Research
I work on infrared high-contrast imaging, especially with the Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer (LBTI). Thermal infrared observations in the L and M bandpasses (~3-5 μm wavelengths) are optimal for maximizing the brightness of substellar objects, such as giant exoplanets and brown dwarfs, relative to their host stars. With excellent adaptive optics (AO) correction and a minimal number of warm optics, the LBTI is uniquely sensitive at these wavelengths - allowing for strong detections of young, self-luminous planets and brown dwarfs (see images above!).
Earlier this year, I led a study on HII 1348B, a ~112 Myr-old, high-mass (~61 Jupiter masses) brown dwarf companion to a binary star in the Pleiades star cluster. The four pink images show the bright yellow (false color) brown dwarf as seen at 3.7 microns with LBTI, across the two 8.4-m apertures (hence, binocular!) and at two telescope paintings. There is also a plot of my fitting of self-consistent atmospheric models to spectro-photometry of HII 1348B in the near-to-mid-IR. We find from the first orbital modeling of this companion that its wide, circumbinary orbit is likely quite eccentric, hinting at a star-like formation history and a possible dynamical scattering event with the inner binary stars.
More recently, I contributed to a paper led by Laird Close on the discovery of the first accreting giant planet carving a dark ring in its surrounding protoplanetary disk. The ~5 Jupiter-mass accreting protoplanet WISPIT 2b was discovered at Hα with MagAO-X following the disk discovery with SPHERE. I analyzed L' imaging of the system from the LBTI, which helped our team infer the mass of planet b from evolutionary models. The LBTI imaging also revealed a second bright point source in the inner disk cavity (CC1). We don't detect a significant Hα accretion signal from CC1, but see it clearly at L' and also in weaker detections at Ks and z' . It appears to be too red to be explained by scattered starlight alone, so we propose it may be a 2nd protoplanet, more embedded in dust (~9 Jupiter masses).
