Philip S. Muirhead
Papers
3
Total Citations
62
H-Index
3
About
Philip S. Muirhead is an astronomer at the forefront of exoplanet discovery and characterization, with a particular focus on building and operating ground-based facilities that bridge the gap between space-based surveys and detailed planetary science. As the lead or co-lead of the Miniature Exoplanet Radial Velocity Array (MINERVA) and its southern counterpart, MINERVA-Australis, Muirhead has designed and commissioned robotic telescope arrays dedicated to confirming and measuring the masses of planets around bright stars. These facilities are especially critical for follow-up of NASA’s TESS mission, providing a nearly unique capability in the Southern Hemisphere. His work on efficient fiber-coupling units for 1-meter class telescopes has also advanced the automation and throughput of small observatories. With his most cited paper (37 citations) describing MINERVA’s design and early results, Muirhead’s contributions are foundational to the infrastructure of exoplanet science. His research enables precise radial velocity measurements that transform candidate detections into confirmed worlds with measured masses, directly advancing our understanding of planetary demographics and the potential for future atmospheric characterization.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1Miniature Exoplanet Radial Velocity Array I: design, commissioning, and early photometric results37 citations · 2015
- 2MINERVA-Australis. I. Design, Commissioning, and First Photometric Results21 citations · 2019
- 3