Dr Ben Burningham

PhD, MSci

Ben Burningham

Job title: Postdoctoral researcher in astrophysics

Memberships and Appointments:

I am an astronomer, with a particular interest in brown dwarfs and star formation. I am currently involved in exploiting the UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS) as a tool for identifying brown dwarfs. I am part of a consortium of astronomers trying to identify and define a new spectral class of object: the Y dwarf. These are brown dwarfs with effective temperatures lower than those previously observed in such objects. We expect the first to be discovered will be old (> 1 billion years) analogues to already discovered young (< 10 million years) very low-mass brown dwarfs.

Research Interests

Brown dwarfs, star formation

Collaborations and Projects

I am a member of the UKIDSS Cool Dwarf Science Working Group, a pan-european collaboration aimed at identifying and characterising the coolest known brown dwarfs through exploitation of the UKIDSS Large Area Survey.