Pierre Magain

Papers

Total Citations

308

H-Index

About

Pierre Magain is a pioneering astrophysicist whose work centers on exoplanet detection and the study of planetary systems, with a particular focus on small-body solar system objects. He is best known as the principal investigator of the TRAPPIST project (TRAnsiting Planets and PlanetesImals Small Telescope), a 60-cm robotic telescope installed at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in 2010. Magain’s key contributions include the design, deployment, and scientific operation of this facility, which has enabled high-cadence photometric monitoring of transiting exoplanets and cometary activity. His two foundational papers on TRAPPIST, published in 2011, have together garnered over 280 citations, underscoring the telescope’s impact on the field. Beyond exoplanets, Magain applied TRAPPIST to comet science, as seen in his 2015 study of comet C/2013 R1 (Lovejoy), which provided critical insights into the origin of daughter species through narrow-band photometry. His leadership of the Astrophysics and Image Processing group at the University of Liège has advanced robotic telescope technology and time-domain astronomy. Magain’s work laid the groundwork for the later discovery of the TRAPPIST-1 planetary system, cementing his legacy in exoplanetary science.