EPSAM

SuperWASP - Wide Angle Search for extrasolar Planets

Lead supervisor: Dr Pierre Maxted

Keele is a member of the WASP consortium. The consortium uses the SuperWASP instruments monitor millions of stars and so to discover planets orbiting close to solar-type stars ("hot Jupiters"). Our understanding of the formation, evolution and structure of hot Jupiters is limited by our understanding of their atmospheres. The atmosphere of an exoplanet regulates the rate at which heat escapes from the interior and also regulates how much of the energy from the star is absorbed into the planet and how much is radiated away. This PhD will use observations of transiting hot-Jupiters to determine the properties of the atmospheres of these planets. The techniques used will include measurements of the planet-star flux ratio and transmission spectroscopy.