Stellar Astrophysics and Applied Optical Science Group
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About
Our work deals with how the nature of atoms and their environment is encoded in the light and how we can extract information about the light source and the intervening matter from the photons which reach us. Ongoing research projects include theoretical studies of stellar atmospheres, the confirmation and characterization of newly discovered exoplanet candidates with NASA's TESS satellite, and the development of instrumentation for the characterization of the thermal emission of Earth-orbiting satellites to improve space situational awareness.
Team
John Kielkopf, Professor
john.kielkopf@louisville.edu
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- Frank Clark, Adjunct Professor
- Brad Carter, Professor & Dean (Research Infrastructure), Director (Centre for Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland Australia, Brad.Carter@unisq.edu.au
- Duncan Wright, Associate Professor (Astrophysics) & Deputy Director (Centre for Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland Australia,Duncan.Wright@unisq.edu.au
- Karen Collins, Scientist, Harvard and Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, karen.collins@cfa.harvard.edu
- Nicole Allard, Astronomer Emeritus, Observatory of Paris
- Garrison Turner, Graduate Student
- Chad Howard, Graduate Student
- Matthew Nichols, Graduate Student
- Hudson Harner, Graduate Student
Our Work
- Exoplanet science
- Stellar astrophysics
- Astronomical instrumentation
- Remote sensing
- Space situational awareness
- Exoplanet discovery, confirmation and characterization with precision spectrophotometry and radial velocimetry supporting NASA TESS
- Temporal signatures in scattered natural light
- Remote sensing with thermal infrared informed by optical measurements and artificial intelligence
- Theory and experiments exploring radiative transport and spectral line formation in stellar atmospheres
- The K2 and TESS Synergy. III. Search and Rescue of the Lost Ephemeris for K2's First Planet, Erica Thygesen et al, Astronomical Journal 168, 161, 2024, doi:10.3847/1538-3881/ad60bf
- HD 21520 b: a warm sub-Neptune transiting a bright G dwarf, Molly Nies et al, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2024, doi:10.1093/mnras/stae2079
- Identification of the Top TESS Objects of Interest for Atmospheric Characterization of Transiting Exoplanets with JWST, Benjamin J. Hord, et al, Astronomical Journal 167, 2024, doi:10.3847/1538-3881/ad3068
- New theoretical study of potassium perturbed by He and a comparison to laboratory spectra, N. F. Allard et al, Astronomy and Astrophysics, 683, 2024, doi:10.1051/0004-6361/20234871
- A super-massive Neptune-sized planet, Luca Napniello, et al, Nature, 622, 255-260, doi:10.1038/s41586-023-06499-2