Keighley Rockcliffe

Through my previous work for Goddard Space Flight Center's Heliophysics Directorate studying the Sun and its influence on the heliosphere, I became curious about how other stars influence the environment and objects surrounding them. By joining Dr. Elisabeth Newton's research group, I've been able to channel that enthusiasm towards the analysis of exoplanetary systems. I use the light transmitted from a star through the atmosphere of an orbiting exoplanet to learn more about that atmosphere's height, composition, and make conclusions about whether the gas is escaping. The evolution of exoplanet atmospheres is closely tied to many factors in many uncharacterized ways, such as the age of the host star. Through my time at Dartmouth College, I will be working towards constraining how planet and stellar properties influence atmospheric escape.