Asteroseismology and Exoplanets at Birmingham and Queen Mary

It is a golden era for studies of stars and their exoplanets thanks to new telescope and satellite observations of unprecedented quality and scope. These data are making it possible to investigate large numbers of stars using asteroseismology, the study of stars by observation and analysis of their intrinsic oscillations; and have led to the discovery of thousands of new and diverse exoplanet systems.

Our programme of research here involves the asteroseismic exploitation of exquisite photometric data from the NASA TESS and Kepler missions. We will explore the evolution of stellar dynamos and near-surface magnetic activity in cool sub-giants and low-luminosity red giants, testing for example whether interactions of stars with nearby binary companions can affect the action of stellar dynamos.

We will also use asteroseismology to age oscillating solar-type and red-giant stars that have very low-mass binary companions, providing key age diagnostics for understanding the evolution of activity in intrinsically faint stars. We will also develop and refine methods for inferring the fundamental properties of stars using asteroseismology.

We will use the SPECULOOS telescopes at the Paranal Observatory to search for Earth-sized planets orbiting small stars, and then use JWST we will study the planets' atmospheres to search for signatures of an active biosphere. In parallel, we will characterise a population of planets orbiting stars that peculiar chemical signatures, and establish whether this population is distinct from planets around Sun-like stars.