Europlanet Society promotes the advancement of European planetary science and related fields for the benefit of the community and is open to individual members and organizations. Anyone with an active interest in planetary science (whether academic or industrial, professional or hobbyist) is welcome to join the Society.

Our objectives:

• Expand and support a diverse and inclusive planetary community across Europe through the activities of our 10 regional centers.
• Build the profile of our sector through outreach, education and policy activities.
• Support Europe's key role in planetary science by developing links at the national and international level.

The Society is the parent body of the annual Europlanet Scientific Congress (EPSC), the largest annual meeting on planetary science in Europe. Launched in September 2018, Europlanet Society builds on the 15-year legacy of Europlanet projects funded by the European Commission and provides a sustainable platform for the infrastructure, virtual access facilities, tools and services developed through these. activities.

The Europlanet Society is governed by an elected Executive Board and its activities are supported by Committees and Working Groups drawn from its members. The Executive Office of the Society is hosted and administered by the European Science Foundation in Strasbourg.

The Spain & Portugal Regional Hub is the Europlanet Society node for the Iberian Peninsula. Created in 2019, its purpose is to promote and facilitate the achievement of the objectives of the Europlanet Society in Spain and Portugal by developing links between them and with the rest of Europe through the creation of collaborative work networks in these areas.

The composition of the Committee that coordinates the Iberian Node is:

• Chair: Alejandro Cardesín Moinelo (ESAC)
• Representative for Spain: Adriano Campo Bagatín (Univ. Alicante)
• Representative for Portugal: Elisa Delgado Mena (IA-U Porto)
• Secretary: Francisco González Galindo (IAA/CSIC)
• Early Career Rep. Spain: Juan Luis Rizos (University of Maryland)
• Early Career Rep. Portugal: Daniela Espadinha (IA, Lisbon)
• Outreach & Communication Spain: Juan Ángel Vaquerizo (ISDEFE-CAB)
• Outreach & Communication Portugal: João Retre (IA, Lisbon)
• Industry Officer (Spain): Andrés Catalán (PAE, Madrid)
• Industry Officer (Portugal): Marta Gonçalves (Portugal Space, Lisbon)
• Diversity Officer: João Faria (IA, Porto)
• Policy Officer (Spain): Carlos García Sacristán (CDTI, Madrid)
• Amateur Community Officer: Joaquín Álvaro (FAAE/AstroCuenca)

Contact: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Tytle:  Tackling Venus atmosphere from different approaches: theory-modelling, observations and space missions Reference of the FPI contract CEX2021-001131-S-20-1

Centre:  Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía - CSIC

Type:  Predoctoral

Description:

Venus is in the spotlight of the public and scientific community after the selection of 3 missions:  DAVINCI and VERITAS by NASA and EnVision by ESA/NASA. It remains an open question how  Venus and the Earth started so similarly but become such different worlds. Thus, studying Venus is essential for understanding the links between planetary evolution and the habitability of terrestrial planets,  including those outside our Solar System. Several Earth-sized exoplanets have been recently detected in short-period orbits of a few Earth days around low-mass stars. Those planets have stellar irradiation levels several times that of the Earth, suggesting that a Venus-like climate is more likely than an  Earth-like. Consequently, the atmosphere of our closest planet Venus represents a relevant case to address observational prospects of rocky close-in orbit exoplanets.

The successful candidate will be in particular involved in EnVision mission, notably, he/she will join the international consortium of the high-resolution spectrographs VenSpec-H and VenSpec- U. She/he will use a sophisticated 3D model for Venus that has been developed since 2010 at LMD/IPSL in France, in the frame of a collaboration between different European institutions, including IAA-CSIC, to analyze and identify potential physical, chemical, or dynamical processes driving the variability of trace gases above the cloud tops of Venus (70 km altitude, approximately). Heterogenous chemical processes will be implemented and studied, and the impact of complex cloud models and scenarios on the water and sulphur species will be interpreted. These model developments will also contribute to the Venus Climate database (VCD), an online platform containing the meteorological fields derived from the Venus 3D Model and provides the scientific community with a climatology for many characteristics of the Venusian atmosphere from the surface to the exosphere, in addition, a similar but simplified condensation cloud model will be implemented into a  “Generic” 3D model, developed for exoplanets and paleoclimate studies, to simulate H2SO4-H2O clouds  “interactively” in the atmosphere of Venus-analogues around both Sun-like and M-dwarf stars, with the primary goal of providing realistic predictions of future observations of cloudy rocky exoplanets foreseen by the Webb Space Telescope and new-generation instruments and facilities (e.g. ELT).

The PhD thesis advisors will be Gabriella Gilli and Luisa M. Lara

Tytle: 3 PhD positions in IA-Porto for exoplanets

Centre:Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço

Type:  Predoctoral

Description:

The positions are offered in the context of the project "FIERCE: Finding Exoearths: tackling the challenges of stellar activity" funded by the European Research Council under an Advanced Grant with the reference 101052347. The work will be developed at CAUP (in the Porto node of the Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço), under the scientific supervision of Nuno C. Santos and/or other members of the scientific team of IA.

Fellowship duration: Each fellowship should start between the 1st of September and the 1st of October 2023, renewable on a yearly basis, and has a maximum duration of 48 months

Work plan: The detection and characterisation of other Earths, planets with the physical conditions to hold liquid water and thus potential life-sustaining environments, is a bold objective of present-day astrophysics. This goal continuously pushes the development of new ground- and space-based instrumentation. However, the quest for other Earths is severely limited by astrophysical “noise” from the host stars, whose signatures distort the spectra used to detect and characterize the planets.

The PhD projects, offered in the context of one Advanced Grant funded by the European Research Council, are related with the development of new methods and analysis tools to tackle the problem of stellar noise in exoplanet research. In particular we expect the successful candidates to contribute to the development and exploitation of data from the PoET solar telescope and ESPRESSO spectrograph (ESO) to:

1) develop new approaches to reach the 10 cm/s barrier in Doppler radial velocity measurements needed to find and characterize other Earths orbiting other Suns;

2) model and correct stellar noise in transmission spectroscopy used to study exoplanet atmospheres.

Exoplanet data obtained with the ESPRESSO and NIRPS (ESO) spectrographs may also be made available.

The projects will have a strong impact on the exploitation of data from future ground-based projects and space-based missions such as ANDES@ELT (ESO) and PLATO (ESA).

Tytle: PreDoc position open at IAA-CSIC (PID2021-126365NB-C21 - "SIGNORA"

Centre: Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía - CSIC

Type:  Predoctoral

Description:

The importance of studying comets to advance the knowledge of the processes that shaped our Solar System is recognized by the different space agencies, especially by the European Space Agency. The huge scientific returns of Giotto, Rosetta, and other comet missions are unquestioned. These ground-breaking endeavours have explored periodic comets that have approached the Sun many times, thus undergoing surface compositional and morphological modification, and blanketing by thick layers of dust. Thus, a truly pristine comet has yet to be encountered and explored. The future Comet Interceptor (ESA/JAXA) mission, in whose definition the PhD advisors (Pedro J. Gutiérrez and Luisa M. Lara) actively participate, is aimed at this goal. This mission is a new approach to exploring a comet very likely entering the inner Solar System for the first time, or, possibly, encountering an interstellar object originating at another star. Due to the extremely high orbital eccentricities of either type of target, the Comet Interceptor mission is by necessity a flyby like Giotto rather than a rendezvous like Rosetta, but the concept of the mission is scientifically compelling, and it combines the first exploration of a new type of target, as was the case for Giotto, with unique measurements that go beyond what Rosetta achieved, in some areas.

The Comet Interceptor mission involves separate spacecraft elements working together to ensure a low-risk, bountiful, interdisciplinary scientific return through unprecedented multi-point measurements. ESA is responsible for two of the spacecraft (A and B2) while JAXA will provide the third one (named B1). Multiple viewing positions will greatly increase the 3D information provided on the target and its jets/coma. The unique simultaneous multi-point measurements possible from a multi-spacecraft comet flyby will also greatly advance our understanding of the complex 3D structure of the coma, including its composition and chemical reactions, and its link with both the nucleus and the solar wind environment. The latter presents a highly dynamic and poorly understood structure of interacting plasma and fields, which this mission will be uniquely sensitive to, across a wide range of spatial scales.

The pre-doc researcher would follow the Physics and Space Sciences doctoral programme of the University of Granada. As we expect a deep involvement within the Comet Interceptor mission, several stays at different European research institutions of the team are foreseen. We plan short stays at DLR in Berlin, at Edinburgh University and at the Istituto di Fotonica e Nanotecnologie in Padova.

The goal of the PhD thesis project will be the development of new tools to analyse the coma of comets, mainly from the gas composition standpoint, and apply them to analyse both observations that we already have available and new comets to be observed. After the first period in which the predoctoral is expected to acquire the basic knowledge related to the field, it is planned his/her training in observing comets (both through spectra and broadband filters) taking advantage of our large experience in the field. In parallel, the FPI, starting from the codes already available to us, will develop new tools, considering our present understanding of coma processes, to analyse coma data. The application to actual observations is granted as we already have a large archived set of cometary data. Due to the potential involvement of the predoc in the Comet Interceptor mission, there are strong chances that he/she will continue his/her career in cometary science as a postdoc in the frame of the mission as an Associated Scientist.

The official announcement for pre-doc position within the project SIGNORA at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (IAA) in Granada, Spain is now available. T
Look for the application link "Acceso applicación solicitud.." in: https://www.aei.gob.es/convocatorias/buscador-convocatorias/ayudas-contratos-predoctorales-formacion-doctores-2022. The call closes on Jan 26. There is also information on the administrative requirements available at https://www.aei.gob.es/convocatorias/buscador-convocatorias/ayudas-contratos-predoctorales-formacion-doctores-2022-1.

Interested candidates can contact Luisa M. Lara (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) and/or Pedro J. Gutiérrez (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) for further information.

Tytle: Postdoctoral position on Uranus and Neptune atmospheric modeling

Center: Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (LMD), Sorbonne Université, Paris, France

Type: Postdoctoral

Description:

The Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (LMD), located on Sorbonne Université (Paris, France), invites applications for a postdoctoral position on Uranus and Neptune atmospheric modeling. The position is funded by the ANR (Agence Nationale pour la Recherche) grant “Simulations and Observations of Uranus and Neptune atmospheric Dynamics (SOUND)”. The SOUND project addresses fundamental questions regarding the atmospheric physics of Uranus and Neptune, in particular i) atmospheric circulation (waves, jets, ...), storm activity and the methane cycle using circulation models at the global scale or at the regional scale and ii) characterizing stratospheric winds and temperatures from observations. This first aspect is the main topic of the postdoctoral position.

We are looking for a someone to contribute to the development of the Uranus and Neptune version of our Generic Planetary Circulation Model (PCM), a 3D versatile model developed at LMD in strong collaboration with other laboratories (LAB, LESIA...). The ice giant version of the PCM, based on our Saturn and Jupiter models [Spiga et al., 2020, Guerlet et al., 2020] is already operational but needs further developments. Depending on the candidate’s background and interests, several areas can be explored: add methane clouds and haze microphysics ; test a gravity wave parametrization and study its impact on stratospheric thermal structure and dynamics ; or account for convective plumes and study their impact on the general circulation. The candidate will rely on existing modules available within our team or collaborations (eg. adapting the Titan cloud and haze microphysics to Uranus; or the Mars and Saturn gravity wave  parametrization to Neptune; etc.). Access to several hundred thousands of computing hours on a national facility has already been secured. The candidate can also count on in-house developed tools to analyze the GCM outputs, for instance related to spectral decomposition of wave modes, or the study of wave-mean zonal flow interactions. Comparisons with observations (including recent ones by the JWST, or with ALMA) will be done to validate and interpret the model results.

The applicant will join the “Planeto” team at LMD, composed of six permanent researchers and a dozen of engineers, postdocs and PhDs working on all solar system atmospheres and  exoplanet ones, both on modeling and observational aspects. Within the SOUND project, the candidate will also collaborate closely with teams at the Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Bordeaux and the LESIA at the Observatory of Paris. Diversity, work ethics and good work/personal life balance are important values shared by our collaborators. There are possibilities to practice sport for free or take French classes on the university campus. You are enthusiastic, curious, you work with rigor, and, while you are autonomous, you are also a team player with good interpersonal communication skills: join our team! 

Applicants should have a PhD in planetary science, atmospheric physics or astrophysics.  Experience conducting research on (giant) planet atmospheres ; atmospheric modeling ; good programming skills (eg. fortran, python, ...); experience with collaborative tools (Git / svn) and good English level are among the desirable assets for the position. 

The postdoctoral position is awarded for 18 months (plus a potential 6 month extension), starting ideally in spring 2023 (the 1st of April, May or June), with some flexibility. Applications received until 31 January, 2023 will receive full consideration. Applicants should send a CV (including publication list), a cover letter stating their research accomplishments, interests in the project and date of availability, and 1 to 3 contact information for references to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Title: INPHINIT PHD FELLOWSHIP: Computer science applied to the minor bodies in the solar system

Center: Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía

Type: Predoctoral

Description:

The doctoral fellowship programme INPhINIT ”la Caixa” is devoted to attracting talented Early-Stage Researchers of any nationality to pursue their PhD studies in the best Spanish and Portuguese research centres and units with excellence distinction.

Research Project / Research Group Description

Historically the study of the physical properties of minor bodies in our solar system was done doing planned ground-based and space observations.Telescopes likes Hubble, Spitzer, Wise or Herschel were used. Then, most recently, large ground-based and space-based stars and/or galaxies surveys were planned with diverse objectives but were used by the minor bodies community to study the background minor bodies. That means, the telescope was pointing to a field of view to study some galaxy, star cluster or specific star and diverse minor bodies can be identified and studied in that pointing. The first large data release of minor bodies published using this technique was the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Moving Object Catalog. The catalog lists astrometric and photometric data for moving objects observed during the Survey. The advantage of these kind of data is that there are ready to use in the databases where the survey’s team applied the pipeline to extract the data from the observations. Other current examples of this kind of catalogues are: Wise, K2, Tess, Gaia and in a near future the LSST. Another huge source of data are the ground-based observations, where again, are planned with diverse objectives and a minor body can be found in the background. We want to extract the information on these minor bodies that appears on the images that were not planned to observe these bodies. We will use all the databases of minor bodie´s observations from the last 20 years, together with the observations made by our group, and extract as much information as possible. The challenge in analyzing the data lies in the heterogeneity of the data, the different observing conditions, formats, and timing of the data. The project aims to use data analysis tools to interpret the physical properties of these minor bodies observed in such different conditions and times. The developed tools can be used in the analysis of other databases in the future.

Title: Massive navigation of planetary images from the PVOL database

Center: Universidad del País Vasco

Type: Postdoctoral

Description:

The Planetary Sciences Group at UPV/EHU in Bilbao, Spain, offers a short post-doc position of 10 months (extendable) to work with amateur images of Solar System planets in the PVOL database at http://pvol.ehu.eus. The contract is funded by the Europlanet 2024 Research Infraestructure as part of its VESPA activities.

The goal of the project is to develop a system to massively map in a semi-interactive way selected ground-based images of the planets, with the main target being Jupiter. These maps will be uploaded into the PVOL database and will be used to investigate changes in the atmospheres of the planet. While most of the work will be technical, science objectives will be linked to: (1) analysis of zonal winds and atmospheric changes on different time-scales; (2) improvement of spatial resolution by combining information of different maps from different observers. In addition, movies of the maps will show the planet’s dynamic atmosphere for outreach purposes.

The candidate will work with Artificial Intelligence techniques to identify the planet’s limb on the image files and fit an ellipse to the planet. Navigation will be provided by using the SPICE system. Formal training on SPICE will be given at the host institution. Most technical challenges will be related to pattern recognition (identifying the planet position and orientation on PVOL images).

Interested candidates should write to Ricardo Hueso (e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

Title: Radio emission from star-planet interaction

Center: Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (IAA-CSIC)

Type: Predoctoral

Description:

The doctoral fellowship programme INPhINIT ”la Caixa” is devoted to attracting talented Early-Stage Researchers of any nationality to pursue their PhD studies in the best Spanish and Portuguese research centres and units with excellence distinction.

Research Project / Research Group Description

This project has two main goals. First, to search for radio emission arising from starplanet interaction in nearby stars with confirmed exoplanets. The detection of starplanet radio emission would allow us to use it as an independent tracer for future searches of habitable planets. The second main goal is to test star-planet interaction scenarios via radio observations for a number of stars. We will focus on M stars, which are the most abundant type of stars in our galaxy and, due to their low mass, are ideal for searching Earth-type planets. We intend to exploit the fact that the magnetic interaction between this type of stars with planets close enough can lead to radio emission that can be detectable from Earth.

This project has a strong observational component, and the successful candidate will become proficient in the use of radio interferometry techniques, including the software needed to reduce the radio data, which the main workhorse of the project. The candidate will work with radio interferometry data collected so far from state-ofthe-art interferometers, including the the Jansky Very Large Array (JVLA), the Giant Metre Wave Ratio Telescope (GMRT), the MeerKAT interferometer, the e-MERLIN, or the international LOFAR telescope. The successful candidate will become part of the CARMENES collaboration, and is expected to lead additional radio proposals from the planets that will be discovered, searching for signals of radio emission from the most promising targets to show star-planet interaction. The successful candidate will also become familiar with the physics behind the radio emission from exoplanets, and from star-planet interaction, as well as with magneto-hydrodynamic simulations to study the potential habitability of exoplanets around host stars. The overall goal of this project is to advance in our understanding of the origin of radio emission in exoplanets, tying it to the physical properties of the exoplanets and their host stars.

The official magazine of Europlanet, the European community for planetary science.

This first issue has a strong focus on Mars, including European contributions to current missions, experimental research in labs and in the field, and outreach initiatives to engage the next generation. We look back at the origins of Europlanet and its links to the Cassini-Huygens mission at the beginning of this century. We also have updates on the Winchcombe meteorite and on several new partnerships to support planetary science.

Please check out Issue 1 and share with your networks to help us spread the word.

The second issue highlights some of the exciting science supported by Europlanet's transnational access program, including an experimental project to recreate Martian flows in the lab, field campaigns in Botswana and Greenland, and virtual access to facilities in Korea.

This network currently provides access to 16 different telescope facilities distributed all over the world, with telescopes up to 2 meters in diameter, 14 of which are either robotic or provide service observations, and continue to operate despite COVID-19. Proposals are invited on any topic broadly related to Solar System or exoplanet observations. Short proposals (max 3 pages) and can be submitted at any time; decisions on funding are made on a bi-monthly basis.

Further details on the call and on how to apply can be found at the call website [https://bit.ly/2Br5LDt]; our telescope table [https://bit.ly/31zYpa1] holds a broad range of information and contact data on all the facilities in the network. To apply, please contact the relevant facilities first, agree on observing time, and then submit your funding proposal. If you have further questions on the call or if you are interested in organizing a coordinated observations campaign that would like to make use of the Europlanet Telescope Network, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Proposals are also invited for support to host workshops on any topic related to observational planetary science. Europlanet is particularly keen to support meetings bringing together professional and amateur astronomers, and/or on observations supporting space missions, but all relevant topics will be considered. Contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to propose ideas or for more information.