Our team and mission

This position can be based:

• At the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) – Noordwijk, Netherlands
• At the European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC) – Near Madrid, Spain

Under the direct authority of the Director of Science, the Science and Operations Department is responsible for ensuring that maximum scientific return, within applicable constraints, is maintained as an objective for the Directorate’s missions through their lifetime, by providing scientific oversight of the Directorate’s missions throughout their lifecycle, managing and being responsible for the operation of the Directorate’s missions once successfully commissioned, and curating the scientific data in their legacy phase, while establishing and maintaining the necessary science interfaces to the community. These responsibilities are discharged in full coordination with the Directorate’s Departments and Offices and, as appropriate, with the Directorate of Operations.

In implementing its duties, the Science and Operations Department is supported by the:

• Science Division
• Mission Operations Division
• Science Operations Development Division
• Data Science and Archive Division
• Mission Support Office

For further information visit our web site: http://www.esa.int

Field(s) of activity for the internship

You can choose between the following topics:

1) Topic 1: Atmospheric modeling of exoplanet phase-curves (ESTEC)

Spectroscopic phase-curves allow to map the atmospheric properties of exoplanets by observing their emission as a function of wavelength for an entire orbit. With the recently launched JWST telescope, however, the current interpretation strategies are often not sufficient due to the much higher information that can be extracted from the data.

This internship will aim at extending an existing radiative transfer scheme (Changeat & Al-Refaie 2020) to permit more complex modeling of exoplanet phase-curves. A broad plan for this internship could be:

• Mathematical development of the radiative integration scheme (extension of the existing formula, and/or search of new integration methods)
• Implementation of the new method in an existing python framework (TauREx3)
• Applications to real data (WASP-43 b HST and JWST data) using the existing or newly developed methods
• Interpretation of the physico-chemical results

The proposed internship will be for 6 months, so the candidates will not be expected to complete all four steps. A focus on point 1) and point 2) would be preferred, but the project can be adapted to the candidates needs and preferences.

For more information on this topic, please visit: Atmospheric modeling of exoplanet phase-curves

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2) Topic 2: Hunting for exoplanets: providing ground-based support for ESA’s space fleet (ESTEC)

The new era of high-precision all-sky photometric surveys has opened many doors to understand our own Earth’s place in the universe. We can now readily detect and characterise exoplanets using techniques such as transits, occultations, and phase curves, and deduct how our Solar System might have once looked like – or why it looks so different today.

ESA’s current and upcoming space fleet is on the forefront of this, featuring HST, Gaia, JWST, CHEOPS, and soon PLATO and Ariel. To this end, support from a collaborative, international network of ground-based facilities is crucial, aiding the target selection and follow-up of new signals.

As an intern, you will play a key role in this synergy. You will work with the CHEOPS Project Scientist and collaborating teams to exploit the scientific data of the ground-based missions ASTEP, NGTS, and/or SPECULOOS in support of the goals of ESA’s space fleet. For this, you will employ state-of-the-art data analysis techniques (time series analyses, MCMC, Nested Sampling, etc.). The project is foreseen to lead to a delivery, such as a publication (as lead- or co-author), research note, or conference presentation, and will also feature a series of professional development workshops and opportunities.

For more information on this topic, please visit: Hunting for exoplanets: providing ground-based support for ESA’s space fleet

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3) Topic 3: Active galactic nuclei in the JWST archive (ESAC)

There are thousands of public observations available in the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) archive. Many of these include active galactic nuclei (AGN), i.e. galaxies hosting accreting supermassive black holes at their center, as main targets or serendipitous, background galaxies. The idea of the project is to compare samples of AGN from the literature with the fields covered by JWST observations, and create a catalogue with all the relevant information of AGN sources that may be present in the JWST archive. A further project is to perform automatic fitting of the spectral energy distributions of the main background sources, in order to to check for consistency with AGN spectra observed by JWST.

The results will be shared with the community as a publication, an online resource or any other way useful for the scientific community.

For more information on this topic, please visit: Active galactic nuclei in the JWST archive

Behavioural competencies

Result Orientation
Operational Efficiency
Fostering Cooperation
Relationship Management
Continuous Improvement
Forward Thinking

Education

You must have student status and be enrolled at university for the entire duration of the internship. You should preferably be in your final or second to last year of a university course at master’s level in a technical or scientific discipline.

Additional requirements

The working languages of the Agency are English and French. A good knowledge of one of these is required. Knowledge of another Member State language would be an asset.

Additional Requirements:

1) Topic 1:

• Desirable expertise or programming language: Python
• Background in Mathematics, Physics (inc. Astro.) or Software Engineering
• Some knowledge of numerical integration methods (Gaussian quadrature, finite difference) or general mathematics skills would be a plus
• Basic knowledge of radiative transfer would be a plus

2) Topic 2:

• Professional skills such as open communication, team-based thinking, and solution-oriented approaches are pivotal for this role
• Foundational knowledge of Python programming, data analysis basics (e.g., arrays, time series, signal detection, …), and/or astronomy basics will form a solid basis for a successful project
• Hands-on experience with research on exoplanets, stellar activity, and/or photometry can be a plus

3) Topic 3:

• Basic astronomy
• Good python programming skills
• Desirable: some knowledge about AGN and astronomical databases use