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NASA/JPL
Research
My research focuses on the properties of giant planets and their systems. I use data from telescopes such as Keck/NIRSPEC, HST and JWST, to characterize the atmospheres of these planets.
NASA/JPL
NASA/JPL
Planet or Failed Star? Characterizing Atmospheres of Directly Imaged Planets with High Resolution Spectroscopy
Close Ups of Hot Giants: Using HST to study the thermal emission of transiting giant planets
From Dust to Moons: Modelling the Formation of Satellites around Young Planets via Dust Evolution
High contrast imaging has enabled us to observe dozens of massive planets on orbits much wider than any we see in our own solar system, challenging our theories of planet formation. I use high resolution NIRSPEC/Keck spectra and atmospheric modelling to determine the composition of these strange objects. By measuring the chemical abundances of these objects, we may be able to understand their formation histories and how they came to be where they are.
Starting summer 2022 I will be using eclipse measurements from HST to map the temperature distribution on the dayside of a tidally-locked hot Jupiter. We can use the temperature distribution and other information from eclipse measurements to understand the atmospheric circulations and properties of these objects.
The journey from micron-sized dust grain to massive moon (or planet) is a difficult (and poorly understood) one. A key step in this process however, is the accumulation of a sufficient mass of dust within a disk. Using dynamical models, I look at the evolution of dust within a gas disk around a young giant planet. I test how different sets of disk properties effect the system's ability to form satellites, like Jupiter's famous Galilean moons.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL
You can view my publication library on ADS here!
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