My primary interests lie in the field of exoplanet science, where I hope to assist in the pursuit to find
potentially habitable planets. My current work is focused on analysis tools for future direct
imaging observations. I am particularly interested in how an exoplanet's photometry and
atmospheric composition can assist in "deconfusing" directly imaged multi-planet systems
and inform our interpretation of reflected light observations of exoplanets.
You can find more about my research here.
When I'm not thinking about planets, I can be found hiking, playing piano, reading, and spending time with my two cats.
I also love to cook and especially enjoy learning about the science behind cooking!
My Background
I began my Ph.D. in the Fall of 2020. Before joining the Planetary Science program
at MIT, I pursued my undergraduate degree at Southeast Missouri State
University. I graduated with my Bachelor's degree in Physics in 2019.
During my last year at Southeast Missouri State, I worked on an
undergraduate research project with my research advisor, Dr. Michael
Cobb. We used ROCKE-3D , a 3-D general circulation model (GCM), to model
the atmosphere of an Earth-like planet in Mars' orbit and investigate
possible habitable conditions.
During my third year at Southeast, I also supported the
Continental-America Telescopic Eclipse (CATE) Experiment as a team member for Site 40, led by Dr. Margaret "Peggy" Hill.
This experiment gathered teams of scientists and citizen scientists across the United States,
with the goal of capturing a time sequence of observations of the solar corona during the
August 21, 2017 solar eclipse. I assisted Site 40 in data collection on the day of the
eclipse and promoted public outreach leading up to the event.
Site 40 Citizen CATE Student Team and the solar eclipse.
Research
During my time at MIT, I have been working on several different research projects.
The main two projects are geared toward direct imaging of exoplanets and finding Solar System small bodies.
Below you will find summaries of each of these projects.
Using Exoplanet Photometry to Support Deconfusion of Directly Imaged Multi-Planet
Systems
To enable characterization of close-in planets orbiting Sun-like stars for
future direct imaging missions, we must first know which detection
corresponds to which planet over the course of multiple observations.
Multi-planet systems around Sun-like stars will experience a "confusion"
problem for future direct imaging surveys searching for habitable planets, due to the number
of planets visible per system, their shorter orbital periods, and their atmospheric characteristics. This
confusion problem makes it difficult to match detections to the correct planet.
The confusion problem. Simulated detections of a 2-planet system over a
period of 1.2 years, which result in two potential orbit combinations for the system (i.e., confusion). (Pogorelyuk
et al. 2022)
Several of my colleagues in STAR Lab have developed an algorithm to address this
confusion problem by performing fast orbit fitting and predicting confusion rates for directly imaged systems. This algorithm,
called the "deconfuser", uses astrometric (positional) information for planet detections and generates all possible combinations
of orbit matches for a planetary system.
I am currently focusing on combining photometric information from an exoplanet observation, with the astrometric information that
the deconfuser already considers, to decrease the probability of confusion for a system. I have been
working on the development of a photometry model to couple with the deconfuser, which can calculate the expected brightness
for a planet at any given time of detection. Additionally, I am implementing an additional
ranking metric in the deconfuser to use this photometric information to rank orbit combinations higher if they
have more statistically likely orbital phase or brightness results. Preliminary analyses suggest
that the additional photometric information will assist in decreasing a system's probability
for confusion.
Planetary orbital phases (Credit: ESA)
Searching for Solar System Small Bodies
Solar System small bodies such as asteroids and comets provide a foundation for studying the Solar System.
Studying these bodies poses a technical challenge for observers, due to their small
size and distance from Earth causing them to be very faint on the sky. The synthetic tracking
technique was developed to overcome this observational challenge and identify moving
bodies in an image. My work in this area focused on finding Solar System
small bodies in data collected by the
SPECULOOS and
ASTEP surveys.
My work focused on the development and implementation of a pipeline, referred to as the LUNA (Looking for
UNknown Asteroids) pipeline. The LUNA pipeline calibrates images, passes them into a publicly-available
synthetic tracker (Tycho Tracker ), and returns follow-up
parameters for each night of observations. On SPECULOOS data, the pipeline can run every day on the previous
night of observations, which allows for timely follow-up if any moving bodies are detected in the field of view.
The pipeline was then adapted to mine archival data from the Antarctic Search for Transiting ExoPlanets (ASTEP)
project.
Stacked images showing a detection of the known Main-Belt Asteroid 2002 NE23 using the LUNA Pipeline.
Additional Work: Earth Weather and Climate, NASA TROPICS Mission
The NASA TROPICS (Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation
of Smallsats) Mission is a mission designed to provide rapid-refresh microwave measurements of the Earth's
troposphere with a constellation of small satellites. The mission will provide nearly all-weather observations
of the temperatre strucutre, cloud ice, and precipitation horizontal structure of the Earth's atmosphere over the tropics.
The goal of the mission is to provide observations of the atmosphere at high temporal resolution to monitor the rapidly-evolving
features of tropical cyclones.
The TROPICS Pathfinder space vehicle was launched in June 30, 2021 as a precursor to the full TROPICS mission and is currently observing
on a sun-synchronous orbit. During my time at MIT, I supported the calibration and validation process of the
on-orbit data collected by Pathfinder. I worked on a team in STAR Lab to develop a validation process using a known quality data source
(ERA5 ), a radiative transfer model
(CRTM ), and cloud maps
(GOES-16 & -17 )
to determine the accuracy of Pathfinder's observations. For more about the TROPICS mission, see
here .
TROPICS Space Vehicle (Credit: MIT LL).
Publications
Peer-Reviewed Papers
Hasler, S., Pogorelyuk, L., et al. (in prep) The Influence of Photometry on Deconfusion of Directly Imaged Multi-Planet Systems.
Gagnon, A., Hasler, S. N., Chew, J., et al. (in prep). Data Validation of the NASA TROPICS Pathfinder Microwave Radiometer.
Hasler, S. N., Burdanov, A. Y., de Wit, J., Dransfield, G., et al. (2023). Small body harvest with the Antarctic Search for Transiting ExoPlanets (ASTEP) project. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 526, Issue 3, December 2023, Pages 3601β3609, https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stad2943.
Burdanov, A. Y., Hasler, S. N., de Wit, J. (2023). GPU-based framework for detecting small Solar System bodies in targeted exoplanet surveys. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 521, Issue 3, May 2023, Pages 4568β4578, https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stad808.
Penn, M. J., Baer, R., Walter, D., Pierce, M., Gelderman, R., β¦, Hasler, S., et. al. (2019). Acceleration of Coronal Mass Ejection Plasma in the Low Corona as Measured by the Citizen CATE Experiment. PASP, 132, 014201.
Conference Technical Papers
Gagnon, A., Hasler, S., Chew, J., Blackwell, W., Leslie, V., & Cahoy, K. (2022). Data Validation of the NASA Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation Structure and Storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats (TROPICS) Pathfinder Microwave Radiometer. Proceedings of the Small Satellite Conference, Weekend Session 2: Recent Launches - Research & Academia, SSC22-WKII-01, https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/smallsat/2022/all2022/51/.
Blackwell, W. J., Crompton, D., Cunningham, A., ..., Hasler, S., et al. (2022). The NASA Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation Structure and Storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats (TROPICS) Mission: Results from the Pathfinder Demonstration and Look Ahead to the Constellation Mission. Proceedings of the Small Satellite Conference, Weekday Session 5: Next on the Pad, SSC22-V-02, https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/smallsat/2022/all2022/162/.
Hasler, S., et al. "Reducing Detection Confusion in Directly Imaged Multi-Planet Systems," Yield Modeling Tools Workshop, AAS 242, June 8, 2023. Albuquerque, NM.
Hasler, S. "Exoplanet Phase Studies," New Horizons Team Meeting, May 28, 2023. Webinar.
Hasler, S., et al. "Reducing Detection Confusion in Directly Imaged Multi-Planet Systems," EMAC Workshop, February 9, 2023. Webinar.
Hasler, S., et al. "Leveraging Photometry for Deconfusion of Directly Imaged Multi-Planet Systems," AAS 241, January 9, 2023. Seattle, WA.
Hasler, S., et al. "The Role of Exoplanet Photometry in Orbit-Fitting of Directly Imaged Multi-Planet Systems," Emerging Researchers in Exoplanet Science Symposium VII, August 2, 2022. State College, PA.
Hasler, S., et al. "The Role of Exoplanet Photometry in Orbit-Fitting of Directly Imaged Multi-Planet Systems," AAS 240, June 16, 2022. Pasadena, CA.
Poster Presentations
Hasler, S., Pogorelyuk, L., Fitzgerald, R., Vlahakis, S., Cahoy, K., Morgan, R. "Leveraging Photometry for Deconfusion of Directly Imaged Multi-Planet Systems," 2023 Sagan Exoplanet Summer Workshop, Pasadena, CA. July, 2023. See online poster here.
Hasler, S., Cobb, M. "Earth At Mars: GCM ModelE Simulation of an Earth-like Planet Placed in Marsβ Orbit," AAS 234, St. Louis, MO. June, 2019.
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print 'Iteration ' + i;
deck.shuffle();
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}
print 'It took ' + i + ' iterations to sort the deck.';
