The Next Generation Transit Survey (NGTS: Wheatley et al., 2018, MNRAS, 475, 4476) is an STFC supported facility consisting of 12 20cm mirror telescopes fitted with wide field optical CCDs optimised for operation in the 520-890 nm wavelength range. NGTS has conducted wide field exoplanet surveys, and targeted observations of single transit events from NASA’s TESS mission, star clusters and bright stars. NGTS has been hugely successful with over 30 exoplanets discovered to date and data used to confirm many others, as well as supplementary science including stellar flares, cataclysmic variables and stellar clusters.
This PhD project will exploit NGTS data in open star clusters, in particular those that are ~10 million years old or younger, such as the well-known Orion region. These star forming regions are full of newly formed stars, many of which are themselves suspected to be forming planets and hosting protoplanetary discs. These stars are often very dynamic, accreting gas and dust from their environment and showing flares and outbursting behaviour. Understanding these young stars and how they interact with their environment is important for understanding how planets form.
We have been monitoring the well known 1-10 Million year old Orion Nebula Cluster and its vicinity for around 200 days with NGTS, and have extracted lightcurves for over 2000 stars. The Orion Nebula Cluster has been observed by JWST early in its mission, and our data, monitoring many stars with a long baseline will add insights into these deep, snapshot observations in the infrared.
You will investigate these lightcurves, using and developing codes to explore the variability of these stars. We anticipate this being a joint observational and theory project involving not only investigating the lightcurves but also modelling some of the accretion processes present. We have already developed a custom pipeline for faint objects, and detailed background subtraction at the University of Leicester which can be used on these data, and so knowledge of python and C would be useful.
Entry requirements
Applicants are required to hold/or expect to obtain a UK Bachelor Degree 2:1 or better in a relevant subject or overseas equivalent.
The University of Leicester English language requirements apply.
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