Exoplanet studies through gravitational microlensing (project summary to follow)
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Manchester
Department Name: Physics and Astronomy
Abstract
Exoplanet studies through gravitational microlensing
Studentship Projects
| Project Reference | Relationship | Related To | Start | End | Student Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ST/N504178/1 | 01/10/2015 | 31/03/2021 | |||
| 1789403 | Studentship | ST/N504178/1 | 01/10/2016 | 31/03/2020 | Jake Morgan |
| Title | Executive Producer of The Jodcast, Oct 2017 - May 2019 |
| Description | The Jodcast is a twice-monthly podcast produced out of the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics (JBCA). Founded in 2006, it is one of the longest-running and most-listened to podcasts of its kind. I became involved with the Jodcast in October 2016, and took over as co-manager of the show a year later until May 2019, ensuring that shows are edited and produced while keeping content quality to a high standard. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2016 |
| Impact | We have continued to bring world-leading astronomy to an international audience. We have also secured a dedicated studio space for recording, leaving the show well-placed for our successors. |
| URL | http://www.jodcast.net |
| Title | Presenter on The Week in Astronomy - BBC's Up All Night |
| Description | As part of my work on The Jodcast, I was invited as an occasional presenter (in rotation with two of my colleagues) on BBC's Up All Night radio show, hosted by Rhod Sharp. As the guest on the Week in Astronomy segment, I would contribute a brief (typically 10 min) discussion on a recent news item in astronomy, as well as highlighting several interesting objects visible in the night sky that week. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2018 |
| Impact | This was an opportunity for me to bring the night sky to a worldwide audience of millions. |
| URL | https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0070h86 |
| Title | Pipeline for Ranking Exoplanets For Atmospheric CharactErisation (PREFACE) |
| Description | PREFACE is a software pipeline built in Python 3.X to select exoplanets with atmospheres expected to yield strong detection signals, and therefore favourable to transmission spectroscopy follow-up. The first part of the pipeline contains the decision metric set out in Morgan et al. (2019), which ranks and selects targets from a catalogue of known transiting planets. The second half is a transit predictor, returning dates and times of observable transits for the selected sample from a chosen observing site and in a given observing window. Using this tool, accurate observing calendars of the best targets can be drawn up for a world-wide network of telescopes. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2017 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | This pipeline is now informing our observing strategy using NARIT's worldwide heterogeneous network of telescopes. It is hoped that the community will adopt this method once the pipeline is usable through the SPEARNET website (being built by a Masters student), or when the code is released as a Python package. |
| Title | Pipeline for Ranking Exoplanets For Atmospheric CharactErisation (PREFACE) |
| Description | PREFACE fits all four descriptors given above - it handles a large existing catalogue of known exoplanets for target selection, instead of relying on individual selection by experts. It uses a developed decision metric to perform autonomous selection, returning a database of viable planets and transit events. We hope this will become the new standard for observational planning for transmission spectroscopy, hence its inclusion also as a research method. |
| Type Of Material | Data handling & control |
| Year Produced | 2017 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | PREFACE is in use supporting observations on NARIT's telescope network. |
| Description | Spectroscopy and Photometry of Exoplanet Atmospheres Research NETwork (SPEARNET) |
| Organisation | National Astronomical Research Institute Of Thailand |
| Country | Thailand |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | The Manchester side of the collaboration has carried out development of a decision metric, used to identify the best planets for observation (Morgan et al., 2019) by the Thai telescope network. |
| Collaborator Contribution | NARIT has established a network of small (0.7m-class) telescopes, both around Thailand and the wider world, which we have access to for transmission photometry observations. We have also won significant amounts of time on the 2.4m Thai National Telescope (TNT). |
| Impact | SPEARNET has multiple papers planned, the first of which (describing the metric) has been published. Papers describing results on planets selected via the metric, e.g. WASP-104b, are in prep. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Visit to Jodrell Bank by HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | During Princess Sirindhorn's visit to Jodrell Bank, SPEARNET members had the opportunity to update her on the progress of our research into exoplanetary atmospheres, which makes use of Thailand's network of telescopes. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | http://www.jodrellbank.manchester.ac.uk/news-and-events/thai-princess-visits-jodrell-bank-observator... |