Professor Melinda Soares-Furtado

Assistant Professor · Departments of Astronomy & Physics
University of Wisconsin-Madison
ORCID 📚 Publications 📄 CV

I am an astrophysicist investigating the formation and evolution of stars and planetary systems. My research integrates observational data (including missions like Kepler, TESS, JWST, Gaia, and ground-based spectroscopy) with computational simulations to address fundamental questions about stellar ages, the discovery and characterization of young exoplanets, and the dynamic interactions between stars and their orbiting worlds.

Before joining UW-Madison faculty in 2024, I was a NASA Hubble Postdoctoral Fellow here at UW-Wisconsin and a Science Affiliate at the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research. I am affiliated with the Wisconsin Center for Origins Research (WiCOR).

🌟 Join Our Research Group

I will be recruiting postdoctoral scholars, graduate students, and undergraduates beginning in Fall 2026. If you're interested in joining our team, please check back or reach out to express your interest.

Future opportunities will include projects in:

Observational resources: Group members have institutional access to premier facilities including WIYN/NEID, the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT), the Northern Extended Millimeter Array (NOEMA), and the Center for High Throughput Computing (CHTC).

Mentorship: I received the 2023 UW-Madison Postdoctoral Excellence in Mentoring Award and am committed to supporting students at all career stages. Multiple former mentees have received NSF Graduate Research Fellowships and NASA FINESST awards.

Scientific Research

Below is a selection of ongoing research projects. Visit our Team page to learn about the talented researchers contributing to these investigations.

Stellar Age Determination & Gyrochronology

Accurate stellar ages are essential for understanding planetary system evolution. Our team develops novel age-dating techniques using stellar rotation (gyrochronology), lithium abundances, and ensemble approaches combining multiple age indicators. We apply machine learning and Bayesian methods to calibrate these techniques using benchmark stellar populations like the Ursa Major Moving Group.

The Earth is embedded within the Ursa Major system, making its members ideal laboratories for studying stellar and planetary evolution. Our recent work identified the closest young Earth-sized planet transiting a Sun-like star in this association.

Planetary Engulfment Events

A non-negligible fraction of planets meet their end by being engulfed by their host stars. We identify long-devoured planets through the chemical signatures they impart on stellar atmospheres—particularly lithium enhancement and refractory element enrichment. By quantifying these tracers, we constrain the bulk composition and mass of destroyed worlds.

Our team also investigates the engulfment process itself, probing the transfer of angular momentum, energy, and mass through hydrodynamical simulations and tidal modeling.

Detection & Characterization of Young Exoplanets

Despite 6,000+ confirmed exoplanets, the census of young worlds with well-constrained ages remains sparse. These systems offer critical insights into planet formation and atmospheric evolution. Our team recently detected the nearest Earth-sized exoplanet orbiting a Sun-like star—a world in a 400 Myr stellar association, ten times younger than our Solar System.

We also discovered a young mini-Neptune on the upper edge of the radius valley orbiting a bright M dwarf in the Hyades cluster, providing unique constraints on how stellar age shapes planetary atmospheres and the emergence of the M dwarf radius valley.

The Search for Young Exomoons

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope's infrared capabilities will enable searches for transiting exosatellites in young star-forming regions. The Orion Nebula Cluster—extremely young (1–3 Myr) and densely populated with brown dwarfs and free-floating planets—presents an ideal target.

Our simulations predict that a 30-day Roman survey of the ONC could discover ~14 exomoons transiting free-floating planets and ~54 exosatellites transiting brown dwarfs. We continue exploring yields in other star-forming regions, including JWST observations of the Rosette Nebula.

Open Cluster Variable Star Investigations

Variable stars in stellar clusters probe fundamental astrophysical questions. Rotational variables reveal angular momentum evolution; pulsators illuminate relationships between stellar structure, activity, age, and mass; eclipsing binaries yield precise masses, radii, and ages that stringently test stellar evolutionary theory.

Our cluster surveys also enable searches for exoplanets among hosts with known ages and compositions—addressing whether planet occurrence rates and orbital architectures differ between cluster and field populations.