OWSD PhD Fellowship

Muheki Priscilla

OWSD Early Career

Awarded in 2024

Muheki Priscilla

About the project

Her research project will use high-signal-to noise spectra  of young active stars, some of which host exoplanets, obtained from the European Southern Observatory archive to study the XUV-emitting region. Stellar XUV-emission and other magnetic phenomena such as coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are critical drivers of planet atmospheric erosion. This is a pertinent issue in the era of the search for habitable exoplanets. M-F type main-sequence stars tend to have high magnetic activity that leads to heating of their chromospheres and coronae. The hot plasma is the source of the stellar X-ray and extreme UV (XUV) emission. It is vital to study the effects of these phenomena on evolution of planets and life; however, even with satellites, it is challenging to study relevant parts of this radiation. This study will model the fluxes of the coronal lines in XUV and stars showing coronal lines will be used to search for CMEs. The detection will launch the study of emission from the corona of the stars.

Field of Specialization

Astronomy, Space and Earth Sciences

Position

Lecturer

About the institution