Astronomer, astrophysicist, professor. He/him.

Joined September 2013
84 Photos and videos
Pinned Tweet
22 Jan 2021
The TRAPPIST-1 planets now have the best measurements of any set of terrestrial planets other than our Solar System... and they look different than our terrestrial planets. With Caroline Dorn @Nonomamades @ElsaDucrot @LaetitiaDelrez Michaël Gillon @AbVsm @brettmor @fselsis
The TRAPPIST-1 star is home to the largest batch of roughly Earth-size planets ever found. Now we know even more about the densities of these seven rocky worlds. And the composition of the TRAPPIST-1 planets could be notably different than Earth's! go.nasa.gov/3c78qST
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My son is into weight-lifting, and he is trying to learn statistics. So I told him to ask everyone in gym how much weight they use on the crunch machines, and to calculate the mean and standard deviation. He would then have an ab-normal distribution.
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Eric Agol retweeted
Where Americans Choose to Move & Where They Leave: "I was surprised by the extent to which certain ecological regions correspond to the patterns on this map" bluebookmke.substack.com/p/w…
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Eric Agol retweeted
I was in the middle of shooting my narrowband data on this galaxy when the supernova happened so I was probably one of the first people to photograph it!
PSA: When I post my photos in this format, it’s because I want you to save them and use them as phone wallpapers. Anyways, here’s my photo of the pinwheel galaxy featuring a supernova. More coming 🤓
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27 Nov 2025
Can you tell which twin is which? I feel privileged to have met these gentlemen - thanks for serving our country. (Not sure who took the photo, but I think it may have been Gabby Giffords.)
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25 Nov 2025
I computed a model for the appearance of a supermassive black hole (right), which was confirmed twenty years later with the Event Horizon Telescope (M87 on left; Sagittarius A* middle).
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Eric Agol retweeted
Incredible: A selection of the multi-planet systems discovered in the Milky Way galaxy by the Kepler Telescope! (Credit: Ethan Kruse/NASA Goddard)
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29 Sep 2025
The statue of Pasteur in Paris faces the Invalides where Napoleon is buried. This is apt as one fought germs, while the other fought Germans.
Today Sept 28. #OTD in 1895 chemist Louis Pasteur passed away. Renowned for discoveries of the principles of vaccination, microbial fermentation, and pasteurization. His research led to remarkable breakthroughs in the understanding of the causes and preventions of diseases.
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26 Sep 2025
Can any experts tell me if these error bars are to be believed? arxiv.org/abs/2509.17454
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16 Sep 2025
Sorry @Wikipedia and @Google but this is not correct. Half of the Nobel prize was awarded to Penrose for the mathematical theory of black holes; the other half to Genzel & Ghez for their study of Sgr A*. (Thanks @NYTGames Connections for alerting me to this!)
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15 Sep 2025
RIP William Paxton, the founder of the MESA stellar structure and evolution code.
One of the most important contributions to the study of how stars evolve didn’t come from an astrophysicist, but instead a computer scientist. Bill Paxton — who died last month — revolutionized the field by creating the Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA). Read more about Paxton's life and MESA: simonsfoundation.org/2025/08… #science #astrophysics
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Eric Agol retweeted
One of the most important contributions to the study of how stars evolve didn’t come from an astrophysicist, but instead a computer scientist. Bill Paxton — who died last month — revolutionized the field by creating the Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA). Read more about Paxton's life and MESA: simonsfoundation.org/2025/08… #science #astrophysics
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9 Sep 2025
TIL that I study “space balls” (71 down in Sunday’s NYT crossword).
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Eric Agol retweeted
Whether planet e has an atmosphere is still TBD. Researchers are still observing it, and think its primary atmosphere is gone, though it could have a heavier secondary one. go.nasa.gov/3VBE3cL
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Eric Agol retweeted
🆕 Webb has taken a close look at TRAPPIST-1 e 👀 This transmission spectrum graph compares data collected by the #NIRSpec instrument on Webb with computer models of the exoplanet, with (blue) and without (orange) an atmosphere. 1/2
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Eric Agol retweeted
28 Aug 2025
The LIGO Scientific Collaboration will greatly miss our friend and colleague, Professor Rainer Weiss, whose immeasurable impact on gravitational-wave astronomy will be felt for generations to come ligo.org/professor-emeritus-… Our thoughts are with Rai's family and friends
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22 Aug 2025
And so is the other 'UW' (University of Washington)!
At the University of Wisconsin–Madison, we are excited to host 51 Pegasi b Fellows in the Department of Astronomy! Applications are due October 3, 2025. This was the fellowship that I had as a postdoc, and I’d be happy to chat if you think you might be interested in applying!
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Eric Agol retweeted
At the University of Wisconsin–Madison, we are excited to host 51 Pegasi b Fellows in the Department of Astronomy! Applications are due October 3, 2025. This was the fellowship that I had as a postdoc, and I’d be happy to chat if you think you might be interested in applying!
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Eric Agol retweeted
Most planets in our galaxy orbit dim red stars. But can any of them support life? A new JWST study of planet TRAPPIST-1 d offers clues. No sign of an Earthlike atmosphere, but its cooler neighbors look more promising. (So, alas, we're still at "maybe.") esawebb.org/news/weic2516/
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