Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²Ê

I extremely enjoyed performing astronomical research and working on big data problems, and the CDT DIS at Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²Ê seemed the right fit to continue doing so while improving my data analysis skills.

Project title:ÌýFrom Space to Ground: Characterising Exoplanet Atmospheres at Low and High Spectral ResolutionsÌý

Research Group: Astrophysics

Supervisor(s): Prof Giovanna TinettiÌý&²¹³¾±è;ÌýDr Ingo Waldmann

±õ²Ô³Ù°ù´Ç»å³Ü³¦³Ù¾±´Ç²Ô:Ìý

Before starting my PhD at Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²Ê, I obtained an MSci in Astrophysics from Royal Holloway. Throughout my undergraduate studies and thanks to two external internships, one at INAF in Italy and one at ASTRON in the Netherlands, I could conduct a variety of research in many fields of astronomy. I studied the limb-darkening effect of our Sun, I investigated the age and temperature of the stars in the M36 open cluster via aperture photometry, I analysed quasi-periodic oscillations in X-ray binaries and I explored the potential for ionosphere monitoring with the LOFAR radio telescope. I extremely enjoyed performing astronomical research and working on big data problems, and the CDT DIS at Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²Ê seemed the right fit to continue doing so while improving my data analysis skills. On top of that, the tight CDT’s connections with a variety of industry partners, were crucial for me to experience research outside of academia and solve problems that directly impact society.Ìý

---

Project description:ÌýÌý

My project is focused on investigating exoplanet atmospheres with a variety of instruments and missions, both at high and low spectral resolutions.ÌýÌý

From space, I employ data from HST in the optical (using STIS/CCD) and near-infrared wavelengths (using WFC3/IR) to characterise the atmospheric composition of distant worlds and to assess whether the combination of data from different instruments is a feasible practice. Such a study is especially valuable in the JWST era, where a large breadth of data taken with 4 detectors will soon be available for the community. Scientists will need to combine these data sets to obtain as large wavelength coverage as possible to best study exoplanet atmospheres. On this end, my project is also focused on adapting a current open-source data analysis pipeline, Iraclis, to be able to reduce JWST time-series data of exoplanet transits and eclipses and expand the light curve fitting procedure to a variety of models (e.g., polynomial, Gaussian Processes, ICA).Ìý
Ìý
From the ground, I analyse high-resolution spectral data taken with TNG/HARPS-N (in the optical) and VLT/CRIRES (in the infrared) to detect exo-atmospheric absorption signatures. This is achieved with the cross-correlation technique - mostly in the infrared - and with single-line fits in the optical wavelengths. Currently, I am working with the University of Palermo to build an automated code that can process the raw telluric-corrected data to identify the strength of any atomic lines of interest, estimate potential winds speed and measure the atmospheric escape rate, if any, while correcting for the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect and centre-to-limb variations. Such analysis will pave the way for surveys of exoplanet atmospheres at high resolution and will broaden our knowledge of the dynamics of planetary upper atmospheres.Ìý

First year group project:ÌýJBC

Placement:ÌýÌý

---

Ìý