YCAA Prize Postdoctoral Fellow

Yale Center for Astronomy & Astrophysics (YCAA)

Dept. of Physics and Dept. of Astronomy,

Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511

Email: Nikku.Madhusudhan@yale.edu

Tel: 617-475-5112 / 203-432-8185 

Research Interests

Atmospheric modeling of exoplanets (gas giants, ice giants, and super-Earths)

Radiative transfer, planetary chemistry, and atmospheric retrieval methods for exoplanets

Internal structure modeling of super-Earths, mass-radius relations, density functional theory

Constraints on exoplanet formation and interiors from atmospheric observations

Carbon-rich planets - interiors, atmospheres, formation scenarios

Optimal planning of observations to constrain atmospheric properties of exoplanets.

Education: PhD (MIT, 2009), MS (MIT, 2004), B. Tech (IIT-BHU, India, 2002)

PhD: Retrieval of atmospheric properties of extrasolar planets (MIT Physics, with Prof. Sara Seager)

Employment: Jan 2012 - Present      : Postdoctoral researcher (Yale University)

                        Sep 2010 - Dec 2011   : Postdoctoral researcher (Princeton University)

                        Aug 2009 - Aug 2010   : Postdoctoral researcher (MIT)

Recent Research Results:

First inference of a possible carbon-rich super-Earth (‘diamond planet’)!

Madhusudhan et al. 2012, ApJ Letters, 759, L40

The paper can be accessed on ADS.

Some press articles: Yale News, CBS, ABC News, CBC, Space.com, NBC News, Reuters, National Geographic, Scientific American, New Scientist, Science Daily, NPR, VoA, MSNBC, Yahoo news, etc.

A two-dimensional classification scheme for exoplanetary atmospheres

Madhusudhan 2012, ApJ, 758,  36

The paper can be accessed ADS.

An essay on the article can be read on astrobites

First inference of a carbon-rich planetary atmosphere   

Madhusudhan et al. 2011, Nature, 469, 64

The paper can be accessed on Nature or on the ArXiv

Some press articles: MIT news, NASA news, TIME, BBC, Space.com, ABC, CBC, USA Today, Astronomy Magazine, Scientific American, etc.

Carbon-rich giant planets: Atmospheric properties and possible formation scenarios.

Madhusudhan, Mousis, Lunine, & Johnson. 2011, ApJ, 743, 191

The paper can be accessed here and some press articles can be read on TIME and PAW.

First detection of non-equilibrium chemistry and high metallicity in an exoplanetary atmosphere

Stevenson et al. 2010, Nature, 464, 1161; Madhusudhan & Seager, 2011, ApJ, 729, 41

First statistical retrieval method for exoplanetary atmospheres

Madhusudhan & Seager, 2009, ApJ, 707, 24

The so-called “Million Model Approach” to atmospheric modeling of exoplanets.

For a full listing of results from my research, please see Research and Publications pages