Planetary Science Seminar

We live in a golden era of exoplanet discovery and characterization. In the past few years, the Kepler Mission has discovered over 4000 exoplanets, enabling rich empirical studies of planet occurrence, composition, formation, and evolution. In particular, Kepler's 700 multi-planet systems represent the end-states of planet formation, and their detailed orbital dynamics and planet compositions tell the story of how those planets arrived at their present configurations. My work involves detailed measurements of the masses, densities, and orbital dynamics of planets in multi-planet systems with the goal of characterizing planet compositions and possible formation and evolution pathways.