2023-08-12 11:41:10
To introduce you to our young researchers, we have conducted throughout the academic year 2022-2023 a series of short interviews , to which all our master’s and doctoral students, as well as all our researchers, were invited to respond. We published portraits on Facebook with the hashtag #iRExEclairInterviews in the last few months.
In this second article in a series of four, we compile the various responses received from these young, up-and-coming scientists to the question:
What is your favorite planet (or exoplanet) and why?
From right to left, top to bottom: Alexandrine L’Heureux, André Beaudoin, Anne Boucher, Ariane Deslières, Caroline Piaulet, Charles Cadieux, Charles-Édouard Boukaré, Chris Mann, Clémence Fontanive, Dereck Lizotte, Dominic Couture, Érika Le Bourdais , Etienne Artigau, Frédéric Genest, Giang Nguyen, Jared Splinter, Jonathan St-Antoine, Katherine Thibault, Keavin Moore, Kim Morel, Leslie Moranta, Lisa Dang, Loïc Albert, Marylou Fournier Tondreau, Michael Matesic, Neil Cook, Olivia Lim, Pierre -Alexis Roy, Romain Allart, Simon Delisle, Thomas Vandal and Vigneshwaran Krishnamurthy.
Clemency : This is not one, but four exoplanets, around the star HR 8799. I love this system because it is the first (and still one of the only!) example of a star with several planets that we can take a direct picture (the direct imaging method), which is very rare. And following years of observation, we even see the planets rotating around the central star, which I find fascinating!
Thomas : Two of my favorite planets are without a doubt the two giant planets around the star Beta Pictoris. The debris disk around this star has been studied since the 1980s. A first planet of regarding 10 times the mass of Jupiter was detected there by direct imaging in 2010, then a second in 2019. It is the first system that I studied following I arrived at iREx and it continues to interest me today!
Simon D. : I like 55 Cancri e. It is a rocky (and possibly lava) planet very close to its star. It’s a real puzzle in our environment, because the observations we have are very surprising and we have difficulty explaining them with our current theories.
Marylou : The exoplanets that fascinate me the most right now are those that are in the habitable zone of the TRAPPIST-1 planetary system, because I am eager to know if the James Webb Space Telescope will detect an atmosphere on these exoplanets. The system includes seven Earth-sized planets of which at least three are in the temperate zone of their very small star.
Lisa : Lava planets like K2-141 b, 55 Cancri e and GJ367 b are my favorites! There are extreme heats, and as they are literally roasted by their host stars, they are covered with oceans of lava which contain new information on the interior of the rocky planets!
Alexandrine : My favorite planet is Earth. I find it really extraordinary that all the conditions have been brought together there to allow the appearance and evolution of life. It is thanks to her that we are now able to turn to space and study the other worlds that are there!
Loic : My favorite planets are the four large gaseous planets orbiting the young star HR 8799. This is the first multi-planet system observed and the planets are directly visible as bright spots. We even see them follow their orbit over the years! It helps to know that they were discovered by a Canadian team.
Vigneshwaran : My favorite exoplanet (so far!) is GJ 9827 d. This super-Earth is less dense and exciting chemical processes might (?!) take place in its atmosphere. If only it were possible to study it better!
Jared : My favorite exoplanet is the hot jupiter WASP-121 b, mainly because I will be analyzing it using data from the James Webb Space Telescope. WASP-121 b belongs to a subcategory of hot jupiters called ultra-hot jupiters (because scientists are very inspired when it comes to inventing names). The temperature on the side of the planet that still faces the star (its “day” side) is so high that the molecules break down, but the temperature on the other side is low enough for the molecules to reform.
Giang : My favorite planet is K2-141 b. This is the first lava planet I have known. After working on it for so long, I finally got attached to it!
Keavin : My favorite planet is Earth: it’s the only planet we know that has fantastic music. My favorite exoplanet is Proxima Centauri b. It is one of the closest exoplanets to us, orbiting in the habitable zone of its host red dwarf, making it an ideal candidate for my research on Earth-like exoplanets.
Charles-Edouard : It’s definitely K2-141b! I have been studying the dynamics of lava planets since my doctorate. Until recently, I only studied the rocky planets in our solar system as they were when they were formed. We think they were completely covered in lava, then! I had a hard time convincing my friends that it was interesting to study the dynamics of planets 4 billion years ago. Imagine my joy when I first heard regarding K2-141b, a rocky exoplanet that now has an ocean of magma!
If you want to hear other iREx astronomers talk regarding their favorite planet, watch our video What is your favorite exoplanet? from the series Des exoplanètes et nous (in French with English subtitles).
To read our astronomers’ answers to other questions, see the other articles in the series:
We asked our young astronomers: What are you working on these days? We asked our young astronomers: Which chapter in the history of exoplanets is important? We asked our young astronomers: Do you think there is life elsewhere?
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