Previous Research

Astronomical Institute, CAS During my bachelor’s studies at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University, I joined the newly created Exoplanetary group at the Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences under the supervision of Dr. Petr Kabáth. There I spent a considerable amount of time conducting spectroscopic observations with the Ondřejov Echelle Spectrograph (OES) on the 2-meter Perek telescope. Our group focused on follow-up observations of Kepler/ K2 exoplanet candidates, and I was actively involved in both observing and data reduction. We used software such as IRAF for spectral reduction and radial velocity analysis.

Our group focused on follow-up observations of Kepler/K2 exoplanetary candidates. The published research covered the initial results and findings from the observations and radial-velocity measurements of the targets, making ground for the follow-up observations of TESS mission candidates. I actively participated in observations and data reduction. We used IRAF software (Image Reduction and Analysis Facility, ancient software also known as hell on Earth) for spectra reduction and radial velocity measurements.

To explain it more details; we were taking the spectra of stars, which were pre-selected by the Kepler Space Telescope as a potential host stars for exoplanets. After basic image reduction we processed an echelle spectrum to get a 1D spectrum of the host star. From a time series of many spectra we were able to measure the radial velocity shifts of the spectra. If an RV shift occurred we studied whether it could be caused by the Doppler effect. This would be caused by the exoplanet and star orbiting a common center of gravity.