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MY RESEARCH

I am currently working studying the atmospheric variability in brown dwarfs from spectral type L to T. I use data from the HST and some terrestrial telescopes to determine spectral indices that can provide us with a priori information on the atmospheric variability in these objects. We also want to compare our results with synthetic spectra designed with computational models such as PHOENIX.

WISE 1049AB
JWST
Project | Variability of L/T binary brown dwarf system from JWST data

We used time-resolved NIRSpec data of WISE 1049AB (the brighter and closest variable binary system). We study the variability across ten molecular bands (H$_2$O, CH$_4$, and CO), revealing wavelength-dependent light curves influenced mainly by patchy clouds and chemical disequilibrium. The study provides the first qualitative representation of a three-dimensional atmospheric map constructed from molecular band contributions at different pressure levels. This work offers the first observational evidence of CO/CH_4 disequilibrium chemistry in the atmospheres of L/T transition brown dwarfs.

Supervisors:

PhD. Elena Manjavacas

L - Brown dwarfs
Master Thesis | Modeling of brown dwarf atmospheres

We seek to reproduce the spectral variability we observe, with theoretical models, to understand the physics of brown dwarf atmospheres, and to confirm the spectral index method designed in Ashraf et al. (2022) and Oliveros-Gomez et al. (2022).

Supervisors:

PhD. Elena Manjavacas

PhD. Dennis Jack

T - Brown dwarfs
Project | Variability in T-type brown dwarfs

Within the framework of the RECA 2021 Internship, this project began with the supervision of Dr. Elena Manjavacas.  We designed a method to detect variability in T-type brown dwarfs, with the spectral indices method, from a single spectrum, without the need for a photometric analysis that requires a long observation time in telescopes.

Zeta
Aurigae
Undergraduate thesis | binary star system

In the framework of my undergraduate thesis in physics, the columnar mass density at different atmospheric heights of the chromosphere of the giant star of the binary system Zeta Aurigae was calculated. Its variations in the last chromospheric eclipse of autumn 2019 were analyzed, and the results were compared with old eclipses of this system (+70 years of observations).

 

Supervisors:

Dr. Klaus-Peter Schröder

Publications

An Informed and Systematic Method to Identify Variable mid-L dwarfs

Submitted

Natalia Oliveros-Gomez , Elena Manjavacas, Daniella C. Bardalez-Gagliuffi, Johanna M. Vos, Jacqueline K. Faherty, Theodora Karalidi

Informed systematic method to identify variable mid and late-T dwarfs

2022

Natalia Oliveros-Gomez , Elena Manjavacas, Afra Ashraf, Daniella C. Bardalez-Gagliuffi, Johanna M. Vos, Jacqueline K. Faherty, Theodora Karalidi, Daniel Apai

Tracing the Top-of-the-atmosphere and Vertical Cloud Structure of a fast-rotating late T-dwarf

New projects in progress

2023

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