One of the next big steps forward for exoplanet science would be the detection of moons around extrasolar planets. In this thesis I investigate the exomoon candidate around the exoplanet Kepler-1625 b. I estimate the parameters of the exomoon by fitting the Kepler transit light curve. The presence of an exomoon is marginally statistically significant. Tests of the exomoon detection algorithm using synthetic light curves show that about 40% of the injected moons are correctly identified. However, there is a 10-20% false-positive exomoon recovery rate. Combining Kepler observations with addit...

With the discovery of planets beyond our solar system 25 years ago, exoplanet research has expanded dramatically, with new state-of-the-art ground-based and space-based missions dedicated to their discovery and characterisation. With more than 3,500 exoplanets now known, the complexity of the discovery techniques, observations and physical characterisation have grown exponentially. This Handbook ties all these avenues of research together across a broad range of exoplanet science. Planet formation, exoplanet interiors and atmospheres, and habitability are discussed, providing in-depth coverage of our knowledge to date. Comprehensively updated from the first edition, it includes instrumental and observational developments, in-depth treatment of the new Kepler mission results and hot Jupiter atmospheric studies, and major updates on models of exoplanet formation. With extensive references to the research literature and appendices covering all individual exoplanet discoveries, it is a valuable reference to this exciting field for both incoming and established researchers.

The following chapter further investigates a number of alternative hypotheses relating to the candidate moon, though the conclusion that an exomoon best explains the data in hand remains unchanged. Finally, I present the results of an effort to identify candidate exomoon signals in the Kepler data by developing a convolutional neural network trained on O(105) Kepler light curves injected with simulated planet and moon transit signals. The most promising exomoon candidates identified by the neural network are examined in detail, undergoing a full photodynamical model fit and Bayesian model selection. I conclude by discussing the outlook for the moon search, highlighting strategies for future work and myriad unanswered questions that should be pursued in the coming years.

A complete and in-depth review of exoplanet research, covering the discovery methods, physics and theoretical background.

'Protostars and Planets V' builds on the latest results from recent advances in ground and space-based astronomy and in numerical computing techniques to offer the most detailed and up-to-date picture of star and planet formation - including the formation and early evolution of our own solar system.

In this dissertation I explore and develop statistical methodology motivated by the scientific goals and engineering constraints of the Taiwan-America-Occultation-Survey (TAOS), a large astronomy survey dedicated to understanding populations in our outer solar system. I derive minimal conditions under which detection procedures are valid and robust, discuss the filtering and diagnostics necessary to meet those conditions, and explain how detection results lead to inference about population parameters. I also develop and compare several parametric and non-parametric detection methods for use with TAOS data, and also for the proposed TAOS II survey, which will have higher-resolution data and lower noise levels.