Peter Plavchan
Assistant Professor, Physics, Astronomy and Materials Science | Missouri State University
Springfield, MO, UNITED STATES
Dr. Plavchan researches the formation and frequency of exoplanets around solar-type and low-mass stars.
Biography
Dr. Plavchan researches the formation and frequency of exoplanets around solar-type and low-mass stars. His lab currently surveys M dwarf stars using near-infrared spectroscopy to find planets via radial velocity variations.
Industry Expertise (2)
Education/Learning
Research
Areas of Expertise (9)
Exoplanets
Astronomy
Science
Statistical Analysis
Scientific Computing
Astrophysics
Mathematical Modeling
Spectroscopy
Optics
Accomplishments (1)
NASA Honor Achievement Award (professional)
2014-01-01
NASA Exoplanet Archive Team
Education (2)
University of California, Los Angeles: PhD, Physics 2006
Caltech: BS, Physics 2001
Affiliations (3)
- American Astronomical Society
- American Association for the Advancement of Science
- NASA Exoplanet Exploration Program Analysis Group
Links (3)
Media Appearances (6)
Prof. Peter Plavchan, Richard Chassler and the ensemble of alien mega-structures
Surely You're Joking radio
June 2016 Prof. Peter Plavchan and comedian Richard Chassler join Owen and Kevin in Hollywood, to talk about a weird planetary system discovered by the Kepler Space Telescope, which Peter uses to study distant solar systems.
Planets: Formed From Dust, Gas, and Some Luck
KSMU radio
2016-06-02
This week, he comes back to talk with us about the basic mechanisms at work in the formation of a solar system.
New tool refines exoplanet search
Phys.org online
2016-04-11
ew work led by Carnegie's Jonathan Gagné, Caltech's Peter Gao, and Peter Plavchan from Missouri State University reports on a technological upgrade for one method of finding planets or confirming other planetary detections ...
Light echoes give clues to young star’s protoplanetary disc
Astronomy Now
2016-04-27
“This new approach can be used for other young stars with planets in the process of forming in a disc around them,” said Peter Plavchan, co-author of the study and assistant professor at Missouri State University in Springfield ...
MSU student working to solve costly problem in astronomy
Springfield News-Leader
2015-11-26
As a solution, Geneser and Plavchan replaced a 16-inch diameter telescope lens with four, 8-inch diameter telescope lens ...
MSU Professor Explores The Heavens to Find the Next Earth
KSMU Ozarks Public Radio radio
2015-09-03
Dr. Peter Plavchan, an astronomer from Missouri State University, talks about his own research into the burgeoning field of exoplanets ...
Articles (12)
Application of the Trend Filtering Algorithm for Photometric Time Series Data
Publications of the Astronomical Society of Pacific
August 2016 Detecting transient light curves (e.g., transiting planets) requires high-precision data, and thus it is important to effectively filter systematic trends affecting ground-based wide-field surveys.
Radial velocity planet detection biases at the stellar rotational period
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
2016 Future generations of precise radial velocity (RV) surveys aim to achieve sensitivity sufficient to detect Earth mass planets orbiting in their stars’ habitable zones...
Photo-reverberation Mapping of a Protoplanetary Accretion Disk around a T Tauri Star
The Astrophysical Journal
May 2016 Theoretical models and spectroscopic observations of newborn stars suggest that protoplantary disks have an inner “wall” at a distance set by the disk interaction with the star.
Retrieval of Precise Radial Velocities from Near-Infrared High Resolution Spectra of Low Mass Stars
Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
Given that low-mass stars have intrinsically low luminosities at optical wavelengths and a propensity for stellar activity, it is advantageous for radial velocity (RV) surveys of these objects to use near-infrared (NIR) wavelengths.
Precise Near-Infrared Radial Velocities
Young Stars & Planets Near the Sun, Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union
2016 We present the results of two 2.3 μm near-infrared (NIR) radial velocity (RV) surveys to detect exoplanets around 36 nearby and young M dwarfs.
What is the Mass of α Cen B b?
The Astrophysical Journal
June 2015 We present detailed numerical simulations of the dynamical stability of the exoplanet in the α Cen AB binary system for a range of initial inclinations, eccentricities, and semimajor axes.
Radial Velocity Prospects Current and Future: A White Paper Report prepared by the Study Analysis Group 8 for the Exoplanet Program Analysis Group (ExoPAG)
ExoPAG SAG
March 2015 The Study Analysis Group 8 of the NASA Exoplanet Analysis Group was convened to assess the current capabilities and the future potential of the precise radial velocity (PRV) method to advance the NASA goal to "search for planetary bodies and Earth-like planets in orbit around other stars.: (U.S. National Space Policy, June 28, 2010).
Periodic and Aperiodic Variability in the Molecular Cloud ρ Ophiuchus
The Astrophysical Journal Supplement
March 2014 Presented are the results of a near-IR photometric survey of 1678 stars in the direction of the ρ Ophiuchus (ρ Oph) star forming region using data from the 2MASS Calibration Database. For each target in this sample, up to 1584 individual J-, H-, and Ks -band photometric measurements with a cadence of ~1 day are obtained over three observing seasons spanning ~2.5 yr it is the most intensive survey of stars in this region to date.
Investigation of Kepler Objects of Interest Stellar Parameters from Observed Transit Durations
Publications of the Astronomical Society of Pacific
January 2014 The Kepler mission discovery of candidate transiting exoplanets (KOIs) enables a plethora of ensemble analyses of the architecture and properties of exoplanetary systems.
A High-precision Near-infrared Survey for Radial Velocity Variable Low-mass Stars Using CSHELL and a Methane Gas Cell
The Astrophysical Journal
2016 We present the results of a precise near-infrared (NIR) radial velocity (RV) survey of 32 low-mass stars with spectral types K2–M4 using CSHELL at the NASA InfraRed Telescope Facility in the K band with an isotopologue methane gas cell to achieve wavelength calibration and a novel, iterative RV extraction method...
Demonstration of a near-IR line-referenced electro-optical laser frequency comb for precision radial velocity measurements in astronomy
Nature communications
2016 An important technique for discovering and characterizing planets beyond our solar system relies upon measurement of weak Doppler shifts in the spectra of host stars induced by the influence of orbiting planets...
YSOVAR: Mid-infrared Variability in NGC 1333
The Astronomical Journal
2015 As part of the Young Stellar Object VARiability (YSOVAR) program, we monitored NGC 1333 for ~35 days at 3.6 and 4.5 μm using the Spitzer Space Telescope. We report here on the mid-infrared variability of the point sources in the ~10' × ~20' area centered on 03:29:06, +31:19:30 (J2000)...
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