astronomy

Michaël Gillon

Michaël Gillon is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Michaël Gillon rather than just read about it. In short: Michaël Gillon (born 1974) is a Belgian astronomer and astrophysicist. His research focuses on exoplanets and he conducts his research at the University of Liège.

Key takeaways

Michaël Gillon belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Michaël Gillon to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Michaël Gillon from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Michaël Gillon (born 1974) is a Belgian astronomer and astrophysicist. His research focuses on exoplanets and he conducts his research at the University of Liège. He holds a master's degree in biochemistry and astrophysics and also a PhD in astrophysics, and completed his post-doctorate at Geneva Observatory. Co-discoverer of hundreds of exoplanets, he is FNRS Research Director at the Institute of Astrophysics and Geophysics of the Department of Astrophysics, Geophysics and Oceanography, and co-director of the Astrobiology Research Unit of the University of Liège (Belgium). Michaël Gillon is at the origin of the discovery of the TRAPPIST-1 exoplanetary system.

Biography Michaël Gillon began his higher education at the age of twenty-four, after seven years of service in the Belgian army. "I finished high school at the age of seventeen, and I didn't feel ready - or motivated - to undertake [higher] education," he says. "Afterwards, I regretted it." He enrolled at the University of Liège and, in five years, obtained a degree in biochemistry and an undergraduate degree in physics. He was attracted to research and, at the end, was able to pursue a career as a researcher. Attracted by research, he became a doctoral student in astrophysics in 2003, after hesitating between genetics and biochemistry. In March 2006, he defended his PhD thesis on the improvement of the photometry of exoplanet transits in the framework of the CoRoT project. He then left the University of Liege for a postdoctoral stay of almost three years at the observatory of the University of Geneva. During this stay, he led the detection of the transits of the Neptune-sized exoplanet Gliese 436b, and participated in the discovery of several hot Jupiters as WASP-18 b. Back to the University of Liege in January 2009, he continues his work on the detection of exoplanets and their physicochemical characterization. In the framework of the TRAPPIST project, he is scientific leader and principal investigator for exoplanets. This project led to numerous publications and the detection of >200 transiting exoplanets between late 2010 and early 2026. He initiated an international research observing for the first time the thermal emission of a super-Earth: 55 Cancri e. In 2012, he initiated the SPECULOOS project, a search for transiting terrestrial planets around the nearest ultracool dwarf stars and brown dwarfs using a network of robotic 1m-class telescopes. This project is ongoing since 2019. In 2013, he was appointed member of the CHEOPS scientific team. He represents Belgium there with his colleague Valerie Van Grootel. On February 22, 2017, NASA officially announced the discovery of seven exoplanets by an international team of astronomers, led by Michaël Gillon. These exoplanets, named TRAPPIST-1 b, c, d, e, f, g, h, were detected using the European Southern Observatory's TRAPPIST telescope. These seven exoplanets, located at 39 light-years from the Sun, orbit the dwarf star TRAPPIST-1. Three of these exoplanets had already been discovered in 2015 by an international team led by Gillon and using the TRAPPIST telescope, but the collaboration with NASA has expanded those discoveries.

Awards Chevalier du mérite Wallon (Knight of Walloon Merit) September 15, 2016 Ranked in the 2017 edition of Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people. September 11, 2017, he is awarded the Balzan Prize, endowed with 750,000 Swiss francs (about 650,000 euros), by the eponymous Italian-Swiss foundation for his search for planets around nearby stars, considered "an important step on the path to discovering signs of life outside our solar system." The prize will be officially presented to him in Bern on November 17, 2017 by Doris Leuthard, the President of the Swiss Confederation. In 2021 he is awarded the Francqui Prize (in Exact Sciences) for his pioneering research in exoplanetology and astrobiology that led, among other things, to the discovery of the TRAPPIST-1 exoplanetary system.

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Michaël Gillon

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Michaël Gillon claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Michaël Gillon before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Michaël Gillon ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Michaël Gillon

In research: Michaël Gillon appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Michaël Gillon in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Michaël Gillon is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1974 births, 21st-century Belgian astronomers, Belgian astrophysicists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Michaël Gillon outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Michaël Gillon in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Michaël Gillon means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Michaël Gillon out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Michaël Gillon in simple terms?

Michaël Gillon (born 1974) is a Belgian astronomer and astrophysicist. His research focuses on exoplanets and he conducts his research at the University of Liège.

Why does Michaël Gillon matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Michaël Gillon?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Michaël Gillon.