Akshata Krishnamurthy

Last updated

Akshata Krishnamurthy
DrAkshataKrishnamurthy-1.jpg
Born
Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
Citizenship Indian
Alma mater Massachusetts Institute of Technology Ph.D.
Occupation(s)Engineering career
Discipline Space Systems
Employer(s) NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Projects Mars 2020
NISAR
TESS
ASTERIA
Awards Luigi G. Napolitano Award, Dr. Robbin Chapman Excellence Through Adversity Award, IAF Emerging Space Leader

Akshata Krishnamurthy is a space systems engineer working as Science Phase Lead at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Born in India, Krishnamurthy has worked on Mars 2020, NISAR, TESS and ASTERIA missions.

Contents

Education

Krishnamurthy was born in Bengaluru, Karnataka, India, and completed her schooling and undergraduate education from R.V. College of Engineering before moving to the United States to pursue a Master's degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. [1]

TESS satellite Tess 6.jpg
TESS satellite

Krishnamurthy earned her PhD in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). [2] [3] Her PhD research [4] focused on instrument calibration and performance improvement for space-based telescope missions for exoplanet detection, and was used in two space missions, Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and Arcsecond Space Telescope Enabling Research in Astrophysics (ASTERIA). Krishnamurthy and her colleagues discovered several exoplanets, and characterized HD 59640 to be an eruptive variable stars with flares. [5] Other projects included the Mars 2020 Mars Oxygen ISRU Experiment (MOXIE). [6]

At MIT, she was the President of the Graduate Association of Aeronautics and Astronautics (GA^3) student organization., [7] and Co-Chair of the MIT India Conference [8] [9]

Career

NISAR satellite Artist's concept of NISAR over Earth.jpg
NISAR satellite
Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover PIA23962-Mars2020-Rover&Helicopter-20200714.jpg
Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover

Krishnamurthy interned at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory as part of the ASTERIA mission while working on her PhD. Following graduation, Krishnamurthy got a full-time position as a systems engineer and science data system lead at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She started as systems engineer on the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission [10] and continued to become the Science Phase Lead leading planning, development and testing for nominal science operations. [11] Krishnamurthy is a Robotic Operations Systems Engineer working on the Mars 2020 Perseverance Mission Robotic Operations and Principal Investigator on a Strategic University Research Program with MIT. [12] Previously, Krishnamurthy served as Instrument Engineer on NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and as co-investigator on ASTERIA missions.ASTERIA is the smallest telescope to ever detect an exoplanet. [13] [14]

Recognitions

She motivates millions of young students all over the world by sharing her journey as an immigrant on a visa in the United States, on Instagram, and persevering in the face of obstacles to achieve her dreams of working on space projects at NASA. [27] Her goal is to inspire millions of people to dream big and live their best lives. [28]

Selected Publications

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">55 Cancri e</span> Hot Super-Earth orbiting 55 Cancri A

55 Cancri e is an exoplanet orbiting a Sun-like host star, 55 Cancri A. The mass of the exoplanet is about eight Earth masses and its diameter is about twice that of the Earth. 55 Cancri e was discovered on 30 August 2004, thus making it the first super-Earth discovered around a main sequence star, predating Gliese 876 d by a year. It is the innermost planet in its planetary system, taking less than 18 hours to complete an orbit. However, until the 2010 observations and recalculations, this planet had been thought to take about 2.8 days to orbit the star.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite</span> NASA satellite of the Explorer program

Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is a space telescope for NASA's Explorer program, designed to search for exoplanets using the transit method in an area 400 times larger than that covered by the Kepler mission. It was launched on 18 April 2018, atop a Falcon 9 launch vehicle and was placed into a highly elliptical 13.70-day orbit around the Earth. The first light image from TESS was taken on 7 August 2018, and released publicly on 17 September 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Planet Hunters</span> Citizen science project to find exoplanets

Planet Hunters is a citizen science project to find exoplanets using human eyes. It does this by having users analyze data from the NASA Kepler space telescope and the NASA Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite. It was launched by a team led by Debra Fischer at Yale University, as part of the Zooniverse project.

TOI-677 b is a confirmed "warm" super-Jupiter exoplanet orbiting TOI-677, its host star, in the Ophiuchus constellation, about 466 ly (143 pc) away from Earth. The planet was discovered by NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) using the transit method, in which the dimming effect that a planet causes as it crosses in front of its star is measured. Discovery of the exoplanet was announced on 13 November 2019.

TOI-700 is a red dwarf 101.4 light-years away from Earth located in the Dorado constellation that hosts TOI-700 d, the first Earth-sized exoplanet in the habitable zone discovered by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">TOI-700 d</span> Goldilocks terrestrial planet orbiting TOI-700

TOI-700 d is a near-Earth-sized exoplanet, likely rocky, orbiting within the habitable zone of the red dwarf TOI-700, the outermost planet within the system. It is located roughly 101.4 light-years (31.1 pc) away from Earth in the constellation of Dorado. The exoplanet is the first Earth-sized exoplanet in the habitable zone discovered by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Planet Patrol (project)</span>

Planet Patrol is a NASA citizen science project available in Zooniverse and aimed at discovering new exoplanets with data from the TESS telescope.

LHS 1815 b is a thick disk exoplanet, discovered in 2020 by TESS. The planet is located outside the galactic plane.

TOI-640 b is an exoplanet that was suspected since 2019. It's discovery has been confirmed by the TESS team in January 2021. It is located 1115 light years away from Earth, orbiting a primary F-class star in a binary star system with red dwarf and has an orbital period of 5 days.

L 98-59 is a bright M dwarf star, located in the constellation of Volans, at a distance of 10.608 parsecs, as measured by the Gaia spacecraft.

TOI-1452 b is a confirmed super-Earth exoplanet, possibly a water world, orbiting a red-dwarf star TOI-1452 about 100 light-years away in the Draco constellation. The exoplanet is about 70% larger in diameter than Earth, and roughly five times as massive.

References

  1. ↑ Master's Dissertation (Thesis). UIUC. December 2012. Retrieved 21 December 2023.
  2. ↑ Krishnamurthy, Akshata (7 March 2024). PhD Dissertation (Thesis). MIT. hdl:1721.1/128056 . Retrieved 21 December 2023.
  3. ↑ "Thesis Defense Presented by Akshata Krishnamurthy". MIT. Retrieved 21 December 2023.
  4. ↑ "PhD research on exoplanets". MIT. Retrieved 21 December 2023.
  5. ↑ Günther, Maximilian N.; Zhan, Zhuchang; Seager, Sara; Rimmer, Paul B.; Ranjan, Sukrit; Stassun, Keivan G.; Oelkers, Ryan J.; Daylan, Tansu; Newton, Elisabeth; Kristiansen, Martti H.; Olah, Katalin; Gillen, Edward; Rappaport, Saul; Ricker, George R.; Vanderspek, Roland K. (20 January 2020). "Stellar Flares from the First TESS Data Release: Exploring a New Sample of M Dwarfs". The Astronomical Journal. 159 (2): 60. arXiv: 1901.00443 . Bibcode:2020AJ....159...60G. doi: 10.3847/1538-3881/ab5d3a . ISSN   0004-6256.
  6. ↑ "Mars 2020 MOXIE Publication". IEEE. doi:10.1109/AERO.2018.8396586. S2CID   49539396 . Retrieved 21 December 2023.
  7. ↑ "Graduate Association of Aeronautics and Astronautics". Graduate Association of Aeronautics and Astronautics (GA3). MIT. Retrieved 21 December 2023.
  8. ↑ "MIT India Conference". MIT India Conference. MIT. Retrieved 21 December 2023.
  9. ↑ "MIT India Conference Co-Chairs". MIT India Conference. Lokvani. Retrieved 21 December 2023.
  10. 1 2 "SSPI's 20 under 35 Profile". SSPI's 20 under 35 list. SSPI. Retrieved 21 December 2023.
  11. ↑ "NISAR Project". NISAR Project. NASA. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
  12. ↑ "SURP Research" (PDF). SURP Research. NASA. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
  13. ↑ "A Suitcase-Sized Satellite Has Spotted A 'Diamond Planet' 40 Light-Years Away". IAF. Retrieved 21 December 2023.
  14. ↑ "JPL Mission Breaks Record for Smallest Satellite To Detect an Exoplanet". JPL. Retrieved 21 December 2023.
  15. ↑ "Luigi G. Napolitano Award". IAF. Retrieved 21 December 2023.
  16. ↑ "Robbin Chapman Excellence Through Adversity Award". Robbin Chapman Excellence Through Adversity Award. MIT. Retrieved 21 December 2023.
  17. ↑ "Zonta Amelia Earhart Fellow". Graduate Association of Aeronautics and Astronautics (GA3). MIT. Retrieved 21 December 2023.
  18. ↑ "Emerging Space Leader Award". Emerging Space Leader Award. IAF. Retrieved 21 December 2023.
  19. ↑ "MIT Graduate Woman of Excellence Award". MIT Graduate Woman of Excellence Award. MIT. Retrieved 21 December 2023.
  20. ↑ "Apollo 50+50: This Generation's Space Program". Apollo 50+50: This Generation's Space Program. MIT. Retrieved 19 February 2021.
  21. ↑ "Schlumberger Faculty for the Future Fellowship". Schlumberger Faculty for the Future Fellow. Schlumberger. Retrieved 21 December 2023.
  22. ↑ "NASA Group Achievement Award". NASA Group Achievement Award. NASA. Retrieved 21 December 2023.
  23. ↑ "ASTERIA Group Achievement Award". NASA Group Achievement Award. JPL. Retrieved 21 December 2023.
  24. ↑ "Small Satellite of the Year Award". Small Satellite of the Year Award. JPL. Retrieved 21 December 2023.
  25. ↑ "SSPI's 20 under 35 list". SSPI's 20 under 35 list. SSPI. Retrieved 21 December 2023.
  26. ↑ "SSPI's 20 under 35 Media Coverage". Satnews. Retrieved 21 December 2023.
  27. ↑ "No Shortcut To Success Feature". Economic Times. Economic Times. 5 December 2023. Retrieved 21 December 2023.
  28. ↑ "NASA Aerospace Engineer Shares 5 Tips to Build a Space Career". The Better India. 13 May 2024. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
  29. ↑ Plavchan, Peter; et al. (2020). "A planet within the debris disk around the pre-main-sequence star AU Microscopii". Nature. 582 (7813): 497–500. arXiv: 2006.13248 . Bibcode:2020Natur.582..497P. doi:10.1038/s41586-020-2400-z. hdl:1887/3142062. PMC   7323865 . PMID   32581383. S2CID   220042005.
  30. ↑ Günther, Maximilian N.; Zhan, Zhuchang; Seager, Sara; Rimmer, Paul B.; Ranjan, Sukrit; Stassun, Keivan G.; Oelkers, Ryan J.; Daylan, Tansu; Newton, Elisabeth; Kristiansen, Martti H.; Olah, Katalin; Gillen, Edward; Rappaport, Saul; Ricker, George R.; Vanderspek, Roland K.; Latham, David W.; Winn, Joshua N.; Jenkins, Jon M.; Glidden, Ana; Fausnaugh, Michael; Levine, Alan M.; Dittmann, Jason A.; Quinn, Samuel N.; Krishnamurthy, Akshata; Ting, Eric B. (2020). "Stellar flares from the first TESS data release: exploring a new sample of M dwarfs". The Astronomical Journal. 159 (2): 60. arXiv: 1901.00443 . Bibcode:2020AJ....159...60G. doi: 10.3847/1538-3881/ab5d3a .
  31. ↑ Rodriguez, Joseph E.; et al. (2019). "An eccentric massive jupiter orbiting a subgiant on a 9.5-day period discovered in the transiting exoplanet survey satellite full frame images". The Astronomical Journal. 157 (5): 191. arXiv: 1901.09950 . Bibcode:2019AJ....157..191R. doi: 10.3847/1538-3881/ab11d9 .
  32. ↑ Knapp, Mary; Seager, Sara; Demory, Brice-Olivier; Krishnamurthy, Akshata; Smith, Matthew W.; Pong, Christopher M.; Bailey, Vanessa P.; Donner, Amanda; Pasquale, Peter Di; Campuzano, Brian; Smith, Colin; Luu, Jason; Babuscia, Alessandra; Bocchino, Jr., Robert L.; Loveland, Jessica; Colley, Cody; Gedenk, Tobias; Kulkarni, Tejas; Hughes, Kyle; White, Mary; Krajewski, Joel; Fesq, Lorraine (2020). "Demonstrating high-precision photometry with a CubeSat: ASTERIA observations of 55 Cancri e." The Astronomical Journal. 160 (1): 23. arXiv: 2005.14155 . Bibcode:2020AJ....160...23K. doi: 10.3847/1538-3881/ab8bcc .
  33. ↑ Guerrero, Natalia M.; et al. (2021). "The tess objects of interest catalog from the tess prime mission". The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series. 254 (2). The Astrophysical Journal: 39. arXiv: 2103.12538 . Bibcode:2021ApJS..254...39G. doi: 10.3847/1538-4365/abefe1 .
  34. ↑ Lendl, Monika; et al. (2020). "TOI-222: A single-transit TESS candidate revealed to be a 34-d eclipsing binary with CORALIE, EulerCam, and NGTS". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 492 (2): 1761–1769. arXiv: 1910.05050 . doi:10.1093/mnras/stz3545.
  35. ↑ Davis, Allen; Wang, Songhu; Jones, Matias; Krishnamurthy, Akshata (2020). "TOI 564 b and TOI 905 b: grazing and fully transiting hot Jupiters discovered by TESS". The Astronomical Journal. 160 (5): 229. arXiv: 1912.10186 . Bibcode:2020AJ....160..229D. doi: 10.3847/1538-3881/aba49d .
  36. ↑ Sha, Lizhou; Huang, Chelsea X.; Shporer, Avi; Krishnamurthy, Akshata (2021). "TOI-954 b and K2-329 b: Short-period Saturn-mass Planets that Test whether Irradiation Leads to Inflation". The Astronomical Journal. 161 (2): 82. arXiv: 2010.14436 . Bibcode:2021AJ....161...82S. doi: 10.3847/1538-3881/abd187 .
  37. ↑ MacKenzie, Shannon M.; Caswell, Tess E.; Phillips-Lander, Charity M.; Stavros, E. Natasha; Hofgartner, Jason D.; Sun, Vivian Z.; Powell, Kathryn E.; Steuer, Casey J.; o'Rourke, Joseph G.; Dhaliwal, Jasmeet K.; Leung, Cecilia W.S.; Petro, Elaine M.; Wynne, J. Judson; Phan, Samson; Crismani, Matteo; Krishnamurthy, Akshata; John, Kristen K.; Debruin, Kevin; Budney, Charles J.; Mitchell, Karl L. (2016). "THEO concept mission: Testing the Habitability of Enceladus's Ocean". Advances in Space Research. 58 (6): 1117–1137. arXiv: 1605.00579 . Bibcode:2016AdSpR..58.1117M. doi:10.1016/j.asr.2016.05.037.
  38. ↑ Krishnamurthy, Akshata; Knapp, Mary; Günther, Maximilian N.; Daylan, Tansu; Demory, Brice-Olivier; Seager, Sara; Bailey, Vanessa P.; Smith, Matthew W.; Pong, Christopher M.; Hughes, Kyle; Donner, Amanda; Di Pasquale, Peter; Campuzano, Brian; Smith, Colin; Luu, Jason; Babuscia, Alessandra; Bocchino, Robert L.; Loveland, Jessica; Colley, Cody; Gedenk, Tobias; Kulkarni, Tejas; White, Mary; Krajewski, Joel; Fesq, Lorraine (2021). "Transit Search for Exoplanets around Alpha Centauri A and B with ASTERIA". The Astronomical Journal. 161 (6): 275. Bibcode:2021AJ....161..275K. doi: 10.3847/1538-3881/abf2c0 . hdl: 1721.1/135652.2 .
  39. ↑ Seager, Sara; Knapp, Mary; Demory, Brice-Oliver; Krishnamurthy, Akshata (2021). "HD 219134 Revisited: Planet d Transit Upper Limit and Planet f Transit Nondetection with ASTERIA and TESS". The Astronomical Journal. 161 (3): 117. Bibcode:2021AJ....161..117S. doi: 10.3847/1538-3881/abcd3d . hdl: 1721.1/134075.2 .
  40. ↑ Krishnamurthy, Akshata; Villasenor, Joel; Seager, Sara; Ricker, George; Vanderspek, Roland (2019). "Precision characterization of the TESS CCD detectors: Quantum efficiency, charge blooming and undershoot effects". Acta Astronautica. 160: 46–55. Bibcode:2019AcAau.160...46K. doi:10.1016/j.actaastro.2019.04.016. S2CID   145909482 . Retrieved 21 December 2023.
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