School of Hard Science – Exoplanets an emerging sphere in physics

Some say we know more about space than we do about our oceans, although that shouldn’t discourage you from looking up in the sky and wondering about all that space has to offer. It certainly doesn’t discourage Dr. Jared Workman, assistant professor of Physics at CMU.

Workman is one of the few physicists who use an unconventional method in his approach to advanced physics: a pencil and paper.

“Once you get into heavy duty astrophysics and engineering, you can’t do these equations by hand,” Workman said. “They’re just not solvable.”

This is one of the more peculiar reasons Workman and his Swiss colleague, who recieved a significant grant in order to study exoplanets, Jupiter-size gas giants beyond our solar system, make a perfect pair for the project.

“He knew there was very few other people obsessive compulsive enough to do 160 pages of pencil and paper mathematics,” Workman said. Because of how CMU structures scientific research projects with its professors, Workman was able to jump on the project that could have a huge impact on the field down the road.

Exoplanets are a relatively new area of study in astrophysics, according to Workman. Around 1,000 exoplanets have been discovered recently, and it’s becoming clearer as to what we can learn from them. A huge step in the field is a project being funded in Europe called Exoplanet Characterization Observatory (EChO). EChO seeks to analyze the waves emitted by particles in these planets’ atmospheres to collect data on how they act, providing insight into the composition of the planet as well as characteristics such as how hot the planet is.

Workman’s research comprises an estimated 273 equations looking at behavior of fluid substances in the varying climates of exoplanets. Looking at our Earth, there is a certain way air flows in the atmosphere, where jet streams push weather systems from east to west. Workman hopes to describe these kinds of atmospheric occurrences on exoplanets.

“It’s definitely one of the coolest things out there right now,” Workman said. “It would be nice to be one of the people to show and say, ‘Here is how you start out on this stuff.’” It’s surprising to Workman that he is part of one of the first groups of people to be working on this particular study of exoplanets.

“The goal is to make it one of the landmark [research] papers in the field over the next 50 years,” Workman said.

It may take 20 years to know whether the study does produce the framework results he is hoping for. In the meantime though, one of the early voices in the study of exoplanets will continue his work CMU.

brjthomp@mavs.coloradomesa.edu

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