Dusting for the fingerprints of young exoplanets
Exoplanets forming in protoplanetary disks leave an impact on the circumstellar dust.
Millennium Nucleus on Young Exoplanets and their Moons
Unveiling a new population of exoplanets.
The Millennium Nucleus on Young Exoplanets and their Moons (YEMS) is an astronomy-informatics multidisciplinary effort funded by Iniciativa Científica Milenio and hosted by four universities in Chile. YEMS scientific objectives involve detecting and characterizing young exoplanets and exomoons to answer the long-standing question of their formation.
Can we witness the formation of an exoplanet?
Until three decades ago, scientists were skeptical that we would ever be able to find planets outside the solar system (exoplanets). Today, advances in technology and techniques have allowed the discovery of thousands of exoplanets and arrived at the astonishing statistics that most stars in our Galaxy are surrounded by planets. Understanding what makes a planet, when and where, which elements are abundant and which conditions prevail, means understanding its formation history.
Can we look for life on exoplanet moons?
The formation of planets and moons are intimately related, which means that moons can help us understand the origin of a planet. Moreover, most of the candidate places to look for life in our Solar System are in the giant planet's moons. Jupiter, for example, is not in the habitable zone but the moons of Jupiter, like Europa, are prime targets to study life.
About us
Information about our multidisciplinary collaboration, our mission, and our philosophy as a science group.
Born in Fire: eruptive stars and planet formation
Sept. 24-27, 2024. Santiago, Chile.
YEMS Internal Workshop
December 5-7, 2022. Concepción, Chile.
We are hiring. Apply!
YEMS is looking for postdocs and students.
Publications
List of publications led by or involving YEMS members.
Research
YEMS scientific objectives involve detecting and characterizing young exoplanets and exomoons to answer the long-standing question of their formation and pave the way to explore alternative habitable places.
The full list of publications produced by our researchers can be found in this link.
Direct detection of exomoons.
Satellite systems provide fundamental insights into the formation pathway of their host exoplanets. The detection and monitoring of such satellites is important for us to understand how planets are formed.
Revealing the kinematics of planet formation
Exoplanets forming in protoplanetary disks modify the velocity field of the gas around them, leaving an observable impact on the gas kinematics.
Machine learning applied to astrophysics.
Astronomy relies upon special techniques to study the cosmos. Here we investigate how we can apply new developments in informatics to improve our tools in astrophysics.
Publications
YEMS researchers have led several works at the forefront of research.
First detection of Gravitational Instability at Planetary Scales
Weber et al. 2023b presents VLT observations of the system called V960 Mon, a young star that suddenly increased its brightness. Archival ALMA data reveals that the environment around this star is fragmenting...
Binary Protostar HBC 494 via ALMA
Nogueira et al. (2023) resolves and studies the binary components of the outbursting protostellar object HBC 494 with ALMA.
Review on planet formation in systems of multiple stars.
Zurlo et al. (2023) provides an invited review article for the European Physical Journal Plus. The article compares the fascinating observations of multiple stellar systems and discusses the potential and conditions for planet formation therein.
Twin disks observed in polarised light
Weber et al. (2023) presents observations of the structures around multiple stars obtained with the Chile-based Very Large Telescope. It analyses the observed effects where two protoplanetary disks coexist close to one another.
Interdisciplinary activities beyond scientific research
YEMS is involved in several projects on outreach, education, multicultural astronomy, and art.
Concierto Cielos
Combines musical art and performance with astrophysics research and talks.
Astrodiálogos
Potentiating intercultural dialogues via astrophysics.
CIRAS Pedagogical Team
Filling the gap between the frontiers of science and the classroom.
CMB Live Media Performance
Digital immersive media performance, with participation of YEMS members.
Space is the Place
Outreach and Music event organized by YEMS.
Science team
The YEMS Nucleus is born to provide a stage in which young researchers and students can fully develop their potential while producing great science.
Alice Zurlo
Director
Instituto de Estudios Astrofísicos, Universidad Diego Portales.
Sebastián Pérez
Director Alterno
Departamento de Física/CIRAS, Universidad de Santiago.
Guillermo Cabrera
Associate researcher
Departamento de Ciencias de la Computación, Universidad de Concepción.
Fernando Rannou
Associate researcher
Departamento de Ingeniería Informática/CIRAS, Universidad de Santiago.
Simón Casassus
Associate researcher
Departamento de Astronomía, Universidad de Chile.
Lucas Cieza
Associate researcher
Instituto de Estudios Astrofísicos, Universidad Diego Portales.
Carla Hernández
Investigadora adjunta
Departamento de Física/CIRAS, Universidad de Santiago.
Philipp Weber
FONDECYT/YEMS postdoc
Departamento de Física/CIRAS, Universidad de Santiago.
Belén Rickmers
Estudiante
Departamento de Ingeniería Informática/CIRAS, Universidad de Santiago.
Irma Fuentes
YEMS/CIRAS postdoc
Departamento de Física, Universidad de Santiago.
Trisha Bhowmik
YEMS/ALMA postdoc
Núcleo de Astronomía, Universidad Diego Portales.
Camilo Gonzalez-Ruilova
PhD student
Núcleo de Astronomía, Universidad Diego Portales.
Pedro Nogueira
PhD student
Núcleo de Astronomía, Universidad Diego Portales.
Carla Arce-Tord
PhD student
Departamento de Astronomía, Universidad de Chile.
Juanita Antilén
MSc student
Departamento de Astronomía, Universidad de Chile.
Abigalí Rodriguez
PhD student
Departamento de Astronomía, Universidad de Chile.
Rafael Martinez-Brunner
MSc student
Departamento de Astronomía, Universidad de Chile.
Javiera Paterakis
Undergrad student
Departamento de Física, Universidad de Santiago de Chile.
Alejandra Fernandez
Master student
Departamento de Ciencias de la Computación, Universidad de Concepción.
Miguel Cárcamo
Adjunct researcher
Departamento de Ingeniería Informática/CIRAS, Universidad de Santiago.
Antonio Hales
Adjunct researcher
NRAO/ALMA.
Kevin Diaz
Student
Departamento de Informatica, Universidad de Santiago.
Pablo Román
Adjunct researcher
Departamento de Ingeniería Informática/CIRAS, Universidad de Santiago.
Mauricio Torres
Personal Administrativo
Catalina Fuentes
Communications officer
Acknowledgements
YEMS is a multi-institutional center involving Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Universidad Diego Portales, Universidad de Chile, and Universidad de Concepción. YEMS is funded by ANID—Millennium Science Initiative Program Center Code NCN2021_080.
Image and HTML credits: Artist's impression of exomoon Kepler-1625b by ESA/Hubble. ALMA image of protoplanetary disk HD169142 by N. Lira - ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO); S. Perez - USACH. Image of Europa by NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI Institute. We are thankful to html5up for the "Story" template.