Researching Spectroscopic Characterization of Low-Mass Stars at Carleton College

At Carleton College, students Freja Olsen and Adam Ickler developed and tested methods for measuring the chemical abundances of nearby low-mass stars using high-resolution spectra from the Habitable Zone Planet Finder. Their techniques, implemented in modular Python programs, have enabled the measurement of atomic absorption lines with improved precision, and are currently being extended to estimate the iron abundance in exoplanet search target stars.

Habitable Zone Planet Finder spectra of early-type M dwarf stars, showing variations in feature strengths related to stellar metallicity.