Image credit: NASA/JPL
Research
My research focuses on the properties of giant planets and their systems. I use data from telescopes such as Keck/NIRSPEC, and JWST, to characterize the atmospheres of these planets. I am interested in understanding how the chemistry of giant planet atmospheres is connected to their formation and evolutionary histories, the different clouds that form in planetary and substellar atmospheres, and how this varies as a function of mass between the planetary and substellar regimes. I also use other properties about the host system, such as stellar mass and orbital dynamics, to explore the origins of planets.
Planet or Failed Star? Characterizing Atmospheres of Directly Imaged Planets with High Resolution Spectroscopy
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. In my first PhD paper, I used high resolution NIRSPEC/Keck spectra and atmospheric modelling to determine the composition of one of these planetary mass companions, ROXs 42 B b. I am also currently working on understanding what other properties about the system, such as the composition of the host binary and its orbit, can tell us about the origins of this system
Glass Rain in the Dayside Atmosphere of Hot Jupiter HD 189733 b
NASA/JPL
At the high temperatures of Hot Jupiter atmospheres, the only cloud species capable of condensing are metals and rocks. In my second PhD paper, we used JWST/MIRI observations of the secondary eclipse of HD 189733 b to measure the dayside emission spectrum of the planet. We detected small grains of quartz (SiO2) in the upper atmosphere at pressures around 1 mbar. We found that these low pressures are inconsistent with equilibrium condensation at the average dayside temperature of the dayside of HD 189733 b. This may be explained if they are forming in the hottest, substellar regions of the planet, or through nucleation in the upper atmosphere
Characterizing the Atmospheres of Transiting Super Jupiters
Observations of transiting planets have shown that Jupiter mass planets appear preferentially around metal rich stars. This goes away for more massive transiting brown dwarfs that are likely the result of the lower mass tail of star formation. The transition between the two occurs somewhere between 4-10 Jupiter masses. I have been observing a population of transitting Super Jupiters from the ground with Keck/KPIC in order to see how the composition of these objects, (e.g. C/O and metallicity [C/H]) varies across this mass range.
Interior-Atmosphere Interactions and the Origins of Gas Giant Planets
