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STEM Faculty

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Jo Barstow

Jo Barstow

Lecturer In Astronomy

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physical-sciences

Professional biography

I recently held an Ernest Rutherford Fellowship from the Science and Technology Facilities Council, to investigate how 3D structure of exoplanet atmospheres can be inferred from observations obtained during transit and eclipse. I was a member of the Habitable Worlds Observatory START Characterizing Exoplanets working group steering committee, and  I am also a Science Group lead for the European Space Agency Ariel mission (https://ariel-spacemission.eu/). I previously held a Royal Astronomical Society Research Fellowship at University College London, prior to which I was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford. I completed my DPhil at the University of Oxford in 2011.

I previously served on the Royal Astronomical Society Council from 2015 - 2016 and 2021 - 2024. I am a mentor for the Supernova Foundation, which aims to support junior women starting their careers in physics, especially those from developing countries.

Research interests

My research area is planetary atmosphere modelling, with a current focus on extrasolar planets. I use spectral inversion techniques to infer atmospheric temperature structure and the presence of gases and aerosols from spectra obtained during exoplanet transit and eclipse. My particular interest is modelling and observation of clouds and hazes on exoplanets. Recent work includes a comparison of techniques for modelling cloudy hot Jupiters.

Teaching interests

My current teaching interests include contributing to the delivery and development of recently-launched astronomy module S384. I am also writing content for a new level 2 module on planetary science and supporting students with the PIRATE telescope project for SXPS288. 

Featured research

Exoplanets

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Latest publications

Displaying 10 of 55 publications

  • Skottfelt, J., Barstow, M., Barstow, J., Bell, F., Blake, O., Canning, B., Dicken, D., Doherty, J., Dumas, C., Eccleston, P., Fok, S., Gonzalez Solares, E., Grainger, W., Graur, O., Maskolenko, A., McGee, S., Mercury, C., Miller, C., Pattison, C., Plissi, M., Robinson, R., Samara-Ratna, P., Narasimha Swamy, B., Walker, D., Walton, N., Youles, S., Coyle, L. E., Perrin, M. D. and Matsuura, S., 2026, ‘Study of a four-band far-UV to near-IR high-resolution imager for the Habitable Worlds Observatory’, in SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2026, 05-11 Jul 2026, Copenhagen, Denmark., https://oro.open.ac.uk/112009/.
  • Barstow, J. K. and Welbanks, L., 2026, ‘Computational challenges in exoplanet atmospheric retrieval’, Living Reviews in Computational Astrophysics, 12(1), https://oro.open.ac.uk/111620/.
  • Arnot, D., Kolb, U. and Barstow, J., 2026, ‘Optimising small ground-based telescopes to observe small (<3R⊕) Ariel MRS targets’, in Ariel Open Conference 2026, 17-19 Mar 2026, ESCAT, Harwell, Oxon., https://oro.open.ac.uk/109040/.
  • Barstow, J. K., 2025, ‘The first water vapour detection and exoplanet atmosphere characterization’, Nature Astronomy, 9 pp. 1584–1585., https://oro.open.ac.uk/107808/.
  • Ahrer, E., Fairman, C., Kirk, J., Wakeford, H. R., Barstow, J. K., Penzlin, A. B. T., Alderson, L., Booth, R. A., Christie, D. A., Claringbold, A. B., Esparza-Borges, E., Gascón, C., López-Morales, M., Mayne, N. J., McCormack, M., Meech, A., Mollière, P., Owen, J. E., Panwar, V., Sergeev, D. E., Valentine, D., Wheatley, P. J. and Zamyatina, M., 2025, ‘BOWIE-ALIGN: weak spectral features in KELT-7b’s JWST NIRSpec/G395H transmission spectrum imply a high cloud deck or a low-metallicity atmosphere’, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 543(3), pp. 2442–2462., https://oro.open.ac.uk/106446/.
  • Stevenson, A., Haswell, C., Barnes, J., Standing, M., Barstow, J., Ross, Z., Freckelton, A. and Staab, D., 2025, ‘HD 28471: a near-resonant compact multiplanet system with a possible cold giant planet’, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 543(1), pp. 28–50., https://oro.open.ac.uk/105968/.
  • Evans-Soma, T. M., Sing, D. K., Barstow, J. K., Piette, A. A. A., Taylor, J., Lothringer, J. D., Reggiani, H., Goyal, J. M., Ahrer, E., Mayne, N. J., Rustamkulov, Z., Kataria, T., Christie, D. A., Gapp, C., Dong, J., Foreman-Mackey, D., Hattori, S. and Marley, M. S., 2025, ‘SiO and a super-stellar C/O ratio in the atmosphere of the giant exoplanet WASP-121 b’, Nature Astronomy, 9(6), pp. 845–861., https://oro.open.ac.uk/104766/.
  • Gapp, C., Evans-Soma, T. M., Barstow, J. K., Lothringer, J. D., Sing, D. K., Ruseva, D., Ahrer, E., Goyal, J. M., Christie, D., Kreidberg, L. and Mayne, N. J., 2025, ‘WASP-121 b’s Transmission Spectrum Observed with JWST/NIRSpec G395H Reveals Thermal Dissociation and SiO in the Atmosphere’, The Astronomical Journal, 169(6), https://oro.open.ac.uk/104527/.
  • Stevenson, A. T., Haswell, C. A., Faria, J. P., Barnes, J. R., Barstow, J. K., Dickinson, H. and Standing, M. R., 2025, ‘RV-exoplanet eccentricities: Good, Beta, and Best’, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 539(2), pp. 727–754., https://oro.open.ac.uk/103717/.
  • Gascón, C., López-Morales, M., MacDonald, R. J., Barstow, J. K., Boehm, V. A., Wakeford, H. R., Alam, M. K., Alderson, L., Batalha, N. E., Fairman, C. E., Grant, D., Lewis, N. K., Marley, M. S., Moran, S. E., Ohno, K., Anglada-Escudé, G. and Ribas, I., 2025, ‘The HUSTLE Program: The UV to Near-IR Transmission Spectrum of the Hot Jupiter KELT-7b’, The Astronomical Journal, 170(3), https://oro.open.ac.uk/105730/.
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