Diving Through Exoplanet Atmospheres

Summary: The study of exoplanets, planets that orbit stars other than the Sun, is a fascinating new field of discovery. The question "How do stars and planetary systems form and evolve?"" is one of the biggest in Astronomy and is at the root of one of the most important questions we have had since we looked up at the stars: "How did we get here?".

I will take us on a journey to explore how we measure and understand the nature these strange new worlds beyond our Solar System. We will dive into the atmospheres of alien planets to discover the truly wild nature of planets in the universe from chains of rocky worlds around ultra-cool stars to exotic clouds of molten rock in the atmosphere of ultra-hot gas giants.

Bio: Dr Hannah Wakeford is an Associate Professor in Astrophysics in the School of Physics at the University of Bristol, UK where she leads a group investigating the atmospheres of transiting exoplanets using space-based telescopes.

Hannah’s work focuses on characterising the atmospheres of transiting exoplanets and brown dwarfs through observations with the Hubble Space Telescope and JWST.  Hannah has also developed theoretical models for exotic clouds in exoplanet atmosphere and uses them to interpret observations and make prediction for future studies. Hannah is currently the lead of a UKRI Frontiers Research Grant (formerly European Research Starting Grant) to examine the 3D properties of exoplanet atmospheres through observations with Hubble and JWST. In this work Hannah and her team (at Bristol, and collaborators internationally) will extensively measure the transmitting and emitting atmosphere of a population of exoplanets to understand the links between their properties and measured chemistry and dynamics. You can find out more about Hannah’s research team here. 

Hannah completed an MPhys in Physics with Planetary and Space Physics from the University of Wales: Aberystwyth, with her masters obtained during on site research at the University Center in Svalbard (UNIS) in the high arctic studying space plasma and the upper polar atmosphere. Hannah obtained her PhD in Physics from the University of Exeter, UK in 2015, titled: “Cloudy with a chance of Water: Observational analysis of giant exoplanet atmospheres”

Following her PhD, Hannah was a NASA Postdoctoral Research Fellow at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center from 2015-2017. She then returned to the University of Exeter as a Senior Research Fellow for 4 months, prior to starting as the 2017 Giacconi Fellow at STScI in Baltimore, USA.

Hannah is passionate about science communication and has appeared on a number of TV and radio shows. She currently hosts Exocast: The Exoplanet Podcast with co-hosts Andrew Rushby and Hugh Osborn. She previously produced and hosted the award winning show The Science Hour on XpressionFM. Hannah has also published a popular science book co-written with Drs Brian May and Chris Lintott “Bang!! The Complete History of the Universe” is the 15 year update to the best selling Bang! with whole new chapters covering 9 billion years of new text and images.