Research Statement
The schematic pictured here is a yellow star with a planet crossing the stellar disk. This crossing event is called a transit and is a valuable moment to measure the composition of a planet's atmosphere. A spectrum of a planet during a transit tells astronomers what the astmospheres are made of. This is because the gases in the atmosphere will let some wavelengths pass through whereas other wavelengths can become scattered or absorbed. We are all familiar with this during sunset when the sun looks reddish due to the Raleigh scattering off the Earth's Nitrogen - the same thing that makes the sky blue. I have used transits to study hot Jupiter atmospheres and escaping winds and wish to continue exploring other worlds in this way. The following research statements is one I developed in my teaching portfolio for a class, Teaching in Higher Ed ALS 6015.