My name is Thomas G. Wilson, I am a planetary astrophysicist currently working within the PLATO, CHEOPS, and HARPS-N teams to utilise high-precision instruments to search for and characterise Earth-like exoplanets, with previous research done studying exoplanetary debris disks around white dwarfs and the water environment in Solar System comets.
Contact email:
thomas.g.wilson@warwick.ac.uk
Credit: ESA/ATG medialab (link)I am interested in a wide range of fields from the discovery and characterisation of Earth-like exoplanets to the destruction of exoplanets in white dwarf systems to the evolution of Solar System comets and asteroids.
Credit: ESA / ATG medialab (link)
I am working as a part of the CHEOPS consortium in several working groups aiming to utilise the ultra-high precision photometry of the instrument to refine exoplanet radii.
Observations are currently being taken in order to provide data that will help us answer questions about the orbital configuration, internal structure, and atmospheres of these planets.
Credit: Avet Harutyunyan / TNG (link)
In tandem with my research into exoplanet radii, I am also interested in discovering exoplanets and determinging their masses using the high spectral resolution of the HARPS-N instrument at the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG) in La Palma.
This complimentary work allows for evermore precise determinations of exoplanet bulk density and hence, planetary internal structure.
Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI, and G. Bacon (STScI) (link)
Using observations from both Spitzer and Hubble space telescopes I am searching for asteroid or cometary debris disks around 196 single and 40 binary white dwarfs. This study forms the largest, unbiased survey to study the frequency of post-main sequence planetary systems.
Following recent studies it has been shown that white dwarf debris disks are dynamic environments. Work is ongoing to study these circumstellar environments, including studies here, here, and here.
Credit: NASA/MSFC/Aaron Kingery (link)
I have used the Herschel Space Observatory to study the water environment of the comae of four comets. By studying the chemistry of the comae a non-typical water ortho-to-para ratio was found. As part of the project the radiative transfer code, CRETE, was developed and can be found here.
One of the most surprising results of the Rosetta mission was the over-abundance of O2. Using a detailed chemical model, collaborators and I have shown that a range of physical conditions in the pre-Solar cloud can account for the level of O2 seen in comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.
Credir: NASA/JPL-Caltech (link)
While the frequency of hydrogen- and helium-dominated polluted white dwarfs has now been constrained, the frequency of planetary systems around old, carbon-dominated white dwarfs (DQZs) is unknown.
Observations of 24 DQ stars using the VLT/UVES instrument has shown that there seems to be a lack of planetary systems at these stars with the observed frequency of metal pollution much lower than in other white dwarf spectral classes.
Credit: ESA - P.Carril (link)
As well as my white dwarf and comet research, I am part of the EURONEAR collaboration and have taken observations of near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) using the Isaac Newton Telescope/WFC & IDS and Mercator Telescope/MAIA, with 3 new NEAs discovered, here, here, and here.
I am also currently leading a team to take observations of asteroid 2005 UD using the Isaac Newton Telescope and the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo for a primary study working with the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA). The target is the focus of a proposed future mission; Destiny+.
Credit: (c) David A. Hardy/ www.astroart.org (link)
Dwarf carbon (dC) stars have been known for over 40 years, however the high abundance of observed carbon in these low-mass stars remains a mystery. A popular hypothesis for the origin of the carbon is the presence of a nearby high-mass donor star.
Collaborators and I have taken observations of 28 dC stars using the William Herschel Telescope/ISIS instrument with 21 showing evidence of binarity with the paper published here.
Vaduvescu, O., Gorgan, D., Copandean, D., Bacu, V., Stefanut, T., Sabou, A., Nandra, C., Boldea, C., Pinter, V., Popescu, M., Petrescu, E., Bertesteanu, D., Davison, T., Pérez Toledo, F. M., Boldea, A., Predatu, M., Zegmott, T., Wilson, T. G., Hudin, L., Stanescu, M., Stanica, A., Buhulea, A., Stoica, A., Timpea, A., Anghel, S., Ciobanu, D., Toma, R., Casanova, V., Stecklum, B., Choque-Challapa, N., Short, P., & Tudorica, A. Ready for EURONEAR NEA surveys using the NEARBY moving source detection platform, submitted
Vaduvescu, O., Popescu, M., Wilson, T. G., & Davison, T. 2018 VQ1, MPEC, 2018, 2018-V45
Vaduvescu, O., Popescu, M., Wilson, T. G., & Davison, T. 2018 VE, MPEC, 2018, 2018-V09
Aznar, A., Vaduvescu, O., Wilson, T. G., & Zegmott, T. (15745) YULIYA, CBET, 2018, #4523
“Exploring the Exoplanet Zoo with CHEOPS and HARPS-N”, UFRGS Departamento de Astronomia Seminar, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, 26 August
“A CHEOPS Update: Revealing the Pictures of Exoplanetary Systems through Precise Photometry”, StA-CES 2020 Summer Mini-Conference, University of St Andrews, U.K, 23 June
“6 (Simple?) Steps to Destroy a Planet: Or How we Discover White Dwarf Planetary Systems and What we can Learn About Them”, St Andrews Physics and Astronomy Lunch-Time Seminar, University of St Andrews, U.K, 10 March
"The Life of a Planetary System”, Berlin Astronomy Outreach Seminar, Berlin Astronomy and Astrophotography, Germany, 11 April
"On the Formation, Evolution, and Destruction of Minor Planetary Bodies", Isaac Newton Group Seminar, Isaac Newton Group, Spain, 22 November
"Understanding Alien Worlds", International Space University Space Studies Program 2017, Cork Institute of Technology, Ireland, 31 July
"Planetary Debris Disk Frequencies & Herschel Observations of Non-Typical Cometary Water Ortho-to-Para Ratios", Centre for Planetary Science Summer Meeting, University College London, U.K, 17 July
"Herschel/SPIRE Observations of Water Production Rates and Ortho-to-Para Ratios in Comets", Origins of Solar Systems - Gordon Research Conference, Mount Holyoke College, U.S.A, 17-23 June
"Herschel/SPIRE Observations of Water Production Rates and Ortho-to-Para Ratios in Comets", Asteroids, Comets, Meteors 2017, Universidad de la República, Uruguay, 10-14 April
"An Extended Unbiased Survey to Determine the Frequency of White Dwarf Debris Disks", Planetary Systems Beyond The Main Sequence II, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Israel, 5-10 March
"Herschel/SPIRE Observations of Water Production Rates and Ortho-to-Para Ratios in Comets", Scottish Planetary Research Network (SPERO), The University of Edinburgh, U.K, 22 February
"Herschel/SPIRE Observations of Water Production Rates and Ortho-to-Para Ratios in Comets", 14th Early Career Planetary Scientists’ Meeting, The University of Manchester, U.K, 23 January
"Water Production Rates of the Oort Cloud and Jupiter Family Comets Observed by Herschel/SPIRE", National Astronomy Meeting, The University of Nottingham, U.K, 27 June-1 July
"Water Productions Rates Of Long- And Short-Period Comets Observed by Herschel/SPIRE", Water in the Universe, European Space Research and Technology Centre, The Netherlands, 12-15 April
"Understanding Alien Worlds", International Space University Space Studies Program 2015, Ohio University, U.S.A, 14 July
"Determining the Imaging Properties of Off Axis Parabolas for Use in the Visible Nulling Coronagraph Testbed", 2013 Summer Intern Session, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, U.S.A, 1 August
"Phobos Next: Human Exploration of Mars from Martian Orbit", Humans 2 Mars Summit, George Washington University Space Policy Institute, U.S.A, 6-8 May
During my PhD at University College London I co-supervised the Masters project of a MSc student who delved in the Spitzer archive in order discover new white dwarf debris disks.
I also co-supervised a visiting summer student whose project was to reduce and analyse spectra of metal-polluted white dwarfs.
Working with, and funded by, the Mayor's Fund for London I organised and ran 10-week long practical astronomy course to teach 10/11 year old high school students basic astronomy, and asteroid and variable star detection methods. A paper outlining the course can be found here.
Credit: Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) (link)
At University of St Andrews I have tutored two groups of second year undergraduates for the spring term of 2020 covering Exoplanets, Stellar Structure and Evolution, Galaxies, and Astronomical Observation.
Furthermore, at University College London I demonstrated for Python Computing and Practical Astronomy undergraduate courses from 2015-17. During my PhD I also marked three undergraduate courses.
In the summers of 2014 and 2015 I was the teaching associate for the Exoplanets and Planetary Defense Team Projects, respectively, at the International Space University Space Studies Programs in Montreal, Canada, and Ohio, U.S.A. Project management work has been published here.
I have conducted public tours of the William Herschel and Isaac Newton Telescopes at the Observatorio Roque de los Muchachos, Spain. As a part of the University College London Centre for Planetary Science summer meeting in 2017 I gave public tours of the University College London Observatory.
