Nishil Mehta

About

My name is Nishil Mehta, and I am a PhD student at Université Côte d'Azur, Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur, CNRS, Laboratoire Lagrange, France. I am working with Vivien Parmentier and Tristan Guillot on the topic of "Study of atmosphere of exoplanets". I use the ADAM (SPARC/MITgcm) to 3D model the atmosphere of exoplanets. Using the GCMs, I model the planet and it's spectra and compare it with the observations. For more details check my research.

I did my BS-MS Dual Degree (Combined Bachelor's and Master's) at Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Thiruvananthapuram with Major in Physics and minor in Data Science. My Minor thesis project was based on using Machine Learning to characterize Gamma-ray Bursts (GRBs), it was published in The Astophysical Journal. For my Masters' Thesis, I worked on the topic "The study of the Exoplanetary Atmosphere and investigation of biosignatures" (Mehta et. al. in prep.) where I develop an astrobiology model for Archean Earth-like planet to study biosignatures.

For the entire duration of my BS-MS Dual Degree, I was awarded the INSPIRE (Innovation in Scientific Pursuit for Inspired Research) Scholarship - Scholarship for Higher Education by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India.

I also started an Astronomy club at IISER-TVM called Parsec (check out the website).

I love skating and was a part of the Indian team. I represented India at World Slalom Skating Association at China and Thailand Slalom Association where I secured 3rd rank.

Research

Planets are 3D, and modelling the atmosphere using General Circulation Models can help us understand the atmosphere and the observations in detail.

I use ADAM (SPARC/MITgcm) to model the atmosphere of exoplanets. This model has been successfully applied to a wide range of exoplanets, including hot Jupiters (e.g. Showman et al. 2009, 2015; Liu and Showman 2013; Parmentier et al. 2013, 2016, 2018, 2021; Kataria et al. 2015, 2016; Lewis et al. 2017; Steinrueck et al. 2019; Tan et al. 2024), highly eccentric hot Jupiters (e.g. Kataria et al. 2013; Lewis et al. 2014), warm Jupiters (Showman, Lewis & Fortney 2015), mini-Neptunes (Kataria et al. 2014; Zhang and Showman 2017), and terrestrial exoplanets (Carone, Keppens & Decin 2014). This model couples the dynamical code from the MITgcm (Adcroft et al. 2004) with the plane-parallel radiative transfer code of Marley & McKay (1999) and solves the primitive equations on a cube-sphere grid.

I am a member of MANATEE: MIRI And NIRCam Assay for the Transmission and Emission of Exoplanets, a JWST guaranteed time observations program.

About

Publications

• NASA ADS
• Google Scholar
• ORCID Page

1. Heat Reveals What Clouds Conceal: Global Carbon & Longitudinally Asymmetric Chemistry on LTT 9779 b
   Ashtari, R., et al., including Mehta N. | Submitted to The Astrophysical Journal
2. How clear are the skies of WASP-80b?: 3D Cloud feedback on the atmosphere and spectra of the warm Jupiter
   Mehta N. et al. | Submitted to Astronomy & Astrophysics
3. A Precise Metallicity and Carbon-to-Oxygen Ratio for a Warm Giant Exoplanet from its Panchromatic JWST Emission Spectrum
   Wiser, L., et al., including Mehta N. | Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | U.S.A. 122 (39) e2416193122
4. A Panchromatic Characterization of the Evening and Morning Atmosphere of WASP-107 b: Composition and Cloud Variations, and Insight into the Effect of Stellar Contamination
   Murphy, M., et al., including Mehta N. | Journal: The Astronomical Journal | AJ 170 61
5. A Possible Metal-Dominated Atmosphere Below the Thick Aerosols of GJ 1214 b Suggested by its JWST Panchromatic Transmission Spectrum
   Ohno, K., et al., including Mehta N. | Journal: The Astrophysical Journal Letters | ApJL 979, L7 (2025)
6. Possible Carbon Dioxide above the Thick Aerosols of GJ 1214 b
   Schlawin, E., et al., including Mehta N. | Journal: The Astrophysical Journal Letters | ApJL 974, L33 (2024)
7. Multiple Clues for Dayside Aerosols and Temperature Gradients in WASP-69 b from a Panchromatic JWST Emission Spectrum
   Schlawin, E., et al., including Mehta N. | Journal: The Astrophysical Journal | ApJ 168, 104 (2024)
8. Exploring Gamma-Ray Burst Diversity: Clustering Analysis of the Emission Characteristics of Fermi- and BATSE-detected Gamma-Ray Bursts
   Nishil Mehta and Shabnam Iyyani | Journal: The Astrophysical Journal | ApJ 969, 88 (2024)

Contact

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Elements

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