We know of over 5,000 exoplanets, but almost all of them are old, making it nearly impossible to watch how planetary systems actually evolve. The central problem is that astronomers lack a large, well-dated sample of young planets caught in the act of forming and changing. This project will build that sample by using NASA’s TESS space telescope to find young transiting planets, then measure their masses, orbital tilts, and atmospheric losses. The researcher will also develop a new method to reliably determine the ages of stars—and their planets—from 1 million to 10 billion years old. By combining these data, the team will produce the first planet occurrence rates that change with time, allowing population-level tests of how systems evolve. This is fundamental science with no immediate practical application. But understanding how planetary systems mature—including our own—has historically reshaped everything from climate models to the search for life elsewhere. A robust age-dating framework will also transform stellar and Galactic astrophysics, providing a clock for processes far beyond exoplanets.
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We have detected over 5000 exoplanets in more than 3800 planetary systems. One of the most striking features of the exoplanet population is the remarkable diversity in planet compositions, system architectures and host star characteristics. The origin of this diversity, however, is poorly understood. This is primarily because the vast majority of planets detected to date are reasonably old and have already evolved to become mature planetary systems. It is extremely challenging to study evolutionary processes using systems in which they have already occurred and finished. Furthermore, most planetary systems do not possess measured ages and the vast majority of those that do are neither robust nor precise. Our predominantly old and poorly age dated exoplanet population severely limits our ability to understand how planetary systems evolve into the diverse population we observe. Significant progress can be made, however, by studying young transiting planet systems (in which evolutionary processes are ongoing), and robustly age dating stars and their planets across the full life cycle of planetary systems. I will (i) build the first statistically powerful sample of young transiting planets with the TESS space mission, (ii) characterise high-value systems in detail by measuring planet masses, orbital obliquities and atmospheric loss rates, (iii) develop a novel method to robustly age date stars (and hence planetary systems) between 1 Myr and 10 Gyr, and (iv) draw these complementary avenues together to construct the first planet occurrence rates as a function of time and to perform the first population level tests of the processes driving planetary system evolution. This programme therefore provides the missing link between our theories of planet formation and early evolution and the mature population of exoplanets. Furthermore, my age dating framework will have far reaching implications for exoplanet, stellar and Galactic astrophysics.
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