Dr Erik Meier Valdes

My research focuses on the characterisation of small exoplanets using space-based spectrophotometric observations, in particular of ESA's CHEOPS and NASA's JWST telescopes. I'm interested in lava planets, the possible heavy-weight secondary atmosphere they harbour and how it interacts with the surface. I also focus in the climate around a rocky exoplanet orbiting M dwarfs. The recent tendency of finding exoplanets to be bare rocks leads us to deepen into the study of its surface. Catastrophically evaporating exoplanets offer a unique opportunity to learn about the surface of a planet by observing and characterising the dusty tail in the circumstellar environment.