region in our galaxy, as seen by the JWST recently, located in the Outer Scutum–Centaurus spiral arm.

HD: flic.kr/p/2rxLQyT
A big gas cloud where new stars are being born seen in infrared light. The gas cloud itself appears in red, orange, and violet colours, occupying almost the entire image. Hundreds of dots are spread across the picture, as they are stars in our own galaxy.
October 7, 2025 at 4:47 PM
thocarp.bsky.social
La Repubblica published that 60k people were in the streets in Florence, but I believe we were far more than that.

So many Italian cities are rising up for this important cause, and we are all ready to keep going as long as we need to!
October 3, 2025 at 2:18 PM
thocarp.bsky.social
There were so many people in the streets in Florence this morning, it was amazing! 🇵🇸✊

Firenze lo sa da quale parte stare!
October 3, 2025 at 2:18 PM
thocarp.bsky.social
I am bringing your TL some sparkles! 🔭 ✨

This is the NGC-1850 star cluster in the LMC, as seen by Hubble! The number of stars in that part of the cluster is bonkers 🤯

Processing that data was really fun!

HD: flic.kr/p/2ruwYSH
An observation of a star cluster by the Hubble Space Telescope. Thousands of stars can be seen in the image, appearing in blue, red, orange or white colors. A blue and white veil of gas goes from the upper left part of the image to the middle down part of it.
October 1, 2025 at 12:59 PM
thocarp.bsky.social
Some things deserve a focus 🔭

First, the jets created by the formation of new stars, that are sooooo beautiful;

the spiral galaxies in the background that are impressive as well;

and this gravitational lensed background galaxy is a nice touch!
Jets created by the new stars being born A spiral galaxy seen face on, exposing its arms system Another spiral galaxy on the right part of this focus, with other background galaxies everywhere else A gravitational lensed galaxy
September 21, 2025 at 10:03 AM
thocarp.bsky.social
The JWST had a new look into the IC348 star forming region last year, and here's my processed image of that observation! 🔭

IC348 is located some 1,000 light years away from us and is made of hundreds of new stars born there.

HD: flic.kr/p/2ruCvCz
A focus on a star forming region seen in infrared light. Hundreds of white dots, big and small ones, can be seen everywhere in the image as they are stars! A lot of gas can be seen in the image, covering almost every part of it. This gas is what is helping the new stars to be formed there. In the upper left part, multiple jets can be spotted: they are stars being born at this very moment! A lot of background galaxies can also be spotted in the whole image
September 21, 2025 at 10:03 AM
thocarp.bsky.social
TWA7 is a small star located ~111 light years away, and with the MIRI data, they spotted what is most probably a sub-Jovian exoplanet! This is the red dot on the right, located 52 AU away from the star. 🔭

You can also see three rings around the star, that I focused on during my processing time.
The same image but with indication: the rings are highlighted by dashed-lines; a scale on the bottom shows that the exoplanet is located some 50+ AU from the star and the farthest ring has a diameter of 200 AU; the North is indicated on the top and the East is on the left.
September 3, 2025 at 2:16 PM
thocarp.bsky.social
This is a big one! 🔭

A few weeks ago, I worked with a team of astronomers, led by Anne-Marie Lagrange, on SPHERE and MIRI data. It was about the TWA7 exoplanet, something you probably read about in June.

They asked me to produce another image, so here's the result:
A star, which has been blocked by a black circle, surrounded by three rings (the smaller one is the nearest, the biggest one the farthest). A red dot can be spotted on the right side of the second ring. The rings are in orange colour.
September 3, 2025 at 2:16 PM
thocarp.bsky.social
Starting next Monday and for the next 4 years, I will be a PhD Researcher at the EUI in Florence!

As I arrived yesterday, I decided to visit, for the first time, the historic centre of Florence, and it's just incredible!! I can't wait to see even more
The entrance and the tower of the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence The Duomo of the Cattedrale The Palazzo Vecchio The Basilica of Santa Croce
August 26, 2025 at 12:55 PM
thocarp.bsky.social
I was wondering: is the little white dot near the centre the white dwarf or is just a background star? 🔭 🤔

Don't know if anyone would have the answer though
August 18, 2025 at 4:05 PM
thocarp.bsky.social
I have arachnophobia, but when it's the JWST that observes a spider, I am not scared: I am in awe! 🔭

This is the Red Spider Nebula, a planetary nebula located ~5,000 light years away, as seen by the JWST last year!

Every dot here is a star in a small part of our own galaxy

HD: flic.kr/p/2robFBx
A planetary nebula seen in near-infrared. The whole nebula looks like a spider or a scorpion, with the centre being extremely bright with red clouds around it, while the gas structure is mostly orange and yellow. Thousands of stars can be seen everywhere in the image appearing like big bright object, or little bright dots.
August 18, 2025 at 12:02 PM
thocarp.bsky.social
87M light years away from us lies this lenticular galaxy, NGC-1482. Here you can its beauty thanks to JWST/MIRI data released earlier today! 🔭

It is a starburst galaxy as well, meaning a lot of new stars are born there every years, way more than in our own Milky Way!

HD: flic.kr/p/2rnj5cs
A lenticular galaxy seen in mid-infrared light. A lenticular galaxy is a galaxy with a circular shape, but with no distinct spiral arm. The gas and dust seen in mid-infrared appear orange in the image, everywhere in the disk. The centre is way brighter than the rest. A blue veil encompasses the entire galaxy: this is the gas and dust visible in the shorter wavelength filters.
August 13, 2025 at 6:32 PM
thocarp.bsky.social
And was there on Friday as well, for a shorter time, but I had seen many other things that day too!

I went broke when I bought two Barcelona shirts... But it was so worth it!

I miss you already Barna 😭
The Barcelona Cathedral Inside a patio in the Barri Gòtic The signed shirt of the Barça player Aitana Bonmatí and her two Ballons d'Or Inside the Finestres library
August 13, 2025 at 7:36 AM
thocarp.bsky.social
I of course grabbed some books, the Finestres library is a gem. I can't recommend you to go there enough if you're in Barcelona! That's probably my favorite library that I visited (and oh boy I've seen many of them!)
Three books on a table: "El 19 de Juliol de 1936" written by Abel Paz; "Hommage to Catalonia" written by George Orwell; "Republica i Guerra Civil a Catalunya" written by Pelai Pagés Blanch
August 13, 2025 at 7:36 AM
thocarp.bsky.social
Yesterday I was in Barcelona for the day, and that city is really the love of my life 🥰

There are so many beautiful things to see and do rather than just going to tourists-invaded spots (such as the Barceloneta playa)
The Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya in Montjuïc. A painting inside the museum depicting Venice in the 16th century A view from afar of the museum and of another building: the Archeological Museum The first Gaudí building, a villa in Gràcia neighborhood
August 13, 2025 at 7:36 AM
thocarp.bsky.social
And while I am at it, here's the proposal abstract with more information: 🔭
Proposal Abstract We propose the first sub-arcsecond imaging campaign of the giant, asymmetric edge-on disk IRAS 23077+6707 (Dracula's Chivito/DraChi) to study its dust grain structure and evolution from 0.4-1.7 microns. DraChi is enormous: spanning approx. 14 arcsec on the sky, it is far in excess of any average protoplanetary disk extents, making it the largest protoplanetary disk thus far discovered. Moreover, this disk is highly asymmetric, yet has only been imaged at low resolution from the ground with Pan-STARRS. These images show not only two faint filaments in the disk's northern part that extend well beyond 20 arcsec, but also various brightness asymmetries. We propose the imaging of this enigmatic disk in only three HST orbits using the WFC3/UVIS broadband filters F438W, F606W and F814W and the WFC3/IR broadband filters F105W, F125W and F160W to map at unprecedented angular scales the wavelength dependence of the disk's midplane thickness, determine the dust grain properties and the degree of their vertical settling and ultimately probe the extent to which ongoing planet formation is driving DraChi's asymmetric substructures.
August 9, 2025 at 12:45 PM
thocarp.bsky.social
The team led by Dr. Kristina Monsch also requested the use of the infrared filters of Hubble, so here's the infrared version as well! 🔭

We are seeing the disk edge-on, hence the peculiar form of this type of object (as Gomez's Hamburger for instance).

HD: flic.kr/p/2rmv1P7
The same disk seen in infrared light. Some structures in the disk appears clearer here, like some sort of "eruptions" of gas emanating from the centre part.
August 9, 2025 at 12:41 PM
thocarp.bsky.social
Six months ago, Hubble took a deep look into what is known as Dracula's Chivito. Here is the visible image I processed of it! 🔭

This is a protoplanetary disk at an estimated distance of ~980 light years. A young star is born inside of that disk, and maybe some planets too!

HD: flic.kr/p/2rmvts8
A protoplanetary disk seen edge-on in visible light. The gas in the center of the disk appears red and orange, while the upper and bottom parts are brighter and whiter. Several background stars can be spotted as well.
August 9, 2025 at 12:41 PM