Main project
Starspot
Research software for modeling how stellar activity contaminates exoplanet transmission spectra, with emphasis on the sodium doublet, center-to-limb variation, rotational Doppler effects, and starspot-induced bias.
Scientific Motivation
Transmission spectroscopy searches for atmospheric absorption from exoplanets, but active stellar surfaces can alter the observed signal. Starspot studies when a planetary sodium feature is robust and when stellar contamination changes the inferred line depth or morphology.
Method
The model integrates a stellar disk cell by cell, including center-to-limb variation, rotational Doppler shifts, Rossiter-McLaughlin geometry, wavelength-dependent planetary radius, and configurable stellar spots.
Current Result
The current v6.1 run exports a reproducible time-series diagnostic: sodium-line evolution through transit, centroid radial velocity, and integrated absorption are saved with the configuration used for the run.
Thesis Context
Starspot is being developed as part of Gerardo Mancebo's astronomy and astrophysics thesis work under the direction of Dr. Giuseppe Morello.
Software Status
The latest internal package, Starspot v6.1, is a modular and reproducible review build with relative paths, bundled scientific data, tests, documentation, and separated physical versus plotting normalization.
Access
The current code package is available for thesis supervision and selected academic review. It is not posted as a public download yet; for collaborators, access should be shared directly through a private repository or controlled review link.