Sciences and Exploration Directorate

Ben Hord

(NPP Fellow)

Ben Hord's Contact Card & Information.
Email: benjamin.j.hord@nasa.gov
Phone: 301.286.6281
Org Code: 667
Address:
NASA/GSFC
Mail Code 667
Greenbelt, MD 20771
Employer: NPP POST-DOC CONTRACT

Brief Bio


I am a NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellow in the Exoplanets and Stellar Astrophysics Laboratory searching for exoplanets and studying their formation, atmospheres, and system architectures.

I obtained a BA in Astrophysics and a BA in History from Columbia University in 2018. After this, I attended the University of Maryland, College Park where I received my MS in Astronomy in 2020 and PhD in Astronomy in 2023. During my time at the University of Maryland, I conducted the vast majority of my thesis research with the TESS group at NASA Goddard.

While I am interested in many facets of exoplanet science, my main expertise revolves around hot Jupiters, their formation, and the population-level features that make them unique. In particular, I search for companion planets nearby to hot Jupiters in order to constrain hot Jupiter formation mechanisms and draw broad conclusions based on trends exhibited in this unique subset of hot Jupiter systems. I am an expert in the search for, vetting, and validation of new exoplanet candidates and have discovered or helped discover dozens of planets, including the TOI-700 system, WASP-132 c, and the LHS 1678 system.

I also currently work on the Pandora SmallSat mission, a space-based observatory set to launch no later than March 2025. Pandora will observe dozens of exoplanet system to measure their atmospheric composition as well as the activity of their host starts in order to achieve precise atmospheric characterizations by quantifying the stellar spectral variability. I am a member of the Science Team and a leader in Pandora's Data Processing Center and instrumental in the generation of the mission's target list, among other ancillary roles.