Growing Worlds

Join hosts Jeni and Lorenzo as they chat with Dr Andrea Bocchieri, telescope scientist for ESA’s Ariel mission and future ESA system engineer. Andrea shares his journey into exoplanet science and takes us behind the scenes of preparing a space telescope to study the atmospheres of distant worlds. From spectroscopy and telescope stability to Lagrange points and exoplanet populations, this episode explores how Ariel will help transform our understanding of planets beyond the Solar System.

Join hosts Jeni and Lorenzo as they chat with Angèle Syty, a PhD student at the Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris working on data processing for the Ariel mission. Angèle takes us behind the scenes of exoplanet atmosphere observations, focusing on the importance of understanding systematics. Angèle shares how her work models the real-life behaviour of Ariel’s detectors, ensuring that panoramic spectra truly reflect distant worlds and not instrumental artefacts. Listen to Angèle’s story in the field, from admiring the night sky as a child to her current passion for the Ariel mission.  Learn about the collaborative nature of her work with engineers, and her excitement about contributing to groundbreaking exoplanet science.

Discover more about how high-resolution spectroscopy can catch a glimpse of alien worlds amongst exoplanets with Dr Mattia d’Arpa. Join your hosts, Jeni and Lorenzo, for an interesting discussion about the mysteries of exoplanet atmospheres and the complexities of ground-based observations. Beginning his deep curiosity for science in high school, Mattia is now a postdoctoral researcher at the Instituto Nazionale di Astrofisica in Palermo, where he contributes to several international collaborations using cutting-edge instruments and helps to bridge the gap between the precision of space-based telescopes and the spectral resolution achieved from the ground.