Michaël Gillon

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Michaël Gillon

Michaël Gillon (born January 24, 1974 in Liège , Belgium ) is a Belgian biochemist and astrophysicist .

Life

Michaël Gillon began his studies at the University of Liège at the age of 24, after serving in the Belgian army for seven years . In 2000 he obtained his bachelor's degree in biology and in 2002 his master's degree in biochemistry . In 2003 he did his bachelor's degree in physics , followed by his master's degree in astrophysics . He wrote his doctoral thesis as part of the COROT project on the contribution of the photometric transit method to the study of exoplanets . He defended this in 2006.

For almost three years, he took a position as a postdoctoral fellow at the observatory in Geneva . There he contributed to the discovery of " Hot Jupiter " with the name WASP-18b. He has been back at the University of Liège since 2009, where he and his colleague Emmanuël Jehin initiated the TRAPPIST project in 2010 . This includes two telescopes (TRAPPIST SOUTH and TRAPPIST NORTH) to search for comets and exoplanets in space . He is the scientific person responsible for the "Exoplanets" program.

Together with his colleague Valèrie Van Grootel, he has represented Belgium in the ESA's CHEOPS program since 2013 . In 2014 the European Research Council approved the financing of the SPECULOOS project . Gillon is the research director of this project, with which he is looking for habitable planets in the orbits of the closest dwarf stars .

research

As part of the TRAPPIST research program, Gillon and his team discovered more than 100 exoplanets. He also started a research project that was able to measure thermal radiation from super-earth Janssen for the first time .

On February 22, 2017, NASA announced the discovery of a system of seven exoplanets. This is about 39 light years from Earth . Michaël Gillon's team discovered this with the TRAPPIST SOUTH telescope (the first of the two TRAPPIST telescopes) in the European Southern Observatory . That is why the system is called Trappist-1 .

Awards

  • 2015: Chevalier du Mérite wallon ( Wallon Order of Merit)
  • 2016: Balzan Prize for the planets of the solar system and the exoplanets with the reason: "For his innovative and successful research into the planets orbiting nearby stars - a milestone in the search for traces of life outside of our solar system."

Publications (selection)

  • Gillon M, Demory BO, Van Grootel V, et al., 2017. Two massive rocky planets transiting a K-dwarf 6.5 parsecs away. Nature Astronomy, 1, 56, doi: 10.1038 / s41550-017-0056.
  • Gillon M, Triaud AHMJ, Demory BO, et al., 2017. Seven temperate Earth-sized planets around the nearby ultracool dwarf star TRAPPIST-1. Nature, 542, 456.
  • Gillon M, Demory BO, Lovis C, et al., 2017. The Spitzer search for the transits of HARPS low-mass planets. II. Null results for 19 planets. Astronomy and Astrophysics, 601.
  • de Wit J, Wakeford, HR, Gillon M, et al., 2016. A combined transmission spec- trum of the Earth-sized exoplanets TRAPPIST-1 b and c. Nature, 537, 69.
  • Gillon M, Jehin E, Lederer SM, et al., 2016. Temperate Earth-sized planets transiting a nearby ultracool dwarf star. Nature, 533, 221.
  • Demory BO, Gillon M, de Wit J, et al., 2016. A map of the large day-night temperature gradient of a super-Earth exoplanet. Nature, 532, 207.
  • Gillon M, Triaud AHMJ, Jehin E, et al., 2013. Fast-evolving weather for the coolest of our two new substellar neighbors. Astronomy & Astrophysics, 555, L5.
  • Demory BO, Gillon M, Seager S, et al., 2012. Detection of Thermal Emission from a Super-Earth. Astrophysical Journal Letters, 751, L28.
  • Bonfils X, Gillon M, Udry S, et al., 2012. A hot Uranus transiting the nearby M dwarf GJ3470. Detected with HARPS velocimetry. Captured in transit with TRAPPIST photometry. Astronomy & Astrophysics, 546, A27.
  • Demory BO, Gillon M, Deming D, et al., 2011. Detection of a transit of the super-Earth 55 Cancri e with warm Spitzer. Astronomy & Astrophysics, 533, A114.
  • Gillon M, Pont F, Demory BO, et al., 2007. Detection of transits of the nearby hot Neptune GJ 436 b. Astronomy & Astrophysics, 472, L13.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Bio-bibliography (French). Retrieved August 6, 2020 (French).
  2. ↑ Michaël Gillon: Contribution à la mission CoRoT et à la recherche d'exoplanètes par la méthode des transits photométriques. Université de Liège, 2006, accessed on August 11, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Drame exoplanétaire: une planète s'effondre sur son étoile. Retrieved August 11, 2020 (French).
  4. ^ Coel Hellier, DR Anderson, A. Collier Cameron, M. Gillon, L. Hebb: An orbital period of 0.94 days for the hot-Jupiter planet WASP-18b . In: Nature . tape 460 , no. 7259 , August 2009, ISSN  1476-4687 , p. 1098–1100 , doi : 10.1038 / nature08245 ( nature.com [accessed August 11, 2020]).
  5. ↑ Science Team - CHEOPS. Retrieved August 11, 2020 .
  6. ↑ Une super-Terre mise en lumière. Retrieved August 11, 2020 (French).
  7. ↑ Fiche annuaire GILLON Michaël. Retrieved August 11, 2020 .
  8. ↑ Sept exoplanètes découvertes par les astronomes liégeois. In: DAILY SCIENCE. February 22, 2017, accessed on August 11, 2020 (Fri-FR).
  9. ↑ Research project (English). Retrieved August 11, 2020 (it-it).
  10. ↑ Michaël Gillon | Connaître la Wallonie. Retrieved August 11, 2020 .
  11. ↑ Michaël Gillon: Balzan Prize Winner for Solar System and Exoplanets. Retrieved August 11, 2020 (it-it).
personal data
SURNAME Gillon, Michaël
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Belgian biochemist and astrophysicist
DATE OF BIRTH January 24, 1974
PLACE OF BIRTH Liege , Belgium