My Time at iREx – James Sikora

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James Sikora. Photo courtesy of James.

James Sikora, a postdoctoral fellow at Bishop’s University, joined iREx in September 2019. In September 2022, he left iREx to continue his career as a postdoctoral fellow at the Anton Panecook Institute for Astronomy at the University of Amsterdam, where he will continue to make exoplanet research. He answered a few of our questions about his time at iREx.

What did you enjoy most about your time in Montreal?

As a member of the exoplanet group at Bishop’s University, I spent most of my time in Lennoxville, Sherbrooke. Besides the wonderful people I was fortunate to meet and work with during that time, I also enjoyed being close to beautiful lakes and mountain scenery. The fall season in Quebec’s eastern municipalities is truly special!

What were the most important projects you led at iREx?

I think the most important and exciting projects I led while a member of iREx were (1) an upcoming James Webb Space Telescope observing program targeting an unusually hot Jupiter-like planet, and (2) a program using the Gemini-North telescope in Hawaii to collect high-precision radial velocity measurements to study a system of very young planets.

An artist’s rendering of a really hot Jupiter-like exoplanet similar to the one James and his collaborators will study. Credit: ATG MEDIALAB, ESA.

What question were you trying to answer in these projects?

In the case of the Webb telescope observations, which are planned for November 2022, we hope to help answer questions about the conditions under which clouds form and dissipate in the atmospheres of hot Jupiter-like planets. We will do this by observing a particularly special planet that has a highly eccentric orbit. The distance between a planet and its host star—and therefore the amount of energy absorbed by the planet and its atmosphere—varies dramatically over the course of an orbit.

Obtaining high-precision radial velocity measurements can allow you to measure the mass of an exoplanet. The majority of exoplanets discovered so far are old (ie, close in age to the planets of the Solar System or older). Measuring the masses of very young planets — like the ones we recently observed using Gemini — can give us important clues about how planets form and evolve. When and to what extent do gas-rich planets shed their outer layers? How fast do gas-rich planets shrink as they cool over time?

What did you find?

While the Webb telescope observations have yet to be received, recent publicly released data from the telescope has shown that the instruments are performing impressively, making us all very excited for our own upcoming observations.

For high-precision radial velocity measurements of young planets, our preliminary results are in agreement with the current theoretical understanding of how gas-rich planets cool and contract on time scales of hundreds of millions to billions of years. This kind of confirmation provides a key constraint that can be used in models to improve our understanding of planet formation both outside and within our own Solar System. We are working on a document that will give more details on this topic. Stay tuned for the full story!

What motivates you in exoplanet research?

What motivates me to do exoplanet research is largely the end product: learning something new that helps push the boundaries of what we currently know about planet formation and evolution. However, I am motivated by the whole process of doing observational astronomy; I feel extremely privileged to be able to use amazing, cutting-edge observatories to collect never-before-seen measurements that ultimately lead to new discoveries.

Why do you think people should be interested in this type of work?

I believe that any research that can help us better understand how we as a human species got to where we are today and where we might be headed hundreds or thousands of years from now is very important and exciting. The diverse landscape of exoplanets discovered so far provides important clues that help guide our fundamental understanding of how planets like those found in the Solar System form and evolve.

How has your time with us helped you in your new job?

While spending time at iREx, I learned a lot about new and improved methods for analyzing observational datasets. What’s more, thanks to the help of researchers at iREx and Bishop’s University, I was able to access a wide range of data that I didn’t have much experience with before, such as high-precision transit spectroscopy and radial velocity measurements. This has allowed me to greatly expand my skill set in the context of observational exoplanet research, which is already helping me develop new and exciting avenues for my own research moving forward.

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