Clarissa R. C. Do Ó

About Me

Hi! My name is Clarissa Do Ó and I am a fifth (and final!) year Ph.D. candidate at UC San Diego Astrophysics, under the National Science Foundation and San Diego Fellowships. At UCSD, I am working with Prof. Quinn Konopacky on the Gemini Planet Imager's (GPI) adaptive optics upgrade and on studying the orbit fitting and dynamics of exoplanet systems. I earned my B.S. in Physics at UC Santa Barbara with a minor in Astronomy and Planetary Science. At UCSB, I worked with Prof. Ben Mazin on the MKID Exoplanet Camera (MEC) data reduction pipeline.

My research interest is in understanding the formation of widely separated gas giant planets ("exo-Jupiters").

This is me observing with Keck's NIRC2 for some of my exoplanet orbit work!

And visiting the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii, where I got to see the Keck Observatory up close!

Research

ADS

Google Scholar

Exoplanet Orbits & Dynamics

Statistical Study of Planet Populations from Orbit Fitting

Using astrometry and radial velocitiy measurements of directly imaged exoplanets, it is possible to fit for these planets' orbits in order to constrain their orbital parameters. However, many of these planets have long periods (10s-1000s of years long!), which means that we have a low phase coverage of their orbital arcs. This low coverage can lead to biases in their parameters from the orbit fits. I used observable-based priors - a new approach to orbit fitting which aims to reduce the parameter bias in low phase coverage orbits - to analyze the eccentricity of exoplanets at a population level. Understanding the eccentricity distributions of exoplanets can shed light on how they were formed. This work has been published in The Astronomical Journal. IOP ADS

High Resolution Spectroscopy to obtain Planet Radial Velocities

Radial velocities from high resolution spectroscopy are useful for eliminating degeneracies in orbit fitting, because they provide a third dimension of information to orbit fitting. In particular, they can remove the degeneracy between the longitude of ascending node (Ω) and the argument of periapsis (ω), as well as helping with the eccentricity-inclination degeneracy of orbits. The companion to the 1RXS J034231.8+121622 system presented an unconstrained orbit fit. I used high resolution spectroscopy from the Keck Planet Imager and Characterizer (KPIC) and a new astrometric measurement from Keck/NIRC2 to re-calculate the system's mass and orbit, finding a better constrained orbit for the companion. This work has been published in The Astronomical Journal. IOP ADS

Orbital and Hydrodynamic Simulations of Protoplanetary disks

I have begun tests to analyze how the eccentricities of protoplanets change with time using current theoretical models for planet formation. Forming planets are still embedded in their protoplanetary disk. The goal is to use orbital dynamics and hydrodynamic simulations to analyze how the formation process affects young planets' orbital architectures!

Stability of Exoplanet Systems

Using astrometry for orbit fits and N-Body simulations, I am interested in constraining the stability of exoplanet systems. One system I am currently studying is HR 8799, the only directly imaged system with 4 gas giants. The HR 8799 system planets are believed to be coplanar and in 1:2:4:8 mean-motion resonance (MMR). Understanding the dynamics of exoplanet systems becomes important for understanding their formation as well as the long-term stability as new candidate planets are imaged in multiple-planet systems. This work has been published in The Astronomical Journal. IOP ADS

Instrumentation

GPI 2.0

Currently, many of our observations for exoplanet detection are ground based (our Telescopes are on Earth and not in space). This means that the Earth's atmosphere can interfere on our images due to its turbulence. The atmosphere severely limits the power of large telescopes, because it distorts the incoming light (called a wavefront), generating something called wavefront error. This limitation led astronomers to develop a technology called adaptive optics (AO), which uses deformable mirrors to correct the turbulences introduced by the Earth's atmosphere (or correct for the wavefront error). The adaptive optics technology is constantly being improved, and is essential for ground based instruments that are searching for exoplanets.

I am working on the upgrade of the Gemini Planet Imager's (GPI) wavefront sensor. The upgrade involves building and testing a pyramid wavefront sensor. I have built the test source unit (TSU) for the wavefront sensor, which will allow us to test for the system's alignment. I have also tested the wavefront sensor's detector, an EMCCD camera - checking for its noise contributors and overall functionality. GPI 2.0 will be assembled and installed at Gemini North. These upgrades will allow us to find new exoplanets and to obtain high quality data on already known planets. I have an AO4ELT Proceeding on the test results for GPI 2.0's wavefront sensor EMCCD. HAL arXiv I also have an SPIE Proceeding on the test results to improve the wavefront sensor's camera image quality. SPIE arXiv

Resources

NSF Graduate Research Fellowship

The National Science Foundation Fellowship is a graduate fellowship which awards graduate students in STEM fields in the United States. The grant covers 3 years of stipend during a 5 year period. As a recipient of the award in 2020, I have decided to share my essays and essay reviews here. Also, feel free to email or message me with any questions.

Personal Statement

Research Statement

Reviews

A great resource, which I used when I was applying, was Alex Lang's website.

UCSD Cohort Mentoring Program

This program is run by the UCSD Physical Sciences and is a great resource for underrepresented students. In this program, underrepresented undergraduates have the opportunity to be mentored by graduate students both on school work and on job and graduate school applications. I was a Cohort Program Mentor from 2022-2023 and really enjoyed mentoring some very brilliant students!

The NYRIA Collaboration

The Network of Young Researchers in Instrumentation for Astronomy (NYRIA) is an international network of early career researchers (grad students and postdocs) working on astronomical instrumentation. Every year, members of NYRIA host a week long workshop where members get to network, give talks and learn about career pathways. In 2024, I had the privilege to be part of the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) organizing and hosting NYRIA at UC San Diego. Some photos are below!

UCSD STARTastro Program

This program is run by the UCSD Astronomy Department and is a great resource for community college transfer students. In this program, transfer students have the opportunity to pursue summer research the summer before they transfer to a 4 year University. I was a STARTastro Program Mentor in 2024, and it allowed me to foster collaborations with a student that I am still working with!

USD Physics Identity Program

This program is run by a University of San Diego (USD) Physics Department professor and is a great resource for underrepresented undergraduates seeking guidance from peers that share a similar identity. In this program, graduate students from the San Diego area are paired with USD undergraduates. I am currently mentoring a student on graduate school applications through this program.

NASA ExoExplorers

As a NASA ExoExplorer, graduate students and postdocs get to participate in workshops, professional development sessions and get to give a talk to the broader exoplanet community. This program is an excellent professional development opportunity for early career scientists in the exoplanet field.

Outreach

Astrobites & Astropontos

Astrobites is a website where graduate students from all over the world post summaries of astrophysics papers from arXiv. The website also includes posts on outreach, scholarships, diversity in astronomy and more.

I joined Astrobites in 2022 as an author. I am also joining Astropontos, its sister website in Portuguese.

Cosmic Tours

The UCSD Cosmic Tours are short planetarium shows given on a portable planetarium for K-12 schools and other outreach events. In the shows, spectators can travel across the Solar System and beyond to learn more about our Universe. I currently volunteer and am a co-coordinator for Cosmic Tours. I am starting a program to give portable planetarium shows in Brazilian Portuguese in the San Diego area. If you are interested, please reach out to me or to the Cosmic Tours email!

Public Talks

I had the privilege of giving several public outreach talks throughout my Ph.D! Special highlights include the iTelescope talk on exoplanet dynamics and a more sci-fi oriented talk about exoplanets at the San Diego Comic Fest (see picture below)!

Young Scientists Club

The Young Scientists Club is a series of science lectures and experiments for kids grades 3-6. The students participate in hands-on experiments on optics, fluid properties and more as they learn more about the physics concepts behind the experiments. I currently volunteer for the Young Scientists Club.

Contact

• Email: cdoo@ucsd.edu
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• GitHub

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