Benchmarks stars for the ESA PLATO mission

PLATO is a European Space Agency mission to find and study a large number of extrasolar planetary systems, with emphasis on the properties of terrestrial planets in the habitable zone around solar-like stars. PLATO has also been designed to investigate seismic activity in stars, enabling the precise characterisation of the planet host star, including its age. This PhD project will use existing data from space telescopes such as NASA’s TESS mission and new observations obtained from ground-based telescopes to establish a set of benchmark stars that will be used to test, improve, and validate the stellar models used by the PLATO Stellar Science team.

Studentship available from September 2021 (flexible)

To apply please go to: https://www.keele.ac.uk/study/postgraduateresearch/studentships/

For informal enquiries on this project, contact Dr Pierre Maxted by email: [Email Address Removed]

or the Project Co-ordinator: Dr Nick Wright [Email Address Removed]

Keele University values diversity, and is committed to ensuring equality of opportunity. In support of these commitments, Keele University particularly welcomes applications from women and from individuals of black and ethnic minority backgrounds for this post. The School of Chemical and Physical Sciences and Keele University have both been awarded Athena Swan awards and Keele University is a member of the Disability Confident scheme. More information is available on these web pages:

https://www.keele.ac.uk/equalitydiversity/

https://www.keele.ac.uk/athenaswan/

https://www.keele.ac.uk/raceequalitycharter/raceequalitycharter/