Photo of Christopher Watson
 

View Scopus Profile

Christopher Watson

Dr

  • Room 02.013 - New Physics

    United Kingdom

20002020

Research output per year

If you made any changes in Pure these will be visible here soon.

Personal profile

Research Interests

I am the head of the Exoplanet Group within the Astrophysics Research Centre in the School of Mathematics and Physics, as well as the Deputy Head of School. My research interests lie with discovering and characterising planets orbiting other stars - known as exoplanets. This work naturally attracts a lot of public and press attention, and has led to a number of global press releases over the years. As a result I have written expert articles for the BBC News, as well as filmed for BBC Horizon, as well as many recorded and live Radio and TV appearances across the UK, USA, and further afield.

My key interests lie with improving detection methods for 'weighing' exoplanets, in the push to confirming the first true (and so far, elusive!) 'Earth-analog' world outside our own solar system. In addition, I also dabble in characterising their atmospheres - and was recently part of a team that showed that it was possible with current techniques to find water in the atmospheres of super-Earths.

Fingerprint Dive into the research topics where Christopher Watson is active. These topic labels come from the works of this person. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

  • 14 Similar Profiles

Network Recent external collaboration on country level. Dive into details by clicking on the dots.

Projects

R1099APL: STFC PhD Studentship Allocations 2019

Mathioudakis, M., Ballance, C., Fitzsimmons, A., Jess, D., Keenan, F., Millar, T., Ramsbottom, C., Riley, D., Sarri, G., Sim, S., Smartt, S. & Watson, C.

11/08/2019 → …

Project: Research

R1915APL: PATT Linked Grant for observational astrophysics at QUB: 2018 - 2020

Jess, D., Fitzsimmons, A., Fraser, W., Gibson, N., Keenan, F., Lacerda, P., Maguire, K., Mathioudakis, M., Millar, T., Sim, S., Smartt, S. & Watson, C.

03/07/2018 → …

Project: Research

R1711APL: QUB Astronomy Observation and Theory Consolodated Grant 2017-2020

Smartt, S., Ballance, C., Gibson, N., Keenan, F., Kotak, R., Maguire, K., Millar, T., Mueller, B., Poppenhaeger, K., Ramsbottom, C., Riley, D., Sarri, G., Sim, S. & Watson, C.

20/01/2017 → …

Project: Research

R1057APL: PATT linked grant for observational astrophysics at QUB: supplememtary funding

Keenan, F. & Watson, C.

01/08/2009 → 17/12/2019

Project: Research

R1461APL: Supplement to Queen's University Belfast Consolidated Grant

Keenan, F., Fitzsimmons, A., Kotak, R., Mathioudakis, M., Millar, T., Ramsbottom, C., Sim, S., Smartt, S. & Watson, C.

02/09/2014 → 31/03/2015

Project: Research

Research Output

Chromospheric emission of solar-type stars with asteroseismic ages

Booth, R. S., Poppenhaeger, K., Watson, C. A., Silva Aguirre, V., Stello, D. & Bruntt, H., 01 Jan 2020, In : Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 491, 1, p. 455-467

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article

Open Access
File
    • 22 Downloads (Pure)

    NGTS-10b: The shortest period hot Jupiter yet discovered

    McCormac, J., Gillen, E., Jackman, J. A. G., Brown, D. J. A., Bayliss, D., Wheatley, P. J., West, R. G., Anderson, D. R., Armstrong, D. J., Bouchy, F., Briegal, J. T., Burleigh, M. R., Cabrera, J., Casewell, S. L., Chaushev, A., Chazelas, B., Chote, P., Cooke, B. F., Costes, J. C., Csizmadia, S. & 27 others, Eigmuller, P., Erikson, A., Foxell, E., Gaensicke, B. T., Goad, M. R., Gunther, M. N., Hodgkin, S. T., Hooton, M. J., Jenkins, J. S., Lambert, G., Lendl, M., Longstaff, E., Louden, T., Moyano, M., Nielsen, L. D., Pollacco, D., Queloz, D., Rauer, H., Raynard, L., Smith, A. M. S., Smalley, B., Soto, M., Turner, O., Udry, S., Vines, J. I., Walker, S. R. & Watson, C. A., 02 Feb 2020, (Accepted) In : Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

    Research output: Contribution to journal › Article

    • NGTS clusters survey. I. Rotation in the young benchmark open cluster Blanco 1

    Gillen, E., Briegal, J. T., Hodgkin, S. T., Foreman-Mackey, D., Van Leeuwen, F., Jackman, J. A. G., McCormac, J., West, R. G., Queloz, D., Bayliss, D., Goad, M. R., Watson, C. A., Wheatley, P. J., Belardi, C., Burleigh, M. R., Casewell, S. L., Jenkins, J. S., Raynard, L., Smith, A. M. S., Tilbrook, R. H. & 1 others, Vines, J. I., 08 Jan 2020, In : Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 492, 1, p. 1008–1024

    Research output: Contribution to journal › Article

    Open Access
    File
    • 16 Downloads (Pure)

    Testing the Spectroscopic Extraction of Suppression of Convective Blueshift

    Miklos, M., Milbourne, T. W., Haywood, R. D., Phillips, D. F., Saar, S. H., Meunier, N., Cegla, H. M., Dumusque, X., Langellier, N., Maldonado, J., Malavolta, L., Mortier, A., Thompson, S., Watson, C. A., Cecconi, M., Cosentino, R., Ghedina, A., Li, C-H., López-Morales, M., Molinari, E. & 4 others, Poretti, E., Sasselov, D., Sozzetti, A. & Walsworth, R. L., 15 Jan 2020, In : The Astrophysical Journal. 888, 2, p. 117

    Research output: Contribution to journal › Article

    Open Access
    File
    • 10 Downloads (Pure)

    A giant impact as the likely origin of different twins in the Kepler-107 exoplanet system

    Bonomo, A. S., Zeng, L., Damasso, M., Leinhardt, Z. M., Justesen, A. B., Lopez, E., Lund, M. N., Malavolta, L., Silva Aguirre, V., Buchhave, L. A., Corsaro, E., Denman, T., Lopez-Morales, M., Mills, S. M., Mortier, A., Rice, K., Sozzetti, A., Vanderburg, A., Affer, L., Arentoft, T. & 32 others, Benbakoura, M., Bouchy, F., Christensen-Dalsgaard, J., Collier Cameron, A., Cosentino, R., Dressing, C. D., Dumusque, X., Figueira, P., Fiorenzano, A. F. M., García, R. A., Handberg, R., Harutyunyan, A., Johnson, J. A., Kjeldsen, H., Latham, D. W., Lovis, C., Lundkvist, M. S., Mathur, S., Mayor, M., Micela, G., Molinari, E., Motalebi, F., Nascimbeni, V., Nava, C., Pepe, F., Phillips, D. F., Piotto, G., Poretti, E., Sasselov, D., Ségransan, D., Udry, S. & Watson, C., 04 Feb 2019, In : Nature Astronomy. 8 p.

    Research output: Contribution to journal › Article

    Open Access
    File
    • 4 Citations (Scopus)
    66 Downloads (Pure)

    Prizes

    Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society

    Christopher Watson (Recipient), 2002

    Prize: Election to learned society

    Postdoctoral Fellowship

    Christopher Watson (Recipient), 2005

    Prize: Fellowship awarded competitively

    Activities

    Science & Technology Facilities Council (External organisation)

    Christopher Watson (Member)
    01 Apr 2081 → …

    Activity: Membership types › Membership of peer review panel or committee

    Public Talk to the Irish Astronomical Association - "The Terra Hunting Experiment: Finding alien Earth-like worlds"

    Christopher Watson (Invited speaker)
    08 Jan 2020

    Activity: Talk or presentation types › Public lecture/debate/seminar

    CoolStars 21 splinter session: "Characterising stellar activity in the era of extreme radial velocity surveys of low-mass planets orbiting F-M stars"

    Christopher Watson (Member of the organising committee)
    22 Jun 2020 → 26 Jun 2020

    Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in conference

    International Space Science Institute - Towards Earth-like alien worlds: "Know thy star, know thy planet II"

    Christopher Watson (Organiser)
    09 Sep 2019 → 13 Sep 2019

    Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in workshop, seminar, course

    The path towards discovering Earth-like alien worlds

    Christopher Watson (Invited speaker)
    08 Oct 2018

    Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited talk

    Impact

    Engaging the Public in Science and Increasing Awareness of Physics and Astronomy

    Alan Fitzsimmons (Participant), Samuel Duddy (Participant), Henry Hsieh (Participant), Stephen Smartt (Participant), Stephen Lowry (Participant), Heather Cegla (Participant), Sergiy Shelyag (Participant), Victoria Moulds (Participant), Michail Mathioudakis (Participant), Don Pollacco (Participant), John Burton (Participant), Christopher Watson (Participant)

    Impact: Societial Impact

    Thesis

    High Contrast Imaging: Exoplanet and Low Stellar Mass Populations

    Author: Durkan, S., Apr 2018

    Supervisor: Watson, C. A. (Supervisor) & Fitzsimmons, A. (Supervisor)

    Student thesis: Doctoral Thesis › Doctor of Philosophy

    File

    Unearth: Revealing the Effects of Stellar Activity on Exoplanet Host Stars

    Author: Thompson, A. P. G., 2019

    Supervisor: Watson, C. (Supervisor)

    Student thesis: Doctoral Thesis › Doctor of Philosophy

    File