Exoplanets
Almost thirty years after the discovery of the first exoplanet, thousands of planetary systems have been discovered and studied. The properties of the identified planets point towards a large diversity whose origin is still unknown. We are still at the beginning of a vast, fascinating work that is now entering the phase of characterising the structure of the exoplanets, their atmospheres, and modelling the formation mechanisms.
Our research team is involved at the highest international levels in many of these projects
Staff
Full Professors:Giampaolo Piotto, Sergio Ortolani
Associate professors:Luca Malavolta, Francesco Marzari
Assistant professors:Domenico Nardiello, Tiziano Zingales
Post-doc
Giacomo Mantovan
PhD students
Pietro Leonardi, Leonardo Pagliaro, Adriana Barbieri
External collaborators
Luca Borsato (INAF), Valentina Granata (CISAS), Valerio Nascimbeni (INAF), Monika Stangret (INAF)
Research activities
Characterisation of planetary systems with high-resolution spectroscopy
We are part of the Science Team of the Guaranteed Time Observations (GTO) with HARPS-N, the spectrograph at the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo, for the follow-up of transiting candidate planets identified by the Kepler/K2 and Transit Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) missions, and the discovery of Earth-like planets around nearby stars.
Within the Global Architecture of Planetary Systems (GAPS) Italian project, we are responsible for searching for exoplanets in star clusters and around young stars with HARPS-N. We are also involved in the characterisation of Hot Neptunes and the atmospheres of exoplanets using HARPS-N and GIANO data.
Contacts: Luca Malavolta, Domenico Nardiello
Space missions for the discovery and characterisation of exoplanets
We are members of the CHEOPS (CHaracterizing Exoplanets Satellite) Science Team. CHEOPS is an ESA S-class mission launched in the second half of 2018, and we are currently analysing its data and planning future observations.
We are members of the ESA Science Team and the consortium board building PLATO (PLAnetary Transits and Stellar Oscillations), an ESA M-class satellite to be launched in 2026. We are responsible for preparing the PLATO Input Catalog (PIC), which will contain all the target stars for exoplanet search, and selecting the field of view of PLATO.
We are members of the Science Team of Ariel, an ESA M-class mission dedicated to the atmospheric characterisation of known planets (launch expected by 2029). We interpret exoplanetary emission and transmission spectra using a Bayesian approach and Machine Learning techniques.
We are experts in reducing, correcting, and analysing data from space missions such as Kepler and TESS to search for transiting exoplanets and variable stars.
Contacts: Giampaolo Piotto, Valerio Nascimbeni, Valentina Granata
Exoplanets with the transit time variation technique
We are responsible for the TASTE project (The Asiago Search for Transit Timing Variations of Exoplanets), which searches for exoplanets using the transit time variation (TTV) technique.
We have developed the code TRADES (TRAnsits and Dynamics of Exoplanetary Systems) for the TTV analysis for the TASTE project, Kepler/K2 data and future CHEOPS, PLATO, and Ariel missions.
Contacts: Valerio Nascimbeni, Luca Borsato
Exoplanetary atmospheres
We are leading several observational projects to study the atmospheres of transiting planets at high (HARPS-N) and medium resolution (Hubble Space Telescope, Very Large Telescope and Large Binocular Telescope). Our team is developing data reduction pipelines.
We are developing models of planetary atmospheres to explain observed spectra and to rebuild the thermodynamic properties of the higher part of the atmosphere, which is linked to extreme phenomena of planetary evaporation.
We develop atmospheric models assuming one-dimensional and two-dimensional radiative transfer using TauREx (a code for modelling and retrieving exoplanetary spectra). Thanks to these models, we train Machine Learning algorithms capable of generating exoplanetary atmospheres. In particular, we are the developers of ExoGAN (Exoplanetary Generative Adversarial Network), an ensemble of neural networks capable of generating atmospheric models and interpreting exoplanetary spectra.
Contacts: Tiziano Zingales
Dynamical evolution of planetary systems
We are using N-bodies and hydrodynamic codes (PLUTO, Fargo and Phantom) to study the evolution of planetary systems and the dynamical interactions between planets, debris disks, and gaps. The stability of discovered multi-planet systems is analysed using the frequency analysis method or via direct numerical integration.
Contacts: Francesco Marzari
Quantum Computing for exoplanets
We apply Quantum Computing techniques to study exoplanetary atmospheres. The main activities concern the application of Quantum Machine Learning techniques to model exoplanetary atmospheres and Quantum Optimisation techniques to speed up the Bayesian tool to retrieve atmospheric parameters from a transit/emission spectrum. These projects are led in collaboration with the interdisciplinary QTech center in Padua.
Contacts: Tiziano Zingales
