Christopher Watson

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.

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Projects

5 Active
7 Finished

R1396APL: PATT Travel Grant for Observational Astrophysics at QUB: 2020 - 2022

Jess, D., Fitzsimmons, A., Keenan, F., Mathioudakis, M., Millar, T., Milligan, R., Schwamb, M., Sim, S., Smartt, S., Watson, C. & de Mooij, E.

07/07/2020 → …

Project: Research

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

Research Output

105 Article
8 Paper
4 Abstract
3 Conference contribution
6 More

A long period (P = 61.8-d) M5V dwarf eclipsing a Sun-like star from TESS and NGTS

Gill, S., Cooke, B. F., Bayliss, D., Nielsen, L. D., Lendl, M., Wheatley, P. J., Anderson, D. R., Moyano, M., Bryant, E. M., Acton, J. S., Belardi, C., Bouchy, F., Burleigh, M. R., Casewell, S. L., Chaushev, A., Goad, M. R., Jackman, J. A. G., Jenkins, J. S., McCormac, J., Günther, M. N. & 10 others, Osborn, H. P., Pollacco, D., Raynard, L., Smith, A. M. S., Tilbrook, R. H., Turner, O., Udry, S., Vines, J. I., Watson, C. A. & West, R. G., 13 May 2020, In : Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Advance Access.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article

Open Access

File

19 Downloads (Pure)

A remnant planetary core in the hot Neptunian desert

Armstrong, D. J., Lopez, T. A., Adibekyan, V., Booth, R. A., Bryant, E. M., Collins, K. A., Emsenhuber, A., Huang, C. X., King, G. W., Lillo-box, J., Lissauer, J. J., Matthews, E. C., Mousis, O., Nielsen, L. D., Osborn, H., Otegi, J., Santos, N. C., Sousa, S. G., Stassun, K. G., Veras, D. & 74 others, Ziegler, C., Acton, J. S., Almenara, J. M., Anderson, D. R., Barrado, D., Barros, S. C. C., Bayliss, D., Belardi, C., Bouchy, F., Briceno, C., Brogi, M., Brown, D. J. A., Burleigh, M. R., Casewell, S. L., Chaushev, A., Ciardi, D. R., Collins, K. I., Colón, K. D., Cooke, B. F., Crossfield, I. J. M., Díaz, R. F., Deleuil, M., Delgado Mena, E., Demangeon, O. D. S., Dorn, C., Dumusque, X., Eigmuller, P., Fausnaugh, M., Figueira, P., Gan, T., Gandhi, S., Gill, S., Goad, M. R., Guenther, M. N., Helled, R., Hojjatpanah, S., Howell, S. B., Jackman, J., Jenkins, J. S., Jenkins, J. M., Jensen, E. L. N., Kennedy, G. M., Latham, D. W., Law, N., Lendl, M., Lozovsky, M., Mann, A. W., Moyano, M., McCormac, J., Meru, F., Mordasini, C., Osborn, A., Pollacco, D., Queloz, D., Raynard, L., Ricker, G. R., Rowden, P., Santerne, A., Schlieder, J. E., Seager, S., Sha, L., Tan, T-G., Tilbrook, R. H., Ting, E., Udry, S., Vanderspek, R., Watson, C. A., West, R. G., Wilson, P. A., Winn, J. N., Wheatley, P., Villasenor, J. N., Vines, J. I. & Zhan, Z., 01 Jul 2020, In : Nature.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article

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

1 Citation (Scopus)

40 Downloads (Pure)

Detection of Fe I in the atmosphere of the ultra-hot Jupiter WASP-121b, and a new likelihood-based approach for Doppler-resolved spectroscopy

Gibson, N. P., Merritt, S., Nugroho, S. K., Cubillos, P. E., de Mooij, E. J. W., Mikal-Evans, T., Fossati, L., Lothringer, J., Nikolov, N., Sing, D. K., Spake, J. J., Watson, C. A. & Wilson, J., 01 Apr 2020, In : Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 493, 2, p. 2215-2228

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article

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., 20 Feb 2020, In : Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 493, 1, p. 126-140 15 p.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article

Open Access

File

4 Downloads (Pure)

Prizes

Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society

Watson, Christopher (Recipient), 2002

Prize: Election to learned society

Postdoctoral Fellowship

Watson, Christopher (Recipient), 2005

Prize: Fellowship awarded competitively

Activities

16 Public lecture/debate/seminar
11 Participation in conference
10 Membership of peer review panel or committee
7 Participation in Festival/Exhibition
31 More

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

Science & Technology Facilities Council (External organisation)

Christopher Watson (Member)

01 Sep 2018 → 01 Jul 2019

Activity: Membership types › Membership of national or international committees and working groups

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)