Understanding Planet Formation via Microlensing

The NASA Postdoctoral Program (NPP) offers unique research opportunities to highly-talented scientists to engage in ongoing NASA research projects at a NASA Center, NASA Headquarters, or at a NASA-affiliated research institute. These one- to three-year fellowships are competitive and are designed to advance NASA's missions in space science, Earth science, aeronautics, space operations, exploration systems, and astrobiology. This specific opportunity focuses on exoplanet research using microlensing with the Roman Space Telescope. The fellow will use theoretical modeling techniques, including population synthesis, to provide constraints on the physics of planet formation based on simulated Roman observations and eventually real data. The Roman Space Telescope will conduct a survey of exoplanets using microlensing, detecting roughly 1000 exoplanets at approximately 1-10 AU separations, enabling statistical analysis of planet-forming locations. The research involves interpreting detections of planets down to Mars masses, which remains an unsolved problem in the field.