Terra Hunting-Extreme Precision Mass-Measurements of Earth-like Worlds

Improvements in technology has led to some instruments, such as ESPRESSO, finally having the precision required to detect Earth-sized planets in a star’s habitable zone via Doppler spectroscopy. However, stellar activity can still mimic the effects of a planet, even replicating the effects of ‘Hot Jupiters’ in extreme cases. My research is about trying to account for stellar activity thus allowing more precise measurements of planets to be achieved. I am currently using Least Squares Deconvolution to obtain more accurate values for the radial velocity of stars. Using this method will hopefully solve some of the problems encountered when utilising the widely used technique of the cross-correlation function.

Biography

I started my PhD In October 2020 after graduating with an MSci in Physics with Astrophysics. My Masters project was entitled ‘Towards Earth-like Exoplanets’, which fuelled my desire to know more about exoplanets. During the course of my degree, I spent two summers at an outdoors education camp in Minnesota, USA. This offered me the opportunity to share my passion by taking lessons on astronomy and stargazing. I would love to continue to inspire people to be interested in astrophysics over the course of my PhD.

Research interests

• Exoplanets
• Exoplanet Detection
• Stellar Activity
• Machine Learning