Michelle Kunimoto

Michelle Kunimoto (born 1992 or 1993 (age 32–33)[1]) is a Canadian astronomer from Abbotsford, British Columbia,[1] and is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of British Columbia (UBC). Kunimoto had discovered four exoplanet candidates as a UBC undergraduate, using Kepler space telescope data, becoming one of the youngest people to do so in 2016.[2] She was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2017.[3] In 2020, she discovered 17 more.[4]

Kunimoto was a postdoctoral fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and led MIT's planet search team for NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) Mission.[5][1] She leads the TESS Faint Star Search.[6] As of 2025, she has uncovered more than 3,600 planet candidates, including over 100 confirmed exoplanets.[7] Her discoveries include the HD 101581[8] and HD 260655[9] planetary systems.

References

  1. ^ a b c Ball, David P. (December 29, 2023). "This UBC grad has discovered thousands of likely planets across our cosmos". CBC.
  2. ^ Wenz, John (June 8, 2016). "How a college senior found 4 new planets". astronomy.com. Astronomy magazine. Retrieved 2025-10-10. By tweaking the numbers in Kepler data, Michelle Kunimoto managed to find four very different worlds.
  3. ^ "30 Under 30 - Science: Michelle Kunimoto, Master's Candidate, University of British Columbia". Forbes. 2017. Retrieved 2025-10-14.
  4. ^ Wehner, Mike (March 2, 2020). "Astronomy student discovers 17 new planets". New York Post.
  5. ^ "TESS Science Team". TESS at MIT. Retrieved 2025-10-24.
  6. ^ "TESS Science Office at MIT hits milestone of 5,000 exoplanet candidates". MIT Kavli Institute. January 29, 2023.
  7. ^ "TOI Catalog". The Exoplanet Follow-up Observing Program. Retrieved 2025-10-24.
  8. ^ Kunimoto, Michelle; Lin, Zifan; Millholland, Sarah; Venner, Alexander; Hinkel, Natalie R.; Shporer, Avi; Vanderburg, Andrew; Bailey, Jeremy; Brahm, Rafael (December 2024). "Two Earth-size Planets and an Earth-size Candidate Transiting the Nearby Star HD 101581". The Astronomical Journal. 169 (1): 47. arXiv:2412.08863. Bibcode:2025AJ....169...47K. doi:10.3847/1538-3881/ad9266.
  9. ^ Luque, R.; Fulton, B. J.; Kunimoto, M.; Amado, P. J.; Gorrini, P.; Dreizler, S.; Hellier, C.; Henry, G. W.; Molaverdikhani, K.; Morello, G.; Peña-Moñino, L. (2022-04-21). "The HD 260655 system: Two rocky worlds transiting a bright M dwarf at 10 pc". Astronomy & Astrophysics. 664: A199. arXiv:2204.10261. Bibcode:2022A&A...664A.199L. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202243834. S2CID 248300168.
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