Scarlett E Royle

Scarlett E Royle
Exoplanet Science PhD Candidate
European Southern Observatory / Liverpool John Moores University

I am a third-year PhD student at the European Southen Observatory (ESO) in Chile and the Astrophysics Research Insitute at Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) in the UK. My PhD project, titled What controls where life can form and evolve in the Universe?, is jointly funded by ESO, the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), and the Bell Burnell Graduate Graduate Scholarship Fund (BBGSF).

My main research interests are exoplanet demographics, habitability, atmospheres, and observing Solar System bodies.

I currently perform exoplanet population studies to test the effect of galactic dynamical perturbations (e.g. satellite galaxy passages and resonances induced by the Milky Way bar and spiral arms) on planetary systems and their potential habitability.

I am on a two-year (March 2024 - March 2026) studentship at the ESO in Santiago, Chile, supervised by Dr Elyar Sedaghati and Dr Julia Victoria Seidel. I'm currently writing a paper on my work in exoplanet population studies, after which I will focus on the characterisation of exoplanet atmospheres via high-resolution spectroscopy.

While at LJMU, I assisted in teaching our Undergraduate Computational Astronomy Laboratories, was involved in Physics outreach, and chaired my institute's Anti-Racism Group meetings.

Infographics

My current research

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So far, I have been studying how the properties of planetary systems are affected by galactic dynamical perturbations. Regions of space that have experienced high perturbation levels exhibit high stellar phase-space (position-velocity) clustering (over-densities).

I find that planetary systems in over-densities tend to have greater planetary masses, smaller semi-major axes, and an excess of Hot Jupiters compared to field systems. I am also investigating whether this could impact habitability, thereby, whether stellar spatial-velocity density can be used to identify habitable systems.

My master's research

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Talks and presentation slides

Scarlett_Royle_ESLAB-Planets_Presentation.mp4

The effect of galactic kinematics on exoplanet systems and their potential habitability

A recording of the talk I gave at the Planet-ESLAB 2023 Conference: Understanding Planets in the Solar System and Beyond, at EAS-ESTEC, in Noordwijk, The Netherlands.

My sides are available to view and download here.

Interviews

Milky Way’s Own Dynamics May Sabotage Habitable Planetary Systems, Says StudyYour solar system’s habitability may depend a lot on the galactic environment in which your star actually formed, says new conference paper.

Scarlett Royle: Bell Burnell Graduate Scholarship Fund awardee 2021

Scarlett decided that she couldn't ignore the call of science, and returned to university for a second time, to study physics. Thanks to her tenacity and hard work she's going to be exploring the question of whether or not we're alone in the universe.

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