Congratulations Dave Charbonneau - 2024 Kavli Prize Laureate
Harvard Astronomy Professor David Charbonneau has won the 2024 Kavli Prize jointly with MIT astrophysicist and former Harvard grad student Sara Seager!
Dave led the discovery team of the first transit of the giant exoplanet HD 209458b which allowed the precise determination of the planetary surface gravity and its mean density, proving that this planet is a gas giant. Charbonneau pioneered the application of space-based observatories to perform the first studies of the atmospheres of giant extrasolar planets. In 2002 he used the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) to directly determine the chemical composition of the atmosphere around a giant planet and found evidence for sodium in its atmosphere. In 2005, he used the Spitzer Space Telescope (SST) to make the first direct detection of the thermal infrared emission from an exoplanet. He was a member of the Kepler mission and determined the occurrence rates of exoplanets. Presently he is actively involved in the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission and James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) observations. Charbonneau currently leads the innovative MEarth Project aiming to detect rocky planets such as GJ 1214b.
The citation for Dave and Sara states “ Exoplanet science has moved from the detection of the first giant planet orbiting a solar-type star outside of our planetary system to the revelation of the diversity of exoplanets, the demographics of their global properties and the physical characterization of their atmospheres. The last decades have seen amazing developments of the field. A new category of planets – the Super-Earths – were discovered and it was realized that low-mass planets are remarkably frequent. In fact, the Milky Way galaxy may contain more than 100 billion planets, with low-mass planets by far the most common. Measurements of mass and radius have allowed the determination of the mean density of planets, and thereby the discrimination between gas giants and rocky planets. Furthermore, locating rocky planets in the habitable zone, where liquid water may exist, is possible.
Today, the characterization of exoplanet atmospheres, particularly via transit spectroscopy, is an emerging field. Seager and Charbonneauhave pioneered methods for the detection of atomic species in planetary atmospheres and the measurement of their thermal infrared emission, thus setting the stage for finding the molecular fingerprints of atmospheres around both giant and rocky planets. The next big step lies in detecting molecular biosignatures – an endeavor involving significant technical challenges. Seager and Charbonneau have led the field also in this respect, developing innovative instrumentation concepts, the basis of progress in current and future exoplanet science.”