Sciences and Exploration Directorate

Christopher C Stark

(Rsch AST, Stlr Galctic&Xtrgltc Astr)

Christopher C Stark's Contact Card & Information.
Email: christopher.c.stark@nasa.gov
Phone: 301.286.8375
Org Code: 667
Address:
NASA/GSFC
Mail Code 667
Greenbelt, MD 20771
Employer:
NASA

Missions & Projects

Brief Bio


2013 - Present: NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellow at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's Exoplanets and Stellar Astrophysics Lab
2010 - 2013: Carnegie Postdoctoral Fellow at the Carnegie Department of Terrestrial Magnetism
2006 - 2009: NASA Graduate Student Researchers Program Fellow

Research Interests


Debris Disks and Exoplanets

Astrophysics: Extrasolar planets

Detecting debris disks, constraining disk composition and structure to determine the nature of unseen planets and planetesimals, planning for future exoplanet imaging missions.

Current Projects


ALMA Cycle 2: "Confirming the Recent Collisional Destruction of an Extra-Solar Pluto"

PI: Christopher Stark


HST Cycle 22 GO: "Decoding Debris System Substructures: Imprints of Planets/Planetesimals and Signatures of Extrinsic Influences on Material in Ring-Like Disks"

PI: Glenn Schneider


Spitzer Cycle 10: "SpiKeS: Spitzer Kepler Survey"

PI: Michael Werner


HST Cycle 21 Theory: "SMACK: A New Tool for Modeling Debris Disks"

PI: Marc Kuchner


Spitzer Cycle 9: "Small SpiKeS: Small Spitzer Kepler Survey"

PI: Michael Werner


2011 NASA Explorer Program: "EXCEDE: EXoplanetary Circumstellar Environments and Disk Explorer"

PI: Glenn Schneider


HST Cycle 19 GO: "Imaging Disk-Planet Interactions in the Beta Pictoris Disk"

PI: Daniel Apai


HST Cycle 18 GO: "Probing for Exoplanets Hiding in Dusty Debris Disks: Inner (<10 AU) Disk Imaging, Characterizing, and Exploration"

PI: Glenn Schneider


2010 Planetary Geology and Geophysics: "Dynamical Models of the Zodiacal Cloud with Grain-Grain Collisions"

PI: Marc Kuchner

Education


2010: Ph.D., Physics, University of Maryland
         Thesis Title: "Decoding Images of Debris Disks"
         Advisor: Marc Kuchner
2004: B.S., Physics, University of Northern Iowa

Awards


2013: NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellowship
2010: Carnegie Postdoctoral Research Fellowship
2009: NASA Astrophysics Science Division Peer Award
2009: AAS DPS Hartman Travel Grant
2006: NASA Graduate Student Researchers Program Fellowship
2007: AAS DDA Student Stipend Award
2004 & 2006: U. of Northern Iowa Alumni Merchant Scholarship
2004: U. of Northern Iowa Purple & Old Gold Award for Meritorious Achievement in Physics
2003: U. of Nebraska Materials Research Science & Engineering Center Fellowship
2002: U. of Northern Iowa McKay Science, Math, and Technology Scholarship
2001: U. of Northern Iowa Science Symposium Physics Scholarship
1999: Eagle Scout Award

Talks, Presentations and Posters


Invited

STScI Star & Planet Formation Seminar

September 2014


Sagan Exoplanet Summer Workshop Hands-On Session

August 2014


"On the Shoulders of Giants: Planets Beyond the Reach of Kepler" AAS Meeting-in-a-Meeting

August 2014


JPL Astrophysics Colloquium

August 2014


AURA Beyond JWST Committee Meeting

February 2014


STScI Star & Planet Formation Seminar

December 2013


NASA GSFC ATLAST Team Meeting

December 2013


U. of Northern Iowa Physics Colloquium

May 2013


NASA Exoplanet Exploration Program Analysis Group

July 2011


NASA GSFC Signposts of Planets Workshop

May 2011


NASA GSFC Computational Astrophysics Seminar

2010


Lorentz Center Advanced School and Workshop on Computational Gravitational Dynamics

June 2010


ISSI 2nd Exozodiacal Dust Disks and Darwin Meeting

May 2009


ISSI Exozodiacal Dust Disks and Darwin Meeting

September 2007


Other

National Capital Area Disks Meeting 5

August 2014


 STScI Habitable Worlds Across Time & Space

May 2014

 


ATLAST Team Meeting

May 2014


NASA GSFC Exoplanet Club

March 2014


223rd AAS Meeting

February 2014


 International Astronomical Union Symposium 299

July 2013

 


221st AAS Meeting

February 2013


National Capital Area Disks Meeting

August 2012


NASA GSFC Extrasolar Planets Seminar

October 2011


 Gordon Research Conference

August 2011

 


Carnegie DTM Seminar

July 2011


218th AAS Meeting

June 2011


Carnegie DTM Astronomy Group Meeting

November 2010


215th AAS Meeting

February 2010


Harvard-Smithsonian CfA Solar, Stellar, & Planetary Sciences Seminar

December 2009


U. of Maryland Planetary Astronomy Lunch Series

November 2009


41st AAS DPS Meeting

November 2009


Princeton University Wunch Talk

October 2009


National Capital Area Disks Meeting

February 2009


STScI Star & Planet Formation Seminar

February 2009


213th AAS Meeting

February 2009


NASA GSRP Fellowship Symposium

October 2008


Exoplanet Forum

June 2008


National Capital Area Disks Meeting

2007


The Spirit of Lyot Meeting

July 2007


38th AAS DDA Meeting

June 2007


U. of Maryland Unjournal Club

May 2007


NASA GSFC Exoplanet Club

April 2007


Nearby Resolved Debris Disks Workshop

November 2005


Selected Publications


Refereed

2014. "Probing for Exoplanets Hiding in Dusty Debris Disks: Disk Imaging, Characterization, and Exploration with HST/STIS Multi-Roll Coronagraphy." ArXiv e-prints arXiv:1406.7303 [Journal Article/Letter]

2014. "Revealing Asymmetries in the HD 181327 Debris Disk: A Recent Massive Collision or Interstellar Medium Warping." The Astrophysical Journal 789 58 [10.1088/0004-637X/789/1/58] [Journal Article/Letter]

2013. "A Survey for Very Short-period Planets in the Kepler Data." The Astrophysical Journal 779 165 [10.1088/0004-637X/779/2/165] [Journal Article/Letter]

2013. "A Search for Exozodiacal Clouds with Kepler." The Astrophysical Journal 764 195 [10.1088/0004-637X/764/2/195] [Journal Article/Letter]

2012. "Direct imaging of exoEarths embedded in clumpy debris disks." Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) Conference Series 8442 [10.1117/12.926324] [Journal Article/Letter]

2012. "Keck Interferometer Nuller science highlights." Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) Conference Series 8445 [10.1117/12.926548] [Journal Article/Letter]

2012. "The Link between Planetary Systems, Dusty White Dwarfs, and Metal-polluted White Dwarfs." The Astrophysical Journal 747 148 [10.1088/0004-637X/747/2/148] [Journal Article/Letter]

2011. "The cold origin of the warm dust around ε Eridani." Astronomy and Astrophysics 527 A57 [10.1051/0004-6361/201015328] [Journal Article/Letter]

2011. "Exozodiacal Dust Levels for Nearby Main-sequence Stars: A Survey with the Keck Interferometer Nuller." The Astrophysical Journal 734 67 [10.1088/0004-637X/734/1/67] [Journal Article/Letter]

2011. "The Transit Light Curve of an Exozodiacal Dust Cloud." [Journal Article/Letter]

2010. "Nulling interferometry: impact of exozodiacal clouds on the performance of future life-finding space missions." Astronomy and Astrophysics 509 A9 [10.1051/0004-6361/200912973] [Journal Article/Letter]

2010. "Influence of Exozodiacal Dust Clouds on Mid-IR Earth-like Planet Detection." Pathways Towards Habitable Planets 430 422 [Journal Article/Letter]

2010. "Collisional Grooming Models of the Kuiper Belt Dust Cloud." The Astronomical Journal 140 1007 [Full Text] [10.1088/0004-6256/140/4/1007] [Journal Article/Letter]

2009. "51 Ophiuchus: A Possible Beta Pictoris Analog Measured with the Keck Interferometer Nuller." The Astrophysical Journal 703 1188 [Full Text] [10.1088/0004-637X/703/2/1188] [Journal Article/Letter]

2009. "A New Algorithm for Self-consistent Three-dimensional Modeling of Collisions in Dusty Debris Disks." The Astrophysical Journal 707 543 [Full Text] [10.1088/0004-637X/707/1/543] [Journal Article/Letter]

2008. "The Detectability of Exo-Earths and Super-Earths Via Resonant Signatures in Exozodiacal Clouds." The Astrophysical Journal 686 637 [Full Text] [10.1086/591442] [Journal Article/Letter]