Thomas Beatty

About

I grew up in Connecticut, outside of New York City, and attended Phillips Exeter Academy for high school. I have a Bachelor's in Astronomy and Astrophysics from Harvard University, a Master's in Physics from MIT, and both a Master's and Ph.D. in Astronomy from the Ohio State University.

As a graduate student at the Ohio State University under Scott Gaudi, I helped to begin the KELT survey for transiting planets. This led to us discovering the first nine KELT planets (some of which had nice write-ups in the New York Times, Scientific American, and on Space.com).

I am currently an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin's Department of Astronomy, and a member of the Wisconsin Center for Origins Research (WiCOR).

Previously, I was an assistant research professor at the University of Arizona, where I was an instrument scientist on the NIRCam team. I helped develop NIRCam's time-series observing modes for JWST, and led planning for the team's guaranteed-time exoplanet atmosphere observations. Before Arizona, I was an assistant research professor at Pennsylvania State University, and even before that I held a postdoctoral fellowship at Penn State's Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds (CEHW) working with Jason Wright.

Outside of astronomy, I enjoy skiing, sailing, rowing, and I have a general interest in history and science policy.

Research

My research focuses on observational studies of transiting exoplanets, from detection through to follow-up characterization of their atmospheres. In the coming years it will be possible to detect and characterize potentially habitable planets, and the immediate goal of my research is to lay the groundwork for this. I do this by using ground- and space-based techniques—particularly with JWST—to characterize exoplanet atmospheres across a range of masses and temperatures, and to develop observing techniques for use with more challenging, smaller, targets.

I use a range of telescopes on the ground and in space, from the 3.5m WIYN Telescope to the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes. I am a member of the NEID spectrograph science team, and as a former instrument scientist on the NIRCam team, I helped develop JWST's NIRCam time-series observing modes and continue to use them extensively for exoplanet atmospheric characterization.

In graduate school, I was one of the primary architects of the KELT survey for transiting exoplanets. I was responsible for designing the planet search pipeline, and I began, and then ran, the survey's daily operations. This led to us discovering the first nine KELT planets.

My current work focuses on atmospheric studies of hot Jupiters, transiting brown dwarfs, and sub-Neptunes. I am particularly interested in understanding how stellar irradiation, surface gravity, and photochemistry shape atmospheric properties, and in using JWST transmission and emission spectroscopy to detect molecular species—including potential biosignatures—in sub-Neptune atmospheres.

Recent Publications

• Sulfur Dioxide and Other Molecular Species in the Atmosphere of the Sub-Neptune GJ 3470 b
• The Detectability of Nightside City Lights on Exoplanets
• The TESS Phase Curve of KELT-1b Suggests a High Dayside Albedo

Students

Current Graduate Students

Max Kroft — Max works on the detection and characterization of transiting exoplanets discovered by the TESS mission. His research focuses on multi-planet systems, including the dynamical interactions between planets in compact orbital configurations. He is also involved in radial velocity follow-up observations using the NEID and Keck Planet Finder spectrographs.

• A Pair of Dynamically Interacting Sub-Neptunes around TOI-6054

Annie Triantafillides — Annie works on the detection and characterization of exoplanet atmospheres through observation and modeling techniques. Her research uses JWST observations to constrain the atmospheric compositions of giant exoplanets, including measurements of metallicity and carbon-to-oxygen ratios.

Eshan Raul — Eshan works on exoplanetary atmospheres, habitability, and astrochemistry. His prior research has included modeling the chemical evolution of organic molecules in protoplanetary disks and investigating the effects of planetary rotation on hot Jupiter emission spectra.

Former Students

Matthew Murphy (Ph.D., University of Arizona; now postdoc at Michigan State University) — Matthew's research focuses on the atmospheric characterization of transiting exoplanets using JWST, with a particular emphasis on morning-to-evening limb asymmetries in transmission spectroscopy. His work on WASP-107 b provided the first space-based detection of east-west atmospheric asymmetry in a transiting exoplanet.

• A Panchromatic Characterization of the Evening and Morning Atmosphere of WASP-107 b: Composition and Cloud Variations, and Insight into the Effect of Stellar Contamination
• HST Transmission Spectra of the Hot Neptune HD 219666 b: Detection of Water and the Challenge of Constraining Both Water and Methane
• Evidence for Morning-to-Evening Limb Asymmetry on the Cool Low-Density Exoplanet WASP-107 b
• An Analytic Characterization of the Limb Asymmetry—Transit Time Degeneracy
• A Lack of Variability between Repeated Spitzer Phase Curves of WASP-43b

CV

Curriculum Vitae

Publication List

Contact

• Email: tgbeatty@wisc.edu
• Phone: (608) 262-8687
• Office: Sterling Hall Rm. 5504

Elements

i = 0;

while (!deck.isInOrder()) {
    print 'Iteration ' + i;
    deck.shuffle();
    i++;
}

print 'It took ' + i + ' iterations to sort the deck.';