Welcome to the Exoplanet Group at UT Dallas.
Stars and planets in close proximity to each other are deformed by tides, similar to how the Moon deforms the Earth and vice-versa. Over time these deformations act to change the paths these objects follow around one another (their orbits) as well as how these objects spin. For example, as a result of tides the Moon is gradually moving further and further away from the Earth and the Earth spins slower and slower. The Exoplanet Group at UT Dallas is working to understand how quickly these changes occur and what properties of the stars and planets affect the rate of change.
Members of the exoplanet group are also active in projects to detect and characterize extrasolar planets, including efforts to support citizen scientists interested in observing exoplanet transits (slight dip in the brightness of a star as a planet crosses between us and that star). We are collaborating with HATNet, HATSouth, KELT, Exoplanet Watch, and PANOPTES projects.
