Elisabeth R. Newton

I'm an astronomer at Dartmouth interested in stars and
the planets that orbit them. Group-X data tables here.

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Dartmouth College, where I use observations to study the physics of stars and exoplanets. Learn more about my research group, catch up on recent Newton group news, or get a quick tour of my research through two short talks.

email: elisabeth.r.newton [at] dartmouth [dot] edu
resume: download pdf

Research Group

I am an observational astronomer, with interest in stellar astrophysics and exoplanet science. My work uses data from Hubble, Spitzer, TESS, and a wide array of ground-based spectroscopic and photometric facilities. I'm co-PI of the THYME collaboration, searching for young planets in TESS. I love to share astronomy, both online and off, and I teach a variety of astronomy classes at Dartmouth for undergraduate and graduate students.

Current group members are:
Elisabeth Newton (Professor)
Will Waalkes (Postdoc)
Aylin Garcia Soto (Graduate student)
Rayna Rampalli (Graduate student)
Keighley Rockcliffe (Graduate student)
Annabelle Niblett (Undergraduate student)
Jack Nelson (Undergraduate student)
Dejanae Green (Undergraduate student)
Kate Schwendemann (Undergraduate student)

Recent excitement in the Newton group!

April 2024: Congratulations to former and honorary group member Dr. Emily Boudreaux on a successful PhD defense!

July 2023: In Keighley Rockcliffe's paper on the exosphere of AU Mic b, she detects this young exoplanet "burping" up neutral hydrogen. Read about it at Universe Today or our localDartmouth coverage.

May 2023: Congratulations to graduating seniors Chase Alvarado-Anderson and Jack Duranceau on their senior theses! Jack received 3rd place in the Christopher Reed Science Competition.

April 2023: Graduate student Aylin Garcia Soto's paper on M dwarf variability was published in ApJ!

September 2022: The THYME collaboration's latest exoplanet paper is really about stars! We present membership and age determinations for the 350-Myr cluster Group-X (which also hosts an exoplanet, TOI 2048 b).

May 2022: Rayna Rampalli selected as a 2022 LSST Data Science Fellow

February 2021: Introducing TOI 451 b, c, and d: three planets orbiting a star only 120 Myr old. This young star is similar in mass to the Sun (but much younger!) and shows evidence for a dusty debris disk. Prof Newton is excited about the opportunities for studying their atmospheres and comparative planetology, and because of how data from many observatories and contributions from many people came together to make this research possible. Read about it at Universe Today or in our local Valley News.

September 2020: The group welcomes three new members this summer and fall, Tara Sweeney '21, Abby Burrows '23, and Ph.D. student Rayna Rampalli. Welcome to the team!

June 2020: New THYME Collaboration paper! Aaron Rizzuto lead the discovery of a hot young Jupiter, on which Prof. Newton is the second author. The story was covered on Universe Today and Mashable, among other places.

April 2020: The team has moved to remote work as Dartmouth responds to COVID-19, but our group meetings (now with funny zoom backgrounds and cats!) continue to be a weekly highlight.

November 2019: Graduate student Keighley Rockcliffe received a travel award and attended the SEEC Symposium, where she gave a mini talk.

April 2019: Graduate student Keighley Rockcliffe received a AAS internation travel grant and will attend the Extreme Solar Systems IV this summer. Have a great trip to Iceland!

March 2019: Spotlight on graduate student Keighley Rockcliffe -- "It’s amazing to see scientists not only promoting each other, but helping lift up the next generation of scientists.”

A quick tour of my research