CAREER: Precise Ground-Based Spectrophotometry as a Lens for Planetary and Stellar Physics

当光穿过行星的大气层时，它会遇到可以吸收或散射它的原子和分子。天文学家利用这一事实来了解太阳系外行星（“系外行星”）大气的成分和结构。从地球上看，当一颗系外行星经过其恒星前方时，会吸收少量（但可测量）的光。不同的元素吸收不同颜色（波长）的光的方式不同。研究人员将使用望远镜研究系外行星大气吸收或传输不同波长光的方式。然后他将推断行星大气层的成分和结构。这将扩大我们对太阳系八颗行星之外的行星大气的了解，并更好地了解大气是如何形成和随时间变化的。由此得出的理解将帮助我们更好地理解我们自己的太阳系可能如何达到目前的状态，以及包括地球在内的行星大气层在未来可能如何变化。研究者将让一名博士后和本科生参与他的工作。他还将在第一年的研讨会和高级科学可视化高级课程中开发一个将艺术和科学结合起来的项目。最后，他将与天文馆和科罗拉多艺术工作室合作开发 K-12 计划。除了申请在托洛洛山美洲天文台和双子座天文台的时间外，调查员还建议利用他的机构访问阿帕奇角天文台 3.5 米望远镜的时间。他将解决两个主要问题：“行星如何积聚和保留挥发物？”和“行星大气中气溶胶是如何形成的？”他将创建一个开源 Python 包，使用户能够 1) 从原始数据中提取时间序列光谱，2) 减少微分分光光度数据，以及 3) 可视化和拟合数据集。这项工作还将解释由星斑引入系外行星透射光谱的噪声。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优点和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

When light passes through a planet’s atmosphere, it meets atoms and molecules that can absorb or scatter it. Astronomers use this fact to learn about the composition and structure of the atmospheres of extrasolar planets (“exoplanets”). When an exoplanet passes in front of its star, as seen from the Earth, a tiny (yet measurable) amount of light is absorbed. Different elements absorb different colors (wavelengths) of light differently. The investigator will use telescopes to study the way exoplanets’ atmospheres absorb or transmit light at different wavelengths. He will then infer the composition and structure of the planets’ atmospheres. This will expand our knowledge of planetary atmospheres beyond those of the eight Solar System planets and give a better idea of how atmospheres form and change with time. The understanding derived will help us better understand how our own Solar System may have arrived at its current state, and how planetary atmospheres, including Earth’s, may change in the future. The investigator will involve a postdoc and undergraduate students in his work. He will also develop a program integrating art and science in a first-year seminar and in an upper-level class on advanced scientific visualization. Finally, he will develop a K-12 program in collaboration with a planetarium and the Colorado Studio for the Arts.The investigator proposes to use his institutional access time to the 3.5-meter telescope at the Apache Point Observatory, in addition to applying for time at Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory and the Gemini Observatory. He will address two primary questions: "How do planets accrete and retain their volatiles?" and "How do aerosols form in planetary atmospheres?" He will create an open-source Python package that will enable users to 1) extract time-series spectra from raw data, 2) reduce differential spectrophotometry data, and 3) visualize and fit data sets. The work will also account for noise introduced into exoplanet transmission spectra by starspots.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.