Explore the fascinating journey of a Ph.D. student who bridges the gap between earthquakes and starquakes, unveiling the secrets of exoplanet migration through innovative seismology research.
From Earthquakes to Cosmic Quakes
Jared Bryan, a fifth-year Ph. A poignant story told by a Ph. D. student at MIT…. He was attracted by the lab’s mix of GPS data, satellite data and seismic station information, which he turned into a seismologist obsessed with understanding the physics in any way related to earthquakes.
His path took a classic twist when he wound up studying earthquakes in stars. As part of the Ph. Bryan was inspired to study stellar observations, which his postdoctoral mentor, Associate Professor Julien de Wit supplied for a second research project that met the Ph. D. program’s diversity requirement of working in a different field from RNA biochemistry. What he found was an astounding resemblance between the seismology from processes on Earth, and pulsations of stars – a comparison that ultimately demonstrated the presence of ‘starquakes.’
Deciphering the Planet Migration Secrets of Extrasolar Systems
Bryan found that the fluctuating brightness was a result of tidal resonance, a phenomenon previously theorized but never directly shown. Waves meet and form constructive interferences — essentially, like pushing a swing at the right moment. This tidal resonance locking can, over time, cause hot Jupiters — massive exoplanets that orbit very close to their host stars -to migrate to different orbital distances as the star evolves.
It is known that the movement of hot jupiters happens via a ‘wandering migration’ — explaining how they get so close to their star in the first place — and although our planets had a bumpy ride, all paths will lead them into orbit around the central white dwarf just days from now. It can accelerate, it can decelerate and it even go backwards. Most significantly, however, the group discovered that this tidal resonance locking can also be used as an invaluable exoplanet detection tool due to its ability to sense just what the astronomers were looking for: planets too small and distant from their host stars, overextended gnomics (a technique). If scientists can peg variations in a star’s brightness to this resonance locking, they might find planets that had previously hidden from view.
Conclusion
Seismology has been used by Jared Brien to study the complex relationship between stars and their exoplanets in orbit, and he will have opened a new path for detecting unobserved planets outside our solar system. He has the solution to this isue, inspires us and shows how connecting terrestrial and celestial seismology can help solve that problem as it seeks to address broader challenges the transformational power of cross-disciplinary collaboration and science dedication.
