Unlocking the secrets of the universe
A Loughborough physics student's project led to an important discovery that could help scientists learn more about how the Earth and our solar system developed during their ‘teenage’ years.
Studying Physics challenges the imagination with powerful concepts and builds your knowledge of the laws that explain natural phenomena. It is an excellent choice of subject for students seeking answers at levels ranging from the subatomic to the cosmological!
I’ve always had a curious nature and find the universe a crazy place full of interesting questions. For years I had been an amateur astronomer and enjoyed taking photos of space in my spare time. After coming to an open day and having a great chat with Dr John Samson I knew Loughborough was where I wanted to come!
For his final year project Alex approached Dr Shaun Atherton with his ideas, including a project to use data from the TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) mission to search for exoplanets.
The general process of his project was to process light curves from the TESS mission and examine them by eye, in order to look for aperiodic signals that the TESS missions automated pipeline may have missed. It was this process that led to Alex making a significant discovery.
When I cleaned up the data for one of my Targets of Interest, TOI-2076, it became immediately clear that something was going on in this star system, however at this stage I wasn’t sure whether the signal produced originated from transiting planets. After many conversations with Shaun, many tests and some reasonable, planetary size estimates I contacted TESS with my findings to see what the next steps should be. That was when I was advised to write up my findings in a paper format, and our collaboration began.
I wasn’t immediately aware of the sheer significance of the system, but I had an appreciation that something interesting was going on. Much like most scientific research it was a case that the more we dug, the more interesting this system became!
After contacting Dr Christina Hedges to highlight the find, a multinational collaboration of scientists and astronomers went on to discover three worlds orbiting the star.
"The planets in both systems are in a transitional, or teenage, phase of their life cycle," said Christina Hedges, an astronomer at the Bay Area Environmental Research Institute in Moffett Field, in California, and NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley.
"They’re not newborns, but they’re also not settled down. Learning more about planets in this teen stage will ultimately help us understand older planets in other systems."
Working with experts
Alex, who is now studying for a master's in physics at UCL, said:
Discovering a planetary system that exists in this transitional 'teenage' period gives us a chance to test our models of this early evolution period and probe some of the questions we still have.
I’m immensely proud to have observed and then been part of the team to confirm this system. I got to learn from some really fantastic, knowledgeable people and get some first hand experience of what astrophysics based research is all about which is in and of itself absolutely priceless.
Join the Loughborough family
When he wasn't looking up at the skies, Alex was busy exploring the depths - taking up scuba diving in his first year at Loughborough!
During first year I joined the Loughborough Students' Union Sub Aqua Club and learnt to scuba dive. Over the course of my three years at Loughborough I went from having never dived before to completing three diver level qualifications, became an instructor with the University, and also qualified as a search and recovery diver.
Alex's experiences go to show that becoming a Loughborough student is the beginning of a journey of discovery - whether you're discovering new passions and interests, or new star systems!
