Welcome!

Hi, my name is Nanna, and I am a PhD student at the University of Copenhagen, Austrian Academy of Sciences, and Graz University of Technology, as well as an early stage researcher at the Marie Curie ITN CHAMELEON. If you would like to know more about what I'm doing, you are welcome to take a look at some of my projects below, or contact me at nanna.bach.moeller@nbi.ku.dk.

Research

My main field of interest is astrobiology, the search for life in space, and I am especially interested in how life might be discovered on distant exoplanets, by looking at so-called biosignatures in the atmospheres of the planets. In my current research I am trying to study how clouds affect the chemistry of exoplanet atmospheres, and how prebiotic molecules (the precursors of life) might form in cloud droplets. During this project, I am doing experiments with clouds in an atmosphere chamber, to look at how they form and develop under gamma and UV radiation. Later I plan to implement these results in our computer models of atmospheres, so we can use the models to potentially identify life when we look at the atmosphere of real exoplanets.

We have found a correlation between the shape of planetary orbits (eccentricity) and the number of planets (multiplicity) in exoplanet systems, such that larger systems have more circular orbits. This is true for all studied planet types, such as Hot Jupiters (HJ), Cold Jupiters (CJ) and Super Earths (SE).

In my current research I use an atomizer to introduce SiO2 particles into an atmosphere chamber. Similarly to the environment in the upper atmosphere, the particles in the chamber are radiated with UV and gamma radiation, which will affect their tendency to aggregate and form cloud droplets.

Atmosphere models can be used to simulate the chemical and physical processes taking place in an atmosphere, and thereby predict the structure of the atmosphere based on e.g. the chemical composition and type of host star. This is an example of how different molecules are distributed throughout the atmosphere of the exoplanet HATS-6b according to an atmosphere model.

Publications

Bach-Møller, Nanna, and Uffe G. Jørgensen. Orbital eccentricity–multiplicity correlation for planetary systems and comparison to the Solar system. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 500.1 (2021): 1313-1322.

Other Activities

To me, one of the most beautiful aspects of astrophysics is how many thoughts and emotions it can create, not just in myself but in others as well. So when I'm not doing research I often enjoy sharing these thoughts with other people through outreach and creative projects.

As a researcher at the Space Research Institute I participated in the STEIERMARK SCHAU as a contributing researcher through scientific advice, and by making video- and written contributions.

The CHAMELEON project has an integrated art aspect, and through here I'm currently part of the Ex(p)oplanet collaboration between the scientists of CHAMELEON and artists from SLAC . In one project, Swirls, I have assisted Wilma Geyskens, in making a video for her interpretation of the concept of Clouds in collaboration with content producer by_pless.

CV

Experience

2018 - 2020 - Master's degree in Physics | University of Copenhagen
Major in Astrophysics. Thesis on "Atmospheric Disequilibrium Model - Model Development for Exoplanet Atmosphere Simulations"
Acted as local observer at La Silla Observatory for the MiNDSTEp consortium, with focus on microlensing and transit observations of exoplanets.
Research project in astrobiology at Virtual Planetary Laboratory at the University of Washington.
2016 - 2018 - Bachelors's degree in Biology | University of Copenhagen
Major in Molecular and Cell biology. Thesis on "Comparative Analysis of Multi- and Monospecies Cultures"
Research project on the Bacterial Responses to the Environment of Microgravity based on existing scientific litterature.
2013 - 2016 - Bachelors's degree in Physics | University of Copenhagen
Major in Astrophysics. Thesis on "Orbital Eccentricity - Multiplicity Correlation for Planetary Systems"

Skills

Coding experience with MATLAB, Python, Fortran, LaTeX
Language: Danish (native), English (advanced)

Contact and Affiliations

Nanna Bach-Møller
Øster Voldgade 5-7, Centre for ExoLife Sciences, Niels Bohr Insitute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
Schmiedlstraße 6, Institut für Weltraumforschung, Austrian Academy of Science, Graz, Austria