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

Follow @EllieInSpace

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)
Aylin Garcia Soto (Graduate student)
Rayna Rampalli (Graduate student)
Keighley Rockcliffe (Graduate student)
Jack Duranceau (Undergraduate student)
Vera Krumm (Undergraduate student)

Recent excitement in the Newton group!

September 2021: Keighley Rockcliffe's paper on the Ly-a transit of K2-25 was published in AJ.

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.

September 2019: Prof Newton in the news! Read about our discovery of the young exoplanet DS Tuc Ab, or listen to a short radio interview.

September 2019: The group welcomes two new group members: Aylin Garcia Soto and Thomas Bourdeaux. Aylin was awarded the E.E. Just Liftoff Fellowship; congratulations, Aylin!

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