Astrophysicist · Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics

Mapping the planets of the whole Galaxy

I use the gravitational lensing and transit methods, along with space telescopes, to map planetary systems across the Milky Way — and to build a predictive picture of where planets form, how their architectures change, and how our own neighbourhood fits into the wider Galaxy.

ESA-appointed scientist · NASA Roman Galactic Exoplanet Survey
Lead, Roman transit demographics
Led Euclid Exoplanet Science Working Group
BBC Breakfast space guest

Explore the research Media & press kit

A real binary-lens model: as a background star passes behind a foreground star, gravity magnifies it (smooth peak). When it crosses the tiny caustic created by the planet, the brightness spikes sharply for about two days (a smaller deviation lasts about a week). Planet/star mass ratio q = 0.003, separation s = 1.5 θ_E, impact parameter u₀ = 0.2, source radius ρ = 0.005; finite-source magnification computed with VBMicrolensing. For s > 1 the planetary caustic lies on the star–planet axis, s − 1/s from the host, on the planet's side.

~1,400

cool exoplanets predicted from Roman's microlensing survey — down to the mass of Mars

60k–200k

transiting exoplanets expected from Roman across Galactic distances

1st

confirmed exoplanet discovered from space by gravitational lensing (K2‑2016‑BLG‑0005Lb)

50+

broadcast, print and podcast features — BBC, Guardian, Physics World, National Geographic

Research programme

From individual worlds to a predictive map of the Galaxy

Roman and Euclid are opening a view of planetary systems far beyond the Solar neighbourhood. My work connects their discoveries with models of the Milky Way, turning detections from different techniques into a coherent account of where planets form, how often they occur and how populations change with Galactic environment.

2026 →

NASA Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope

Sole ESA-appointed scientist to Roman's Galactic Bulge Time Domain Survey; leading exoplanet demographics for the transit science team.

2023 – 2025

ESA Euclid Galactic Bulge Survey

Led the Euclid Exoplanet Science Working Group and pushed the science case for coordinated Euclid–Roman observations of the Galactic bulge.

2017 – 2023

Kepler K2 microlensing

The first space-based survey for planetary microlensing — candidate free-floating Earth-mass planets and the first confirmed space-lensing planet.

See the animated model

Tool

MaBμlS simulator

The Manchester–Besançon Microlensing Simulator — a calibrated Galactic model used by ESA and NASA teams for survey design.

Survey

SPEARNET

An automated approach to detecting and characterising exoplanet atmospheres through multi-colour transit observations.

SETI

Mutual Detectability

A game-theory strategy for the search for extraterrestrial intelligence: look where they could already see us.

The connecting idea

One Galaxy, many ways to find a planet

Microlensing, transits and Galactic modelling describe different parts of the same planetary population. My research brings those views together: placing planets within a model of their host stars and the Milky Way, predicting what each survey should detect, and using the observations to reveal how planetary systems vary across the Galaxy.

Eamonn Kerins in front of the Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank — At the Lovell Telescope, Jodrell Bank

Science in public

Explaining space, live, to millions

Since 2022 I've been a regular guest on the BBC Breakfast sofa — from the first James Webb images to the Artemis II crew's return from the Moon — alongside BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC World Service, BBC News and national print media.

BBC BreakfastBBC 5 LiveBBC World ServiceThe GuardianPhysics WorldNational GeographicSpace.com

Press kit & appearances Meet the Jodrell Bank Alien

Journalists: I'm available for live and recorded comment on exoplanets, the search for life, space missions and human spaceflight. Email Eamonn.Kerins@manchester.ac.uk — or see topics I cover.