Congratulations to Gwenaël Van Looveren!

Foto: Gwenaël van Looveren

Are worlds outside of the Solar System similar to Earth? Where should we look for planets like our own? 

Many times, we only think about having the planet at a distance around a star where it has just the right temperature to allow water to remain liquid on the surface, that is, the circumstellar habitable zone. Liquid water, however, does not only requires the right temperature, but also the correct pressure. This leaves us wondering, which planets can keep their atmospheres and which ones cannot? 

This is the question that Gwenaël Van Looveren tackled throughout their recently completed PhD titled "Atmospheric retention distances: Finding planetary systems suitable to host rocky planets with atmospheres". In this work, Gwenaël simulated different types of planets from Earth-like to Venus-like, around many different types of stars to find which systems could allow for this type of planets to hold onto atmospheres. The simulations show that small stars, the most common type of stars in the Universe, are probably not suitable for Earth-like planets in the habitable zone to retain their atmospheres. This would mean that planets with atmospheres and, consequently, those with liquid surface water, might be much rarer than previously thought!

Doing a PhD is not only about the research carried out, it is a complete life experience:  

Throughout my PhD as part of VISESS (the Vienna International School for Earth and Space Science), I got to work with people from all sorts of disciplines and backgrounds. This is an amazing way of exploring topics beyond my field of focus and it allowed me to connect to amazing people whom I would otherwise not have met. My supervisors also always made sure to involve me in large international projects, giving me many opportunities to interact with the scientific community.

Gwenaël will now continue working at the Department of Astrophysics as a postdoctoral researcher to research more in this interesting topic.