Discovery and characterisation of transiting exoplanets
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Warwick
Department Name: Physics
Abstract
The project will include work to discover new transiting exoplanets using data from the Next Generation Transit Survey (NGTS) and follow up observations on a wide range of national and international facilities. The project will also include characterisation of the atmospheres of the discovered exoplanets using optical/IR and X-ray telescopes
Organisations
Studentship Projects
| Project Reference | Relationship | Related To | Start | End | Student Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ST/N504506/1 | 01/10/2015 | 31/03/2021 | |||
| 1622607 | Studentship | ST/N504506/1 | 05/10/2015 | 31/03/2019 | George King |
| Description | *Characterisation of planets around other stars ("exoplanets") and how the X-ray light from their star affects their atmospheres. Over a dozen planet-hosting stars studied and their X-ray output measured. *Analysis performed during this project includes detection of the first X-ray transit of a exoplanet across its host star ever unambiguously detected. *Avenues for future work include investigating other candidate systems for X-ray transit detection. |
| Exploitation Route | This work can provide a foundation for others wishing to research these and related topics to build upon. Whether that be looking for more X-ray transits of exoplanets, investigating how exoplanets' atmospheres change over their lifetimes, and related implications for the habitability of exoplanets. |
| Sectors | Other |
| Description | ICIC Data Analysis Workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | This was a workshop on data analysis, with a primary focus on Bayesian inference and MCMC methods. There was a combination of lectures and hands-on coding related to the lecture material. This provided me with a much deeper insight into the inner workings of the methods and ideas presented than I previously held, and has enabled better use of the methods in my own research since. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://www.imperial.ac.uk/astrophysics/centre-for-inference-and-cosmology/seminars-and-events/data-a... |
| Description | Oral presentation - South East Exoplanets Meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | I gave a talk on a recent piece of research which will be submitted to MNRAS soon on the time evolution of EUV emission of stars, relevant when considering the history and evolution of exoplanet atmospheres. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Oral presentation - Transiting Exoplanets conference (Keele, 2017) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I gave a 10 minute presentation to the conference audience on a piece of research concerning an X-ray transit search in a nearby planetary system by the European Space Agency's X-ray space telescope XMM-Newton. I received several questions afterwards, both in the session itself to the whole audience and individually during the following breaks in proceedings. Some discussion of future work ideas was had. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://wasp-planets.net/conference/ |
| Description | Oral presentation - UKEXOM (Oxford, 2018) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I gave a 12 minute presentation to the conference audience on a piece of research concerning an X-ray transit search in a nearby planetary system by the European Space Agency's X-ray space telescope XMM-Newton. I received several questions afterwards, both in the session itself to the whole audience and individually during the following breaks in proceedings. Some discussion of future work ideas was had. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://users.physics.ox.ac.uk/~pierrehumbert/ukexom2018/ |
| Description | Planetarium school visits |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | I have been involved with numerous (I've lost count exactly how many, but it is around 20-25) visits and events with our Astronomy group's inflatable planetarium. We have taken it out to many schools across the West Midlands, as well as hosting a few events here at the university. We typically present ~20-30 minute shows to school children to engage them in astronomy and introduce some very basic astrophysical concepts and ideas. Where time allows, we try to give an opportunity for the pupils to ask us questions, during which time we have received a wide range of very interesting questions. There is a general emphasis throughout on promoting interest in astronomy as well as science in general. The reaction from the pupils and the schools is almost entirely always positive. We have been known to receive follow up questions from pupils via emails from teachers at the schools. Over the time that I have been involved in the visits, we have seen the popularity of our planetarium among schools in the region increase significantly, with it being over-subscribed during much of school term time. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015,2016,2017,2018,2019 |
| URL | https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/physics/research/astro/outreach/planetarium/ |
| Description | Poster - Exoplanets II |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I presented a poster at the Exoplanets II conference at the University of Cambridge, on a piece of research concerning observations of a number of planetary systems in a young open cluster by the European Space Agency's X-ray space telescope XMM-Newton. The audience was other postgraduate students, postdocs and academics. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.exoplanetscience2.org/ |
| Description | Poster - UKEXOM 2016 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I presented a poster at the 2016 UK Exoplanet Meeting at the University of Exeter, on a piece of research concerning observations of a number of planetary systems by the European Space Agency's X-ray space telescope XMM-Newton. The audience was other postgraduate students, postdocs and academics. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://ukexom16.co.uk/ |
| Description | Poster - UKEXOM 2017 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I presented a poster at the 2017 UK Exoplanet Meeting at the University of St Andrews, on a piece of research concerning observations of a number of planetary systems by the European Space Agency's X-ray space telescope XMM-Newton. The audience was other postgraduate students, postdocs and academics. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://ukexo2017.sciencesconf.org/ |
| Description | Poster - UKEXOM 2019 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I presented a poster at the UK Exoplanet Community meeting at Imperial College London in April 2019, describing our recent paper in MNRAS on the Pi Men planetary system - the first discovery by the NASA TESS mission - where we used archival observations from ROSAT and Swift to characterise the XUV environment in which the planet resides. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://ukexcon19.github.io/ |