Dimitri Veras leads an interdisciplinary team of astronomers and biologists in a study exploring the dynamical and biological constraints of interplanetary panspermia. This is the theory that life can hop from planet to planet via some mechanism, most likely aboard asteroids or comets.

This work was published in Astrobiology, Volume 18, Number 9

Open access link: arXiv

CEH members involved: Dimitri Veras (lead), David Armstrong, James Blake, Jose Gutiérrez-Marcos & Hendrik Schäefer

CEH member James Jackman leads a recent study of flares in G-type stars, as observed using NGTS. The study shows that G-stars can have flares many times the energy of the Carrington event, and the primary detection is one of the largest amplitude superflares detected from a bright G star.

This work was published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 477, Issue 4, p.4655-4664

Open access link: arXiv

CEH members involved: James Jackman (lead), Peter Wheatley, Chloe Pugh, Boris Gänsicke, Anne-Marie Broomhall, David Armstrong & James McCormac

CEH member Mark Hollands leads a new study which examines pollution of cool DZ white dwarfs.

This work was published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 477, Issue 1, p.93-111

Open access link: arXiv

CEH members involved: Mark Hollands (lead), Boris Gänsicke

CEH member David Armstrong has published a new study on automatic vetting of exoplanet candidates using machine learning techniques. In this work he applies it to candidates from NGTS, but the technique is extendable to other transiting exoplanet surveys.

This work was published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 478, Issue 3, August 2018, Pages 4225–4237

Open access link: arXiv

CEH members involved: David Armstrong (lead), James McCormac, Daniel Bayliss, Tom Louden, Don Pollacco, Richard West & Peter Wheatley

The Next Generation Transit Survey, which is led by CEH member Peter Wheatley, has publised its third planet discovery. NGTS-3Ab is in an unresolved binary system, and vetting the planet was a challenging task that produced new insights in BIS correlations in exoplanet observations.

This work was published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 478, Issue 4, August 2018, Pages 4720–4737

Open access link: arXiv

CEH members involved: James McCormac, David Armstrong, Benjamin Cooke, Boris Gänsicke, Tom Louden, Don Pollacco & Peter Wheatley