Unusual transit observations with PLATO

The PhD will be focused on studying the characteristics of unusual transits signatures caused by exocomets.

This includes the detection and characterisation of exocometary transit events using both photometric and spectroscopic techniques. The PhD will focus on data taken from space based missions such as TESS, CHEOPS, HST and PLATO.

Upcoming HST observations will give the PhD student familiarity with working with spectroscopic space based observations.

To prepare for the launch of PLATO and to understand the sensitivity of this instruments to detecting exocomets, the student will be performing injection and retrieval tests.

This will likely involve injecting exocometary transits with known parameters into simulated PLATO data and then develop methods to retrieve these detections.

Once they have been detected they could be modeled to get information such as absorption depth and come size and then compared to what was injected. There is flexibility in the project, and it's exact content will depend on what discoveries are made.