Our team and mission

This position is based at the European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC) – Near Madrid, Spain

Under the direct authority of the Directorate of Science, the Head of the Science Engagement and Oversight Office is responsible for overseeing the scientific content of the Programme, interfacing with the scientific community and providing scientific expertise to studies, projects and missions, also in other Directorates as needed.

Candidates interested are encouraged to visit the ESA website: http://www.esa.int

Field(s) of activity for the internship

Topic of the internship: Hunting for exoplanets in extreme and unique environments

Since the discovery of the first exoplanet 51 Pegasi b in 1995 we have now discovered over 5700. With this many discoveries we can start to explore questions like how common are Gas giant planets? and perhaps even one of the most infamous questions in Astronomy, are exoplanets habitable? The more exoplanets that are discovered the more we can understand the physics behind the formation of planetary systems and even how our own solar system may have formed.

In this internship, you will gain an understanding of exoplanet science and get the chance to work with real data from telescopes such as ASTEP (Antarctica), VLT (Chile), CAHA 3.5m (Spain), or ESA’s CHEOPS space mission (depending on data availability when the project begins). Topics and techniques will depend on data availability but will either be searching for Tatooine-like planet signals, or confirming whether planets exist in the ‘Neptune desert’. You will learn how to plan observations, reduce data directly from the telescopes, and explore various data analysis techniques (Nested sampling, MCMC, etc.) and ways to confirm planetary signals.

The project may lead to co-authorship on a publication after the internship.

Behavioural competencies

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

For more information, please refer to ESA Core Behavioural Competencies guidebook

Education

You must be a university student, preferably in your final or second-to-last year of a university course at Master’s level and you need to remain enrolled at your University for the entire duration of the internship.

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.

• You should show enthusiasm and curiosity for the topic and for exploring scientific data;
• You should be able to carry out the entire project in English;
• A basic background in astrophysics. Background knowledge in exoplanet science (e.g. having completed a course) would be desireable;
• Foundation level of python is essential. The project will offer a chance to improve coding skills but a basic level in python is required;
• Some experience with command line coding (terminal, unix) would be desirable but not required.