Dr. Nicholas Saunders · Yale University
I'm a YCAA Prize Postdoctoral Fellow at Yale University studying how planetary systems evolve as their host stars age.
I primarily search TESS observations for planets around subgiant and red giant stars,
then use Keck to measure their masses and characterize their orbits.
I earned my PhD in Astronomy from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in 2025.
Through the Giants Transiting Giants (GTG) survey, we search TESS light curves for planets transiting subgiants and red giants, which we confirm and characterize with ground-based radial velocities. Click the link below to find all GTG papers.
Giants Transiting Giants →
Keck/HIRES & KPF Rossiter–McLaughlin measurements of hot Jupiters whose hosts have cooled across the Kraft break, timing how quickly tides realign their orbits.
Obliquity damping →
Asteroseismic tests of gyrochronology show that weakened magnetic braking keeps old Sun-like stars spinning fast.
Stellar cruise control →