exocast

This month Hannah, Andrew, and Hugh are joined in the virtual Exocast studio by planetary scientist Dr Naomi Rowe-Gurney. Naomi is a postdoctoral fellow at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and Howard University in the USA where she works on all things Ice Giants (Uranus and Neptune) in particular looking at them with JWST. The perfectly timed episode follows on from newly released images of Neptune taken with JWST that Naomi had been working on and we discuss the future of Ice Giant science with JWST and a mission to Uranus. After a health giggle session over an excessive use of the word “Uranus” we dive into the science of what a mission to the planet could help us reveal and what makes the Ice Giants so unique.

In true Planetary Scientist fashion Naomi adopts a Solar System interloper into our Exocast Adopted Exoplanets, but we welcome the adopted drunk uncle, Uranus, into the fold as it barrel rolls around the Sun.

Do you have a question we didn’t ask? Join in the discussion in the comments below, and find us on Twitter. You can also get your hands on Exocast merchandise at exocast.threadless.com

Exocast is edited by musician/composer Fergus Hall (https://www.fergushallmusic.com) and is supported by listener donations at buymeacoffee.com/exocast each coffee costs $4 and donations over $15 get a shout out on the show. We cannot make the show without your support and it is very much appreciated.

We cover this month’s most exciting exoplanetary (and solar system) news:

• Andrew tells us about details of the proposed “Venus Life Finder” mission which would go beyond ESA & NASA’s selected Venus missions to directly sample for organic molecules in the temperate regions of Venus’ atmosphere using an interplanetary balloon!
• Hugh talks about how analysis of the multi-planet systems found by Kepler is still revealing new insights, in this case how chains of planets appear to have a defined outer edge.
• Hannah talks about the open-source atmospheric modelling software PICASO 3.0, and argues for the benefits of astronomers making their code open-source.

Hugh, Hannah & Andrew turn their attention to a simple question with a very complicated answer: our favourite!

This month we are pondering how planets form. What do we know about planet formation from the Earth, observations from our Solar System, and of distant exoplanetary systems? Where are the gaps in our understanding of the processes involved? Do the theories and models of planet formation hold up to observational scrutiny? We might not be able to answer all (or any) of these questions definitively, and arguably we ended the discussion with more questions than when we started, but we had fun along the way!

What did you think of the discussion? Join in the conversation in the comments below, and find us on Twitter. If you want to support the Exocast Podcast then you can Buy us a Coffee, or get your own merchandise at exocast.threadless.com. All merch sales and donations directly support the show by covering our web-hosting and editing costs, and are absolutely invaluable for keeping us on the air. A huge thank you to Carl N. for a very generous donation of $100, and to Jack in Oregon for his 7 coffees!

Exocast is edited by composer/muscian Fergus Hall (https://fergushallcomposer.com) and supported in part by funding from the University of Bristol via H.Wakeford starter funds.

The latest news hot off the Exocast news desk for July/August 2022, another exciting month for exoplanet science:

• Andrew takes some time to discuss the life and influence of Dr James Lovelock, the co-originator the Gaia Hypothesis, who died recently. His news this month takes the form of two independent but neatly connected papers on the topic of ‘chirality’: ‘The Chiral Puzzle of Life’ by Globus and Blandford, and ‘Directional Aspects of Vegetation Linear and Circular Polarization Biosignatures‘ by Patty et al.
• Hannah summarises ‘Chemical Abundances for 25 JWST Exoplanet Host Stars with KeckSpec’ by Polanski et al. in anticipation of the publication of a larger elemental abundance catolog derived from Keck/HIRES optical spectra.
• Hugh covers Zhang et al‘s ‘Detection of Atmospheric Escape from Four Young Mini Neptunes’ that details the smallest and youngest planets for which escaping atmospheres have been detected, with implications for the exoplanet ‘radius valley’.

What did you think of the papers/news discussion? Join in the conversation in the comments below, and find us on Twitter. If you want to support the Exocast Podcast then you can Buy us a Coffee, or get your own merchandise at exocast.threadless.com. A big thank you to Tobias Andropolis for recently buying 7 coffees!

Exocast is edited by composer/muscian Fergus Hall (https://fergushallcomposer.com) and supported in part by funding from the University of Bristol via H.Wakeford starter funds.

This month Hannah, Andrew & Hugh are joined by NASA Goddard’s space telescope expert, Dr. Knicole Colón. Fresh from her NASA TV appearance unveiling JWST’s first exoplanet spectrum to the world, the JWST Deputy Project Scientist for Exoplanet Science gives us a behind-the-scenes look at the big day, as well as how the team got JWST ready for science. She also discusses the ongoing TESS mission searching for new planets, as well as the Pandora small-sat designed to look at exoplanet atmospheres on a budget, both of which Knicole is also managing. And we hear about her origins as a space scientist, from the movie Contact, to a project at Arecibo, through the KELT planet-hunting survey, and to her first taste of NASA project management at the Kepler GO office. And, as always, we also hear which planet Knicole will adopt into our growing exoplanetary hall-of-fame.

Want to know more about Dr Colón’s work? Check out her NASA bio and tweets @super_knova.

Do you have a question we didn’t ask? Join in the discussion in the comments below, and find us on Twitter. If you want to support the Exocast Podcast then you can Buy us a Coffee, or get your own merchandise at exocast.threadless.com

Exocast is edited by composer/muscian Fergus Hall (https://www.fergushallmusic.com) and supported in part by funding from the University of Bristol via H.Wakeford starter funds.

The latest news hot off the Exocast news desk for June/July 2022, a very exciting month for exoplanet science:

• Hannah gives us a run-down of some of the long-awaited first images from JWST, including a spectrum from the atmosphere of WASP-96b from the NIRISS instrument showing clear water features. The team try (and fail) to contain their giddiness at the prospect of entering a new era of exoplanet astrophysics.
• Andrew takes to the theory literature to hightlight a paper by Mol Lous et al. in this months’ Nature Astronomy that explores ‘Potential long-term habitable conditions on planets with primordial H–He atmospheres‘.
• Hugh casts a critical eye over a white paper by Jian Ge et al. that outlines China’s ambitious ET (“Earth 2.0”) transiting exoplanet mission concept.

What did you think of the papers/news discussion? Join in the conversation in the comments below, and find us on Twitter. If you want to support the Exocast Podcast then you can Buy us a Coffee, or get your own merchandise at exocast.threadless.com

Exocast is edited by composer/muscian Fergus Hall (https://fergushallcomposer.com) and supported in part by funding from the University of Bristol via H.Wakeford starter funds.

Hugh, Hannah & Andrew pick sides to debate astronomy’s deepest divide. Are you with Hugh on the side of the observers, who insist that it is only with new telescopes, instruments and data that we can reveal physical properties of exoplanets and develop our understanding of the universe. Or are you, like Andrew, on the side of the theorists, who ensure that we can deeply understand the physical properties of exoplanets by doing experiments and simulations, and observations are simply a tool to test theories? Or do you prefer to take Hannah’s path, and jump chaotically between the two sides?

The latest exoplanet news hot off the Exocast news desk:

• Hannah gives us a run-down of the Exoplanets IV conference held recently in Las Vegas, at which both her and Hugh were in attendence, including summaries of interesting sessions and presentations.
• Hugh presents a great new paper from Panahi et al. 2022 entitled “The Detection of Transiting Exoplanets by Gaia” that demonstates the Gaia spacecraft’s ability to contribute to exoplanet detection.
• Andrew keeps things in the up in the air when discussing “Can Carbon Fractionation Provide Evidence for Aerial Biospheres in the Atmospheres of Temperate Sub-Neptunes?“ by Glidden et al. 2022.

What did you think of the papers/news discussion? Join in the conversation in the comments below, and find us on Twitter. If you want to support the Exocast Podcast then you can Buy us a Coffee, or get your own merchandise at exocast.threadless.com

Exocast is edited by composer/muscian Fergus Hall (https://fergushallcomposer.com) and supported in part by funding from the University of Bristol via H.Wakeford starter funds.

In this episode of Exocast the team are fortunate to be joined in the virtual studio by Dr Jennifer Burt, NASA/JPL’s Extreme Precision Radial Velocity Investigation Scientist, for an extreme discussion of the radial velocity technique for finding and characterising exoplanets. Jenn gives us a comprehensive and enthusiastic rundown of the method, US and European RV surveys, supporting current and future photometric missions with RV follow-up, and an update on new technology and instruments that are pushing the limits of radial velocities for exoplanet detection to extremely high precision, including automated planet-finding telescopes.

Of course, Jenn was also tasked with adding a new planet to our Adopted Planets list… listen to the show to find out which one she chose and why. (Spoiler: she discovered it!)

Want to know more about Dr Burt’s work? Check out her website and tweets @astrojennb.

Do you have a question we didn’t ask? Join in the discussion in the comments below, and find us on Twitter. If you want to support the Exocast Podcast then you can Buy us a Coffee, or get your own merchandise at exocast.threadless.com

Exocast is edited by composer/muscian Fergus Hall (https://fergushallcomposer.com) and supported in part by funding from the University of Bristol via H.Wakeford starter funds.

Join us for this months news episode where the Exocast team delve into new discoveries, characterisation, and astrobiology investigations to learn all about the latest research being published in exoplanets.

• Andrew takes us through some new astrobiology work “Metabolically diverse primordial microbial communities in Earth’s oldest seafloor-hydrothermal jasper“ from Papineau et al. 2022

• Hannah covers the latest in characterisation with “A New Analysis of 8 Spitzer Phase Curves and Hot Jupiter Population Trends: Qatar-1b, Qatar-2b, WASP-52b, WASP-34b, and WASP-140b” from May et al. 2022

• Hugh looks into some new discoveries from “TESS Hunt for Young and Maturing Exoplanets (THYME) VI: an 11 Myr Giant Planet Transiting a Very Low Mass Star in Lower Centaurus Crux“ by Mann et al. 2022

What did you think of the papers discussion? Join in the discussion in the comments below, and find us on Twitter. If you want to support the Exocast Podcast then you can Buy us a Coffee, or get your own merchandise at exocast.threadless.com

Exocast is edited by composer/muscian Fergus Hall (https://fergushallcomposer.com) and supported in part by funding from the University of Bristol via H.Wakeford starter funds.

This month Hugh, Hannah, and Andrew go back to basics to discuss the diversity and complexity inherent in the study of planetary atmospheres. Exocast-59b touches on how we define an atmosphere and takes a sojourn through the varied and beautiful atmospheres of the Solar System, as well as a journey back through time to consider the long evolution of the atmosphere of our planet. How does an atmosphere form and change over time, cling to objects ranging in size from the Moon to Jupiter and beyond, and can it be lost forever to space? Extending beyond the Solar System we consider how astronomers search for and study exoplanet atmospheres and the role of the star in terms of their formation, physics, and chemistry, as well as the importance of the atmosphere for habitability.

Is the atmosphere of the Earth optimal for habitability? Join in the discussion in the comments below, and find us on Twitter. If you want to support the Exocast Podcast you can get merch at exocast.threadless.com, or you can Buy us a Coffee; a huge thank you to Steve Hungsberg and Anton who donated last month! Your contributions are warmly and gratefully received.

Exocast is edited by composer/muscian Fergus Hall (https://fergushallcomposer.com)

In this month’s news episode Hugh, Hannah, and Andrew each discuss a paper(s) from the past month of exoplanet research including: JWST test data analysis, the oxidation of the Earth, and updates from the study of multi-star systems.

Hannah talks us through one of the first JWST time series papers: Analysis of a JWST NIRSpec Lab Time Series: Characterizing Systematics, Recovering Exoplanet Transit Spectroscopy, and Constraining a Noise Floor by Z. Rustamkulov et al. detailing the methods required behind the exciting science results we too often jump to when talking about science.

Andrew presents Oxidative metabolisms catalyzed Earth’s oxygenation by H. Shang et al. which looks at the timing of Earth’s Oxygenation and asks – Why the delay?

Hugh breaks the rules once again to present three papers this month focused on multi-stellar systems with planets: 1) “A Possible Alignment Between the Orbits of Planetary Systems and their Visual Binary Companions” – S. Christian et al. (incl Hugh); 2) “Orbital Architectures of Planet-Hosting Binaries II. Low Mutual Inclinations Between Planetary and Stellar Orbits” – T. J. Dupuy et al.; 3) “Stellar Companions to TESS Objects of Interest: A Test of Planet–Companion Alignment” – A. Behmard et al.

What did you think of the papers discussion? Join in the discussion in the comments below, and find us on Twitter. If you want to support the Exocast Podcast then you can Buy us a Coffee, or get your own merchandise at exocast.threadless.com

Exocast is edited by composer/muscian Fergus Hall (https://fergushallcomposer.com) and supported in part by funding from the University of Bristol via H.Wakeford starter funds.

In this episode the Exocast team talk with Dr Megan (Meg) Schwamb about her work from the solar system to distant exoplanets and citizen science. The show is jam packed with exciting science and enough ice cream analogies to build an Exocast Parlour. We discuss in detail the process of going from a strange looking light curve posted in PlanetHunters Kepler to publication and bonafide planet, how you can track ice formation at Mars’ poles, and take a look to the farthest reaches of our solar system to ask what is out there and what does that mean for our planets formation history. Meg also inducts PH-1b into the Exocast Adopted Planets family.

Meg is a planetary scientist and astronomer working on citizen science projects through the Zooniverse and the detection and classification of small bodies in the solar system through large surveys. Meg Did her undergraduate degree at the University of Pennsylvania, before heading to Caltech for a masters and then PhD in planetary science. She was then a postdoc at Yale for for three years before moving to Taiwan at the Chinese Academy in Taipei. Meg is now a Lecturer at Queens University Belfast where she leads a group in planetary science.

Have you taken part in Citizen Science projects? Let us know what you think and join in the discussion in the comments below, and find us on Twitter. If you want to support the Exocast Podcast then you can Buy us a Coffee, or get your own merchandise at exocast.threadless.com

Exocast is edited by composer/muscian Fergus Hall (https://fergushallcomposer.com) and supported in part by funding from the University of Bristol via H.Wakeford starter funds.

In this episode the Exocast team take a look at three new studies presented in the exoplanet literature:

• Andrew introduces us to a new Nature Astronomy paper “Assessing planetary complexity and potential agnostic biosignatures using epsilon machines” – Bartlett et al. 2022. As Hugh points out you may only recognise a few words in that title, but Andrew does a fantastic job breaking down the study so have a listen and let us know what you think.
• Hugh then takes us through a second Nature Astronomy paper this time looking at the famous (but generally unsuccessful ExoCup contestant) TRAPPIST – “An upper limit on late accretion and water delivery in the Trappist-1 exoplanet system” – Raymond et al. 2022. This paper looks at what would happen to the mean motion resonance of the planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system if they experiences a late heavy bombardment by extra mass or planetesimals being thrown into the system.
• Finally, Hannah tries to take on a new topic this week, talking about simulations of space weather and coronal mass ejections and the impact those will have on planetary systems. In this she presents the work from the Astrophysical Journal “Simulating the Space Weather in the AU Mic System: Stellar Winds and Extreme Coronal Mass Ejections” – Alverado-Gomez et al. 2022 which looks at the close-in mini-Neptune’s in the young AU Mic planetary system. It turns out stars are complicated and we need to think about a whole load of things to understand our exoplanets and that some worlds may have been doomed before they started.

What Research did you enjoy this month? Join in the discussion in the comments below, and find us on Twitter. If you want to support the Exocast Podcast then you can Buy us a Coffee, or get your own merchandise at exocast.threadless.com

Exocast is edited by composer/muscian Fergus Hall (https://fergushallcomposer.com)

This month Hugh, Hannah and Andrew discuss a deceptively simple question about the limits of planetary size… Exocast-57b takes you from measurements of exoplanet radius and mass, the difficulty with the IAU definition of planets, to the formation of brown dwarfs and stars. They even dive into the importance of size on habitability, the size limits of a rocky world compared to a gaseous world, some of the stand out candidates for the “biggest” exoplanet, and whether a planet can ever be bigger than a star (spoiler: yes, but never in mass).

How would you define the biggest exoplanet? Join in the discussion in the comments below, and find us on Twitter. If you want to support the Exocast Podcast then you can Buy us a Coffee, or get your own merchandise at exocast.threadless.com

Exocast is edited by composer/muscian Fergus Hall (https://fergushallcomposer.com)

In this episode the Exocast gang chat with Dr Mark McCaughrean, who is a Senior Advisor for Science & Exploration at the European Space Agency (ESA), as well as a James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Science Working Group Interdisciplinary Scientist, about the recent launch, deployment and commissioning of JWST. Mark shares scientific and personal highlights of his long involvement with the telescope, his experience of JWST’s launch from French Guiana on Christmas Day 2021, and insights regarding the revolutionary exoplanet science that the platform will enable. We also take some time to discuss ESA’s other exoplanet-centric missions (GAIA, ARIEL, PLATO, CHEOPS) as well as the differences and similarities between NASA and ESA operations, their ongoing partnerships, and synergies. In lieu of an adopted planet, Mark shares his thoughts on what may be the most exciting JWST-enabled astrophysical discoveries of the next decade(s).

Mark is also the co-founder of Space Rocks, a fantastic initiative to bring science, music, and culture together in a celebration of space and exploration. Hannah stopped by to continue the conversation about JWST with Mark and others on a recent episode of Space Rocks’ webcast series ‘Uplink‘.

Follow Mark on Twitter: @markmccaughrean

That’s right it is that time of year again where the Exocast team pit planet against planet in the Twitter poll show-down: ExoCup!

In this episode Andrew, Hugh, and Hannah look at the rundown of exoplanets that were mentioned the most in the past year of research publications and the top 23 join last years ExoCup2020 winner WD-1856b to fill out the first 24 exoplanets in Pots 1, 2, and 3. They then take a look at what is missing – what worlds did not get represented, what methods should we highlight, and what the we want to see in the Cup – to fill out the 8 remaining wildcard slots.

The line up of planets has been decided, but which will fight each other for the win? Well that is down to Hugh’s random selector which sets out Groups A – H for the round 1 battles. The team discuss what they think will happen (listen to previous shows you will know we always get it wrong) and select their winner for better or worse.

You can find all about this years ExoCup2021 on the webpage where you will find all the ExoCup2021 fact sheets and the competition bracket.

ExoCup2021 runs from November 1st – 24th 2021 on twitter via @exocastexocup

member, if you enjoy the show and want to help support us, you can donate just a few dollars at buymeacoffee.com/exocast . You can also support the show and get yourself some exocast merchandise at the same time from exocast.threadless.com

As always, the exocast team covers a few extraordinary recent exoplanetary papers in Exocast-54 c

And excitingly we have hit 10,000! exoplanet candidates on the archive. That is a lot of potential planets to consider.

• Andrew introduces the term “Hycean” to the exocast team presenting Habitability and Biosignatures of Hycean Worlds — Madhusudan et al. 2021; sparking a juicy discussion with a not so positive outlook for this word-smash of “hydrogen” and “ocean” from Hannah and Hugh. The paper got heavily covered by the press, and stretches the limits on what models can tell us. Seriously have a listen and make up your own mind on this one – it IS a juicy discussion.
• Hannah then breaks the rules and presents seven, that’s right SEVEN, papers all from a series published in Elements Magazine, V17, No4 and all available on the arxiv – the series is titled “Geoscience Beyond the Solar System” and covers a series of reviews on the topic of rocky exoplanets and the role of geology that kind of set the first paper in its place.
  • Article 1: Why Geoscience and Exoplanetary Science Need Each Other
  • Article 2: Compositional diversity of rocky exoplanets
  • Article 3: Exogeology from polluted white dwarfs
  • Article 4: The diversity of exoplanets: from interior dynamics to surface expressions
  • Article 5: Leveraging models to constrain the climates of rocky exoplanets
  • Article 6: The air over there: exploring exoplanet atmospheres
  • Article 7: Starting life and searching for life on rocky exoplanets
• Hugh then takes us through the discovery of a “Warm terrestrial planet with half the mass of Venus transiting a nearby star” — Demangeon et al. 2021. The star in question is L 98-59 and it was known to host 3 – 5 planets. This new paper presents the spectra taken with ESPRESSO over two years to capture the RV from the planets and refined the mass of the planet and their orbital periods better than ever before.

Remember, if you enjoy the show and want to help support us, you can donate just a few dollars at buymeacoffee.com/exocast . You can also support the show and get yourself some exocast merchandise at the same time from exocast.threadless.com

In this episode the exocast team discuss how we observe exoplanets from the ground, how different it is from space, where we put the telescopes and why.

The team start by sharing their journeys to telescopes around the world to make observations, and discuss the different bands in the atmosphere that we observe in. The main difference between ground- and space-based observatories is their size, the instruments on some of the ground-based observatories are room sized beasts with precise thermal and pressure conditions maintained over year timescales. Some of the biggest mirrors in the world are found in our great observatories like SALT (South African Large Telescope), and GCT (Grand Canary Telescope), with adaptive optics and segmented mirrors building the latest generations of Extremely Large Telescopes. And ponder the question: will the era of the ground-based telescopes being larger than space-based telescopes ever end?

Some links you might find interesting:

ESO (European Southern Observatory) – Image above: La Silla observatory waking at dusk credit: Y. Beletsky (LCO)/ESO

Vera-Rubin Observatory

Radio telescope concept built on the moon

You can check out this months other podcast Exocast-54c where the team talk through the latest in exoplanet literature with some “juicy” discussions.

And remember you can join in the discussion in the comments below, and find us on Twitter. If you want to support the Exocast Podcast then you can Buy us a Coffee, or get your own merchandise at exocast.threadless.com

As always, the exocast team covers a few extraordinary recent exoplanetary results in Exocast-53 c:

• First off, Hannah briefly describes the problem with (and solution to) NASA Hubble’s elderly on-board computer
• Andrew details a few interesting results that emerged from the 2021 Goldschmidt conference, including updates on the bombardment of the early Earth, ancient methanogenic fossils, gasses trapped in diamonds, and new constraints on snowball earth.
• Hugh describes the ESA CHEOPS mission, and its serendipitous observation of a transiting long-period mini Neptune around the naked-eye star nu2 Lupi
• And finally, Hannah talks about more cloud developments, this time experimental results on the evolution of haze in temperate exoplanet atmospheres (and you can listen to our interview with Sarah Hörst for more)

If you enjoy the show and want to help support us, you can donate just a few dollars at buymeacoffee.com/exocast You can also support the show and get yourself some exocast merchandise at the same time from exocast.threadless.com

In this episode the Exocast crew are excited to talk with expert science communicator, JAXA space scientist, and master of computer simulations, Professor Elizabeth Tasker. During the hour long discussion we talk about how Elizabeth transitioned into planetary research from a degree and PhD in galactic simulations, the journey from the UK to the US, Canada and now in Japan. Where the idea for her popular science book The Planet Factory came from and why we should all have contact forms on our websites. Elizabeth also shares some thoughts on teaching, how to convince someone to hire you for a job they have not advertised and the amazing array of JAXA missions she now gets to talk about.

In our Adopt a Planet section Elizabeth welcomes GJ 832 c to the Exocast Adopted Planets list and fills us in on the personal and professional reasons for her choice! Listen to the show for more details.

You can find links to all of Elizabeths videos, books, and research at elizabethtasker.com you can also follow her on Twitter @girlandKat (with a K).

In Exocast-52c Hugh, Andrew, and Hannah take us through three reviews of papers that have been recently published in the planetary/exoplanet literature.

Hugh takes us through the two papers published by the California Legacy Survey I & II:
I. A Catalog of 177 Planets from Precision Radial Velocity Monitoring of 719 Nearby Stars over Three Decades
II. Occurrence of Giant Planets Beyond the Ice line
We also acknowledge the detrimental affect that a particular name on the author list for these papers, a known sexual harasser in the field, had on the community and call to have better policies in place for this to not re-traumatize far too many people in our field.

Andrew talks about The Effect Of Core Formation On Surface Composition And Planetary Habitability

and
Hannah discussed the paper: A diffuse core in Saturn revealed by ring seismology

If you enjoy the show and want to help support us, you can donate just a few dollars at buymeacoffee.com/exocast You can also support the show and get yourself some exocast merchandise at the same time from exocast.threadless.com

In this episode the Exocast team discuss Earth’s twin planet, Venus, and its link to exoplanetary science.

We start with an overview of the past, present and future of Venusian exploration, from the first Soviet probes to the three newly-selected missions (DAVINCI+, VERITAS and EnVision) which will explore the atmosphere and surface of Venus more thoroughly than ever before. Then we turn to the open questions about Venus – its potential ancient habitability, the lack of plate tectonics, and of course its recently-detected potential biosignatures – all of which link to questions we will soon be asking of terrestrial planets outside our own solar system…

For more discussion of Venus you can check out our interview with Stephen Kane in Exocast-42b, and Exocast-48c where Andrew covers the detection of Phosphine in Venus’ atmosphere.

And remember you can join in the discussion in the comments below, and find us on Twitter. If you want to support the Exocast Podcast then you can Buy us a Coffee, or get your own merchandise at exocast.threadless.com

In this episode the Exocast gang are privileged to be joined by veteran exoplaneteer Dr Mark Marley from NASA Ames. During a nearly hour-long discussion, we probe Mark’s experience of early exoplanet discovery and characterisation efforts in the 1990s, his work on clouds and atmospheric circulation models, ‘ice’ giants, brown dwarfs, his leadership role with the LUVOIR space telescope concept, as well as his cheerleading efforts during the Exocup.

We also welcome back our Adopt a Planet segment with our guest picking a returning favourite, 51 Eri b. Listen to the segment at the end of the show to hear Mark’s reasons for picking this fascinating planet. Will being adopted twice help 51 Eri b’s chances in the Exocup this year…?

Mark Markley is a Research Scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Mountain View, CA. who earned his PhD in Planetary Science from the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory (LPL) at the University of Arizona in 1990. After a postdoc studying planetary atmospheres at NASA Ames he began a faculty position in Astronomy at New Mexico State University in 1993, before returning to Ames in 2000 as a civil servant scientist. Mark will return to the University of Arizona to take up leadership of the LPL and Department of Planetary Sciences in mid-May 2021. He tweets from @astromarkmarley, and you can find more info about his work at his NASA webpage and ADS publication list.

Remember you can join in the discussion in the comments below, and find us on Twitter. If you want to support the Exocast Podcast then you can Buy us a Coffee, or get your own merchandise at exocast.threadless.com

In this month’s news rundown Hugh, Hannah, and Andrew provide a summary of three interesting papers that appeared on their radar during February/March 2021:

Hugh takes a look at The Chemical link between stars and their rocky planets by Vardan Adibekyan and others.

Andrew summarises Lithologic Controls on Silicate Weathering Regimes of Temperate Planets by Kaustubh Hakim and team.

Hannah dons a thermal raincoat to cover Water on hot rocky exoplanets by Edwin Kite and Laura Schaefer.

We would also like to give another big thanks to Steve Hungsberg and Elsie Lee who loaded us up with some coffee money to support the show, and a massive thank you to Anton who donated a whopping $100!

If you also enjoy the show and want to help support us, you can donate just a few dollars at buymeacoffee.com/exocast You can also support the show and get yourself some exocast merchandise at the same time from exocast.threadless.com

In this months discussion Hugh, Hannah, and Andrew discuss the question: Why do we study exoplanets?

The team take a look at their own personal motivation and how they each came study exoplanets, as well as diving into the technological applications of astronomy, and the philosophy behind the big questions in astronomy. Astronomy has been at the root of huge technological advances, from the X-ray machines at the airport, to the development of computer languages, better infrared detectors and advanced observations. Ultimately, should all of the things we do have an economic benefit? We don’t think so. “Blue skies” research asks the big broad question that are seemingly unimportant; why is the sky blue? but are fundamental to life here on Earth and our curiosity about our origin and universe.

This month we are giving a big shoutout to Steve Hungsberg and Graham Lee who loaded us up with some coffee money to support the show, and a massive thank you to Anton who donated a whopping $100!

If you also enjoy the show and want to help support us, you can donate just a few dollars at buymeacoffee.com/exocast You can also support the show and get yourself some exocast merchandise at the same time from exocast.threadless.com

For the second news segment of 2021 Hannah, Hugh, and Andrew take on three papers that came out in Jan/Feb 2021

Hannah covers The Physics of Falling Raindrops in Diverse Planetary Atmospheres by Loftus & Wordsworth

Hugh talks about Multi-Wavelength Photometry Derived from Monochromatic Kepler Data by Hedges, et al.

Andrew looks through Chance played a role in determining whether Earth stayed habitable by Tyrrell

Remember you can join in the discussion in the comments below, and find us on Twitter. If you want to support the Exocast Podcast then you can Buy us a Coffee, or get your own merchandise at exocast.threadless.com

On this months Exocast the team talks with cloud expert Diana Powell about her work studying the dust in protoplanetary disks through theoretical models of the micro-physics and applying that to clouds in the atmospheres of hot Jupiters. We also chat about her journey into astro, the year of Covid, and her amazing work on mentoring at UCSC.

This month we also welcome back out Adopt a Planet segment with our special guest picking the dust embedded planet CI Tau b in the super young protostellar system.

Diana Powell is a graduate student and Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellow in the Astronomy & Astrophysics Department at UC Santa Cruz. You can find her on Twitter @DianaPowell8 and more information on her website as well as and up-to-date list of all her publications

Remember you can join in the discussion in the comments below, and find us on Twitter. If you want to support the Exocast Podcast then you can Buy us a Coffee, or get your own merchandise at exocast.threadless.com

For the first news segment of 2021 Hugh, Hannah, and Andrew talk through three papers from exoplanet science:

Hugh covers the Direct confirmation of the radial-velocity planet β Pictoris c

Hannah discusses 3D simulations of photochemical haze in the atmosphere of the hot Jupiter HD189733b

And Andrew takes us through the science and drama of Phosphine gas in the cloud decks of Venus

Remember you can join in the discussion in the comments below, and find us on Twitter. If you want to support the Exocast Podcast then you can Buy us a Coffee, or get your own merchandise at exocast.threadless.com

In this months episode Exocasters Hugh Osborn, Hannah Wakeford, and Andrew Rushby attempt to answer the question they posed last year: What is the point of the Habitable Zone?

The term Habitable Zone is often thrown around by scientists, the media, and in the general public. But what does the term really mean and how do we use it. Join us in what is at points a heated discussion on all the aspects of the science and language involved in this hot cool just right topic.

The #ExoCup2020 was full of wonderful and baffling surprises. The Exocast team take a look at what went on, which planets triumphed or failed, and what you did to bring this competition to life.

This year’s competition was a true reflection of 2020. We had election fatigue bloom into campaign videos. Exoplanets making their own twitter accounts to ask for your vote. YouTubers, live streamers, and parody accounts asking you to vote for a specific planet. But most importantly we had some amazing exoplanet science shared with everyone.

If you enjoy our content and want to support the Exocast team then pop over to our Buy Me a Coffee page. For just $10 you can also put your favorite exoplanet in for a potential wildcard slot in #ExoCup2021!

In this special episode after a long summer break, the Exocast team performs the draw for the upcoming Exocup – the foremost exoplanetary competition in which 32 twitter polls will comprehensively and uncontroversially* decide on the world’s favourite exoplanet.
* ^{This may be wishful thinking}

This month Hugh, Andrew, and Hannah talk to astrophysicist, folklorist, and science communicator Moiya McTier. Moiya is an NSF graduate researcher at Columbia University in New York City and works to understand exoplanets from a galactic perspective.

The Exocast team talks to Moiya about work from measuring the topography on an exoplanet by the effect that mountains and other features have in transit, all the way up to how the stars in the Milky Way are moving and the effects those might have on their planets. The blended approach Moiya takes to science with a look too folklore and the way we perceive our universe gives a new spin to the way we can view and measure exoplanets and our universe. We chat about how to best communicate what astronomy is to others and how to make the right connections.

We also take the opportunity to talk to Moiya about what it is like to be a black woman in the astronomy community. The value of familiarity and shared experience in any field is important and we need to be more aware of ourselves and others to make this field more inclusive. See, think, act.

You can find more by Moiya McTier on YouTube, Twitter @GoAstroMo, and follow Exolore a podcast on world building.

Concrete Steps for Recruiting, Supporting, and Advancing Underrepresented Minoritized Scientists

UK Actions and resources for #BlackLivesMatter

This month Hannah, Hugh, and Andrew go through the slew of exoplanet papers from discoveries, characterisation, and astrobiology including the following:

Discoveries:

• Buzzword alert! A mini-Neptune and Venus-zone planet in the radius valley orbiting an M2 star has been validated with the Habitable-zone planet finder.
• Four jovian sized worlds discovered around the low luminosity stars
• Wendelstein-1b and 2b
• A habitable-zone planet in Kepler-160?
• The finally published discovery of AU Mic b
• Discovery of Gliese 887b & c

Characterisation:

• Ultra-hot Jupiter WASP-121b got two papers this month. One looking for Cr and V, and the other cataloging an array of metals in its atmosphere.
• Hubble WFC3 IR grism spectroscopy of the warm Neptune HD 106315c
• Another search for TiO in the atmosphere of WASP-33b.
• Hubble PanCET program has a new transmission spectrum out of HAT-P-32b
• TESS phasecurve observations of the brown dwarf KELT-1b
• The most likely clouds muting and obscuring molecular features in transmission spectra are composed of magnesium silicates.
•  3D GCM models to map the formation of hydrocarbon haze in the atmosphere of WASP-43b

Astrobiology:

• Mineral dust increases the habitability of terrestrial planets but confounds biomarker detection
• The Effect Of Varying Atmospheric Pressure Upon Habitability And Biosignatures Of Earth-like Planets
• Reports from the Goldschmidt conference
• and… The strangely precise conclusion that there are 36 intelligent civilisations in out galaxy.

In this episode, the team sits down to ponder the question how many exoplanets are there?

At first, this might seem like a relatively straightforward question that can be answered by NASA’s Exoplanet Archive, but it becomes more daunting when considering, for example, the biases and limitations of our instruments that affect our ability to even detect and characterise many planets, how we define a ‘planet’, and whether or not we have surveyed enough stars to consider our sample of planet-hosting stars to be representative of the wider stellar population.

But, at the core of this topic, are some of the fundamental questions and motivations that have always made us, as humans, look up at the night-sky and wonder if any of those stars had, in their orbit, a planet like our own.

So, listen along as the team makes an attempt at tackling this tricky question with a bit of statistics, a bit of astronomy, a little philosophy, and even a well-developed fishing metaphor (a first for the show).

This month Andrew, Hannah, and Hugh chat with Dr Batiste Journaux (Research Associate in the Department of Earth and Space Science at the University of Washington) about all things icy and the role of different ices in our Solar System and exoplanets. Baptiste is a multidisciplinary scientist whose research spans the lab, fieldwork, and modelling and software development, we talk about how these all fit together to explore alien worlds in our solar system and beyond.

In this episode we learn how you form “hot ice”, the best way to measure ices in the interior of other worlds, and how the properties of different ices can shape another world.

Adopted Planet: TRAPPIST-1g – possible one of the best “ocean worlds” with high pressure ices. Future observations of this world might help us understand more about icy exoplanets. It joins its sibling TRAPPIST-1h in our adopted exoplanet family.

ExoCup2019 Français: Baptiste also translated our ExoCup2019 cards into French. So, for all our French speaking listeners you can find the translated cards here.

On Exocast-45d we bring you the news from across exoplanet research this month with new discoveries, characterisations, habitability and formation papers.

• In America, WFIRST has been renamed the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope in honour to the pioneering “Mother Hubble”, while in Europe the LIFE mission kicked off.
• We have lots of new exoplanets being discovered (from TESS, NGTS, WASP and RVs), and un-discovered, as was the case for Fomalhaut b.
• Characterisation studies have also been busy this month with three papers released looking at data on the hot Jupiter WASP-76b, an unusual transmission spectrum for KELT-11b, and the He atmosphere of GJ3470b gets another look from more data.
• Formation has also been a hot topic and we look at a new paper from pioneers in the field looking to explain the formation of moons around giant planets like Jupiter.
• And in habitability we delve into a new Bayesian approach to the problem of timelines and probability for the Earth, plus a look at Venus’ habitable past.

On this episode we ask the question: Can we ever image the surface of an exoplanet?

Once we get all the definitions out of the way, like ‘what do we mean by map?’ and ‘what do we mean by surface?’, we take a deep dive into the realm of instrumentation to discuss the possibilities and limitations of our upcoming and near-future exoplanet imaging technologies.

We touch on some of the avenues that astronomers & engineers already thought about to do this, consider if it’s technologically feasible that we might be able to return images of the surface of another world, and try and understand the drivers behind why we want to do this in the first place.

In this round-up of the month’s notable exoplanetary exploits, we cover all the headlines including: Proxima c (not) being directly imaged with Sphere – WASP-4b’s accelerating orbit – two new but very different sub-Saturn-mass planets – windspeed measurements on Brown Dwarfs – plus the influence of Gin & Vampires on exoplanets (from a couple of results very early this month).

Also this month, check out our chat with Dr Sarah Casewell; and a discussion of imaging the surfaces of exoplanets.

This month Hannah, Hugh, and Andrew chat with Dr Sarah Casewell about her work on irradiated brown dwarfs. Sarah is an Earnest Rutherford Fellow at the University of Leicester where she has spent her career since undergrad. We chat all things brown dwarfs and what makes the irradiated ones so special to study.

Sarah also shares her journey in academia from PhD, to postdoc, manager, and now fellow, all while becoming a mum (twice). We also manage to grab some pearls of wisdom about what is working in academia, what is not, and how to take it easy on yourself during a global pandemic.

Adopted planet: KELT-1b a brown dwarf mascaraing as an exoplanet. At 27 times the mass of Jupiter it is solidly beyond the traditional planet mass boundary, but it also happens to be in orbit around a star only slightly larger than our sun.

In the final of three mini-exocasts we will release this month, we cover some of the notable happenings in exoplanet science over the past month.

On this episode we cover new planets from the TESS mission, a novel technique for detecting exoplanets using radio emission, and the end of the very productive KELT survey after 17 years. We also revisit K2-18b, which hit the exoplanet headlines last year after water vapour was definitively detected in its atmosphere, consider iron-based clouds, discuss the possible habitability of Mercury, and get Hannah to spill the beans on her latest paper about the use of a mode on Hubble which has not been used before to measure the UV spectrum of exoplanet atmospheres.

Also this month, check out our chat with Natalia Guerrero from the TESS office at MIT, and our discussion on the topic: ‘will we ever be able to travel to an exoplanet?‘

On this episode we ask the question: Can we EVER travel to an exoplanet?

This has two interpretations. First who is we, and second what does ever mean? To think about this question we discuss the sheer vastness of space and the distances to our nearest planets, the speeds we would need to achieve to get there, and the technology we can use. What limitations do we have, what resources can we use, and what has science fiction and the human imagination dreamt up for such an endeavour.

Join us on this fascinating journey and let us know what you think by commenting on this post.

Image credit: Kevin Gill – Laser sail

This month Hugh, Hannah, and Andrew chat with Natalia Guerrero, who works in the office of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), which is run out of MIT’s Kavli Institute. Natalia is the manager of the TESS objects of interest (TOI) catalogue, part of the communications office, and was one of the engineers who did the camera testing prior to launch.

We talk about how TESS looks for planets, what are the biggest challenges, how she came into the project, and excitements to come. Natalia also talks about her role in TESS communications, and designing a science based concert and artwork for the TESS Science Conference last year.

Adopted planet: Pi Mensae c – the 1st planet published from TESS and sibling to Pi Men b. Pi Men c is a 2 earth-radius planet on a 6 day orbit around a bright naked eye star in the Southern Hemisphere.

Our final bite-size episode for this month features Andrew, Hannah, and Hugh chatting with Dr Stephen Kane, Associate Professor of Planetary Astrophysics in the Departments of Earth and Planetary Sciences and Physics and Astronomy at the University of California, Riverside.

Stephen tells us a little about his need to use all exoplanet detection techniques, his love for our hot and cloudy next-door neighbour Venus, and he tries to sneak two planets into our adopted exoplanet list, before settling on one special world.

In the second of three mini-casts this month, Hannah, Hugh, and Andrew gather around the virtual table to discuss that weird and wonderful molecule: H₂O!

The importance of water to our lives is undeniable, but in this show we chat about what makes water so chemically unusual and important in the study of astrophysics, exoplanet astronomy, and astrobiology.

In the first of three mini-casts this month, we discuss all the recent exoplanet news from December 2019 & January 2020.

That includes a temperate world around TOI-700d; Proxima Centauri c; three new planetary systems losing their atmospheres found with RVs; Circumbinary planets in Kepler and TESS; Iron in WASP-121b; Two different phase curves from TESS; and the atmosphere of Beta Pic b in glorious detail.

• 0:03:12 – Hannah chats with Dr Erin May a postdoctoral researcher at JHU’s Applied Physics Lab about her transition from extragalactic research into exoplanets, running an observing campaign as a grad student, and how to apply global circulation models to small exoplanets.
• 0:23:54 – Hugh discusses strange transits and the weirdest phenomenon observed with transiting exoplanet surveys from possible quadruple star systems, to orbiting debris, and definitely not aliens.
• 0:52:12 – Andrew is on the news desk reading ADS so you don’t have to with news of new planets from TESS and HARPS, characterization studies from Gaia, some habitable zone theory, and the upcoming CHEOPS launch by ESA.
• 1:00:50 – We review the events of the #ExoCup2019 competition and congratulate the winner HR 8799b and the direct imaging trifecta.
• 1:18:10 – Finally, our special guest Erin adopts the small plucky TESS planet HD 21749c to the Exocast Adopted Planet family.

• Hugh chats with his colleague at the University of Bern Dr. Brett Morris about starspots and their effect on exoplanet detection and characterisation, his experience with an astrobiology mission right here on Earth, and he recounts an exciting day in Bern earlier this year.
• Andrew discusses the labels we apply to the worlds we find, and the gang debates the usefulness of the terms for exoplanet science.
• And Hannah reads ADS so you don’t have to with news of new planets from TESS and HARPS, characterization studies from PanCET, and even a theory paper or two (including one from a co-host).
• The #ExoCup2019 is heating up!
• Finally, our special guest Brett laments the short but exciting life of the strange rock WD 1145+017 b as we officially welcome it into the Exocast Adopted Planets family.

On the 39th episode of exocast:

• Andrew chats with UC Irvine’s radial velocity expert (and occasional planet-killer) Dr Paul Robertson in the Exocast Studio.
• Hannah outlines how the 2019 ExoCup is going to play out, and Hugh performs the draw for the first round “live” on air.
• And Hugh reports from the Exocast news desk on arXiv’s wackiest exoplanet papers from the past month, plus we chat about Mayor & Queloz winning the 2019 Nobel prize for physics.
• Finally, our special guest Paul gives a personal plea to include Kepler-22b as an exocast Adopted planet.

On this podcast:

• Hannah takes us to the Exoclimes V conference in Oxford to ask people what they most want to learn about outside of their area of study.
• Hugh details the four competing missions up for the NASA decadal: Lynx, Origins, HabEx, and LUVOIR
• And Andrew takes us through the most recent exoplanet news, including a discussion on the press sensation surrounding the discovery of water in the atmosphere of K2-18b – a mini-Neptune orbiting in its stars habitable zone.

• Quizmaster Hugh takes to the conference hall at the 1st TESS Science Conference (TESSCon) to test the attendees’ exoplanet knowledge!
• Andrew compiles a (not very) top secret report-out on planetary protection.
• And Hannah covers this month’s news including the detection of an exoplanet magnetic field, new planets from TESS, a Kepler-load of 350 new candidates, as well as advances in exoplanet population statistics and atmospheric characterization.

On the 36th episode of exocast:

• Andrew roves the conference hall at the Astrobiology Science Conference.
• Hannah goes through the ABCs of spectroscopy,
• And Hugh covers this month’s news including new solar system missions Dragonfly & Comet Interceptor, new occurrence rates, plus the new exoplanets (such as PDS-70b, Teegarten’s star b & c) which took the Exoplanet Archive over 4000 alien worlds.

On the 35th episode of exocast we welcome special guest Dr Thomas Haworth into the virtual Exocast Studio.

• Hannah talks with special guest Dr Thomas Haworth about planet formation in extreme environments and the role the stars play in shaping their planets.
• Hugh covers the ins and outs of how exoplanets can be detected using Direct Imaging
• Andrew reports from the Exocast news desk on this months exoplanet papers
• And special guest elects PDS-70b into the Exocast Adopted planets family.

Correction: Where Hugh states “Epsilon Eridani b” was found by GPI/Sphere, he means “51 Eridani b”.

On the 34th episode of Exocast:

• Hugh is joined by Dr.Raphaëlle Haywood, Sagan Fellow at Harvard College Observatory, and expert in disentangling the signal of planets and their host stars in radial velocity surveys;
• Andrew explores the depths of time, taking a virtual trip back to the formation of the planet and solar system using radioactive isotope abundances;
• Hannah takes a look at some hot-off-the-press exoplanet discoveries from April 2019;
• And Raphaëlle adopts the super hot, super interesting, Super Earth COROT-7b into the Exocast Adopted Planets family.

On the 33rd episode of Exocast:

• Andrew is joined by NASA Ames’ Dr. Jessie Dotson – K2 project scientist, former head of Kepler’s Guest Observer office, and planetary defence specialist;
• Hannah tours our solar system’s Ice Giants and looks for comparisons in the world of exoplanets;
• Hugh takes a look at some hot-off-the-press exoplanet discoveries from March 2019;
• And Jessie adopts the newly-confirmed Kepler-1658b into the Exocast Adopted planets, which 9 years ago was the first Kepler planet candidate (as KOI-4).

On the 32nd episode of Exocast:

• Hannah is joined by Dr Joanna Barstow, UCL’s exoplanetary atmosphere expert, recent astro-mum, and huge fan of “JWST: The Musical”*.
• Hugh transfers the podcast to TRAPPIST-1 and asks the question: “How many of the Solar System’s planets would we detect?”
• Andrew covers the enormous hit that was Kepler-107c’s density, new TESS planets, the NASA Archive’s 4000th exoplanet, plus dearly departed NASA missions.
• And Joanna adopts Venusian analogue GJ 1132b into the Exocast Adopted planets family.

*This is neither true nor, in fact, exists. Yet.

On the 31th episode of Exocast:

• Hugh is joined in the virtual exocast studio by Science Journalist Lee Billings a writer for Scientific American and author of “5 billion years of Solitude”.
• Andrew dives into waterworlds inside and outside of our solar system and what we can learn about habitability.
• Hannah takes a look at what exoplanet news had been released over the past months and highlights the great work done by furloughed US scientists who keep the Hubble Space Telescope alive and healthy.
• And Lee, adopts the newly discovered Barnard’s Star b into the Exocast Adopted Planets family and promises to keep a good eye on it in the coming years for us.

On the 30th episode of Exocast:

• Andrew is joined in the virtual exocast studio by Dr Jessie Christiansen from Caltech/NExSci to talk a little about her work on exoplanet demographics, catalogs, public outreach, and citizen science.
• Hannah provides an overview of last month’s #exocup, giving us a run down on the stats, the winners, losers, surprises and lessons learned.
• Hugh takes a look at what other exoplanet news had been released over the past month.
• And Jessie, to the chagrin of some and the appreciation of others, chose ‘the Next Planet’ as her adopted world – find out why and what she meant on the show.

On the 29th episode of Exocast:

• Hannah is joined by Professor Sarah Hörst from Johns Hopkins University to talk about her lab and working on haze production for solar system planets and beyond.
• Hugh discusses the concept of Exomoons following the recent potential discovery.
• Andrew takes a look at the exoplanet news for the past month, and introduces the new format for the Exocup2018!
• And Sarah adds the not extra-solar, not planet, Titan to the exocast adopted exoplanet family.
• Also, did we mention the EXOCUP is back!

On the 28th episode of Exocast, returning from a month’s break:

• Hugh is joined by Daniel Angerhausen from the University of Bern/Blue Marble Space to talk exoplanet science with SOFIA and high-altitude balloon experiments.
• Andrew introduces the concept of technosignatures in time for the first NASA Technosignatures Workshop, held at the end of September, and chats a little more with Daniel who will be taking part in the meeting.
• Hannah takes a look at the exoplanet news for the past two months, and there’s a lot to discuss!
• And Daniel adds the ‘standard candle’ Hot Jupiter HD 209458 b to our collection of Adopted Planets
• Also, EXOCUP is back!

In the 27th episode of Exocast:

• Michael Gully-Santiago joins Andrew for a chat about his work on instrumentation, and with the K2 guest observer office (https://keplerscience.arc.nasa.gov/).
• Hannah reports back from the Exoplanets II meeting in Cambridge (https://www.exoplanetscience2.org/), where she takes to the conference floor to speak to the attendees about some of their favourite exoplanet facts.
• Hugh covers all the exoplanet news and views from the last month;
• And Gully adds HAT-P-11b to our Adopted Planets

In the 26th episode of Exocast:

• Natasha Batalha joins Hannah for a chat about PandExo (the Exoplanet ETC for HST and JWST) and her work on Martian climate modelling.
• Hugh discusses all things radial velocity: history, current, and future prospects.
• Andrew covers all of June’s exoplanet news;
• And Natasha adds “Hannah’s special planet” HAT-P-26b to our gang of Adopted Planets

In the 25th episode of Exocast:

• Jessica Spake joins us to chat about the first detection of exoplanetary Helium – around the planet Wasp-107b
• Andrew covers whether alien biology could exist in a Shadow Biosphere here on Earth.
• Hannah covers all of May’s exoplanet news;
• And Jess invites an old friend to the exocast adopted planets – 51 Pegasi b, the first exoplanet detected around a sun-like star.

In the 24th episode of Exocast:

• Andrew chats with special guest Rus Belikov about direct imaging and Alpha Cen ;
• Hannah dives into the lakes of Titan to take us on a scuba diving adventure through alien worlds;
• And Hugh takes us through the latest in Exoplanet news;
• Finally, as always, we adopt a planet into our exocast family. This week selected by our guest Rus who chose Ross-128b, welcome to the family.

In the 23rd episode of Exocast:

• Hannah and Hugh join us from the UK Exoplanet Meeting;
• Hannah chats with special guest Dr Jayne Birkby about her work on high resolution spectroscopy;
• Hugh talks about the Gaia mission and what it means for exoplanets;
• Andrew covers all of this months exciting exoplanet news;
• And we invite our guest to add to the exocast adopted planets, so welcome WTS-2b to the exocast family.

In the 22nd episode of Exocast:

• Andrew talks about the concept of panspermia;
• Hugh discusses how astronomers can observe the changing phases of exoplanets;
• And Hannah covers the exoplanetary news including discoveries from K2 and new open-source science for exoplanet spectroscopy.
• And Hugh adds the cold transiting jupiter Kepler-167 e as the newest adopted Exocast planet.

In the 21st episode of Exocast:

• Hannah talks about planet formation;
• Andrew discusses the potential habitability of planets on eccentric orbits;
• Hugh disseminates a backlog of exciting exoplanet news from the past two months including discoveries, planet characterization, and community debate;
• Andrew adds the eponymous Kepler-21b as the newest member of the Exocast adopted planets gang;

In the 20th episode of Exocast we discuss all things #ExoCup

• What is the ExoCup? How was it conceived? What was the result? Why was it so stressful for the Exocast crew?
• We take a voxbox from some members of the exoplanet community on their opinions of the ExoCup (inc. Dr. Jessie Christiansen, Dr. Nikole Lewis, Dr. Natalie Batalha, Dr. Abhi Rajan);
• Andrew reports on the months interesting exoplanetary news that was still churning out planets during the cup;
• Hannah adopts runner up GJ 1214b into the Exocast family to join winner Kepler-10b.

Big thank you to all who joined us on twitter for the ExoCup and explored 32 alien worlds with us.

In the 19th episode of Exocast:

• Andrew continues his 2-parter on research into the origins of life;
• Hugh details all the numerous way that computers & software is used in astronomy, from Microsoft to MCMC to Machine Learning;
• Hannah reports on two whole months worth of interesting exoplanetary news;
• Hugh adopts Proxima Centauri b, the solar system’s closest cousin, into the Exocast family;
• And we announce the start of the first Exocast #ExoCup!

In the 18th episode of Exocast, we chat to Sasha Hinkley, a direct imaging expert at the University of Exeter:

• “Spotlights & fireflies” – what it means to be able to directly image planets and how we do it.
• Why direct imaging may not have the numbers compared to other detection techniques, but can give us so much more information on each planet
• The future of direct imaging instruments, including JWST, WFIRST and the E-ELT.
• And Sasha adopts the HR 8799 system as an Exocast adopted planet.

In the 17th episode of Exocast:

• Andrew introduces us to the origins of life studies in the first of a two-part segment.
• Hannah talks about Global Circulation Models (GCMs) and why they matter for exoplanets.
• Hugh reports on the latest exciting exoplanetary news, including alien stratospheres, new exoplanets from RV studies, and exo-comets.
• Andrew adopts GJ 667Cc into the misfits that are the Exocast adopted planets.

In the 16th episode of Exocast:

• Hugh discusses exoplanet science in the era of extremely large telescopes.
• Hannah brings us up to speed with the outcomes of the recent James Webb Space Telescope workshop held at the Space Telescope Institute at the beginning of July.
• Andrew reports on the latest exciting exoplanetary news, including a potential exomoon candidate, some worrying disclosures from the TESS mission, and a possible atmosphere detection around a large terrestrial planet.
• Hannah adopts the directly-imaged world 51 Eridani b into our exoplanet orphanage, a young, hot, Jupiter-like planet detected by the Gemini Planet Imager.
• Hugh became an Official Doctor of Space by passing his PhD viva – well done Hugh!

In the 15th episode of Exocast:

• Andrew revisits the signals life may or may not leave in a planet’s atmosphere, taking in recent results from the NExSS biosignature workshop.
• Hugh details the pros & cons of NASA’s upcoming planet-hunting machine, the Transiting Exoplanet Satellite Survey, or TESS, mission.
• Hannah covers the breaking news, including a host of new results from the Kepler mission.

and

• Hugh adopts the mini-Mercury Kepler-37b into our collection, the smallest planet yet found around a main sequence star.

In the 14th episode of Exocast

• Hannah takes us back to basics and introduce the composition and chemistry of exoplanet atmospheres.
• Andrew covers some recent updates from astrobiology, the field of study that aims to figure out if there’s life on any the exoplanets we’ve discovered, or on some of the worlds closer to home.
• Hugh takes us through the latest in exoplanetary news, including the newest discoveries, investigations, and notable events in exoplanets this month.

and

• Andrew adopts the well characterized exoplanet HD 189733b – a hellish world with high speed winds filled with molten glass, but very popular with observers.

In the 13th episode of Exocast

• Hugh talks about planets in binary systems – are two stars better than one?
• Hannah discussed the importance of brown dwarfs as the intermediary between planets and stars.
• Andrew takes us through the latest in exoplanetary news, including the newest discoveries, investigations, and notable events in exoplanets this month.

and

• Hannah adopts WASP-12b with it’s ruby clouds into our extreme family of exoplanets.

In the twelfth episode, Exocast-12b:

• Andrew details highlights of the recent UK exoplanet meeting.
• Hugh and Andrew play “Just an Arcminute” with UK exoplanet scientists.
• Hannah sits in at the exocast newsdesk to cover news including new data on the Trappist-1 system, unusual clouds closer to home, and new brown dwarfs at the boundary of planets & stars.
• And Hugh chooses Kepler-47ABc, a rare circum-binary planet, as our adopted planet of the month.

In the eleventh episode, Exocast-11b:

• Hannah covers all the incredible news about the Trappist-1 system, talking us through the discovery of seven new earth-sized worlds around this nearby ultra-cool dwarf.
• Andrew talks about the philosophy of exoplanets, from the ancients, through the dark ages, and into the modern era.
• And Hugh sits in at the exocast newsdesk to cover the release of 60,000 HIRES RVs, new transit-hunting surveys MASCARA and BRing, the star HAT-P-2 beating to the rhythm of its planet, and more controversy over how to define a planet. 
• And Andrew choose the elusive TRAPPIST-1 h, the coldest of the seven dwarfs, as our adopted planet of the week.

For your listening pleasure in Exocast-10b, the first episode of 2017:

• Hugh provides some perspective on what happens to planets after their stars die.
• Hannah gives us a run down of Hubble’s new PanCET program.
• Andrew takes to the Exocast news helicopter to deliver exoplanetary news from the last month.
• Hannah adopts a nearby habitable world displaying clear evidence of atmospheric disequilibrium.

In Exocast-9b we take a special look at SETI and the Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence with expert guest Dr Duncan Forgan from the University of St Andrews.

• Hugh takes a VOXBOX of students at the University of Warwick looking at the Drake Equation which was the progenitor to SETI.

• Hannah dives into the science fiction realm to look at SETI’s influence in pop culture.

• Andrew has a look to the future of SETI and “intelligent” life on Earth and Exoplanets.

Exocast-8b

In the eighth Exocast episode:

• Andrew turns his attention to the weird and wonderful worlds bringing science fiction and fact a little closer together;

• Hugh covers the latest developments in the case of the enigmatic Boyajian’s Star;

• Hannah reports on the month’s news in exoplanet research;

• And we adopt Latham’s Planet (HD 114762 b), arguably the first exoplanet discovered, into our planet family.