Tabetha Boyajian
Associate Professor
Dr. Boyajian is active in the fields of stellar interferometry/spectroscopy, exoplanet research, and high angular resolution astronomy.
Areas of Expertise
Biography
Boyajian received a BS degree in Physics with concentration in Astronomy from the College of Charleston in 2003, an MS degree in Physics from Georgia State University in 2005, and a PhD degree in Philosophy of Astronomy from the same university in 2009. She studied the sizes of nearby stars similar to the Sun, using the University's CHARA array, a long-baseline optical and infrared interferometer located at Mount Wilson Observatory. Boyajian was awarded a Hubble Fellowship, and stayed at Georgia State University to study sizes of nearby stars much smaller than the Sun and stars with planets.
Research Focus
Stellar Characterization & Time‑Domain Astrophysics
Dr. Boyajian’s research focuses on stellar characterization, variability, and time‑domain astrophysics, with emphasis on exoplanet host stars and anomalous objects such as KIC 8462852 (“Boyajian’s Star”). She uses optical/IR interferometry, high‑resolution spectroscopy, and coordinated space‑ and ground‑based photometric monitoring—including citizen‑science networks—to determine stellar properties and probe circumstellar environments.
Education
Georgia State University
Ph.D.
Astronomy
2009
Georgia State University
M.S.
Physics
2005
College of Charleston
B.S.
Physics
2003
Media Appearances
It may not be natural ― NASA detects ‘unusual brightening patterns’ in this star
El Diario 24 online
2025-07-02
Tabby’s Star was first discovered by the public in 2016, when amateur astronomers studying data collected by the NASA Kepler space telescope mission determined it would dim as much as 22 percent temporarily before brightness normalized. “Stars just don’t do that,” lead author of the original paper, Tabetha Boyajian.
‘Is it aliens?’: how a mysterious star could help the search for extraterrestrial life
The Guardian online
2024-04-27
It is our galaxy’s strangest star, a flickering globe of light whose sporadic and unpredictable output has baffled astronomers for years. But now the study of Boyajian’s star is being promoted as a research model that could help in one of the most intriguing of all scientific quests: finding intelligent life on other worlds.
Mysterious 'alien megastructure' star may not be so special after all
NBC News online
2019-09-19
When the researchers analyzed data from NASA's Kepler space telescope, astronomer Tabetha "Tabby" Boyajian, then at Yale University, and her colleagues found dozens of odd instances of KIC 8462852 dimming by up to 22 percent, with such dips lasting anywhere from a few days to a week. These events did not appear to follow any pattern and seemed far too substantial to be caused by planets or dust crossing the star's face.
Why astronomers are scrambling to observe the weirdest star in the galaxy this weekend
The Verge online
2017-05-20
The star Muterspaugh has been looking at is KIC 8462852, though it’s also known as Tabby’s Star. That’s because Tabetha Boyajian, an astronomer at Louisiana State University, first noticed this strange star a couple years ago after looking through archive data from Kepler — a NASA spacecraft that’s been hunting for planets that exist outside of our Solar System. Boyajian was part of a citizen science project called Planet Hunters, where volunteers can analyze Kepler data to look for planets, and they alerted her to the wonky star. “Our users flagged it to be something really interesting,” Boyajian tells The Verge. “They came to the science team and asked, ‘What is this? That’s not a planet clearly.’”
The Most Mysterious Star in Our Galaxy
The Atlantic online
2015-10-13
“We’d never seen anything like this star,” says Tabetha Boyajian, a postdoc at Yale. “It was really weird. We thought it might be bad data or movement on the spacecraft, but everything checked out.”
Articles
Understanding the origin of Boyajian's Star occultations
JWST Proposal. Cycle 22022
KIC 8462852 (Boyajian's Star) displays an extraordinary light curve, showing both deep "dipping" events and long-term changes. We propose observations of this object in the wavelength range 1.7 to 25 microns in order to measure the thermal emission from the circumstellar material causing the observed light curve variations. We will obtain spectra in the 1.66-11 microns wavelength range, and imaging at 15, 18, 20, and 25 microns with orders of magnitude better sensitivity than existing observations. The first goal of these observations is to distinguish among competing models for the star's behavior: a detection would confirm the circumstellar nature of the occulting material; a non-detection would be highly constraining, and motivate further development of alternative models for the star's light curve, such as dense knots of material in the interstellar medium, or an intervening cold disk of a dark object such as a black hole. The second goal of these observations, in the event of a detection, is to determine the temperature and luminosity of the circumstellar dust to better understand this extraordinary object. These observations will be sensitive to any debris disk in the 10th percentile of those around similar old stars. These observations also have a chance of measuring the emission spectrum of warm dust during the close passage of the occulting material, allowing it to be conclusively identified and studied via its silicate features. We waive the exclusive access period for these observations.
A detailed analysis of the Gl 486 planetary system
Astronomy & Astrophysics2022
Context. The Gl 486 system consists of a very nearby, relatively bright, weakly active M3.5 V star at just 8 pc with a warm transiting rocky planet of about 1.3 R⊕ and 3.0 M⊕. It is ideal for both transmission and emission spectroscopy and for testing interior models of telluric planets.Aims. To prepare for future studies, we aim to thoroughly characterise the planetary system with new accurate and precise data collected with state-of-the-art photometers from space and spectrometers and interferometers from the ground.
Methods. We collected light curves of seven new transits observed with the CHEOPS space mission and new radial velocities obtained with MAROON-X at the 8.1 m Gemini North telescope and CARMENES at the 3.5 m Calar Alto telescope, together with previously published spectroscopic and photometric data from the two spectrographs and TESS.
Validation of TOI-1221 b: A Warm Sub-Neptune Exhibiting Transit Timing Variations around a Sun-like Star
The Astronomical Journal2023
We present a validation of a long-period (91.68278 0.00041 0.00032-+ days) transiting sub-Neptune planet, TOI-1221b (TIC 349095149.01), around a Sun-like (mV= 10.5) star. This is one of the few known exoplanets with a period> 50 days, and belongs to the even smaller subset of which have bright enough hosts for detailed spectroscopic follow-up. We combine Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite light curves and ground-based time-series photometry from the Perth Exoplanet Survey Telescope (0.3 m) and Las Cumbres Observatory global telescope network (1.0 m) to analyze the transit signals and rule out nearby stars as potential false-positive sources. High-contrast imaging from the Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope and Gemini/Zorro rule out nearby stellar contaminants.
Fundamental Properties of Three Metal-Poor Stars with Optical/NIR Interferometry
Bulletin of the American Physical Society2023
Angular diameters of three metal-poor and one solar metallicity star—HD 184499, HD 22879, and HD 76932 and HD 108510—were measured using the CHARA Array interferometer. Angular diameters θ LD= 0.403±0.004, 0.397±0.006, 0.570±0.005, and 0.360±0.006 mas were found for HD 184499, HD 22879, HD 76932, and HD 108510, respectively. Using these diameters combined with Hipparcos parallaxes and literature values for bolometric flux, linear radii R= 1.38±0.02, 1.09±0.02, 1.29±0.01, and 1.16±0.03 R☉; effective temperatures T eff= 5824±47, 5856±50, 5913±47, and 5950±84 K; and luminosities L= 1.97±0.07, 1.26±0.04, 1.82±0.05, and 1.50±0.09 L☉ were calculated. Given these values along with literature values for [Fe/H], the Python package Kīauhōkū was used to compute an age and mass for each star from four stellar model grids.
Measuring the stellar and planetary parameters of the 51 Eridani system
Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia2024
In order to study exoplanets, a comprehensive characterisation of the fundamental properties of the host stars – such as angular diameter, temperature, luminosity, and age, is essential, as the formation and evolution of exoplanets are directly influenced by the host stars at various points in time. In this paper, we present interferometric observations taken of directly imaged planet host 51 Eridani at the CHARA Array. We measure the limb-darkened angular diameter of 51 Eridani to be for 51 Eri b using the Sonora Bobcat models, which further supports the possibility of 51 Eri b forming under either the hot-start formation model or the warm-start formation model.
Affiliations
- International Astronomical Union
Media
