Planetary and Exoplanetary Science

We are using local and international facilities to search for exoplanets. These new planets tell us about the demographics of planets around other stars -- what are they made of, are they similar to our Solar System, what are their parent stars like? 

Active programs using the Minerva-Australis array help confirm planets from the NASA TESS mission. In particular, we can measure their masses and radii via ground-based spectroscopy and photometry. We target bright, nearby planet systems that are most favourable for follow-up observations -- enabling other observatories to learn more about the properties of these new planets. 

These telescopes are also monitoring nearby stars to search for the signatures of long period giant planets -- cold Jupiters that may reside in the colder parts of their planetary systems. 

The atmospheres of planets tell us about their composition - from which we hope to understand how the planets were formed. 

UniSQ astronomers have been awarded time on the James Webb Space Telescope to understand the composition of interesting planet systems. These programs target super-Earths and Jovian planets, using the composition of their upper atmospheres to match the expected composition of the protoplanet disks from which they were formed. 

We are also using the Hubble Space Telescope to search for signatures of atmospheric escape from young planets. These programs trace the process by which planets lose their top atmospheres due to the early irradiation from their parent stars. This photoevaporation process is expected to have shaped the vast majority of small planets we find today around Sun-like stars.