Last summer, a student of the 2nd year of the Gymnasium J. Š. Baar in Domažlice Jan Herzig spent a week internship at the Observatory of the Astronomical Institute of the CAS in Ondřejov. On the basis of this internship, during the school year he established cooperation with Jiří Žák from the Stellar Department and wrote his high school scientific work for national competition ‘SOČ’ under his guidance. It is titled “Analysis of exoplanet evolution using the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect” and deals specifically with the formation of exoplanets from the hot Jupiter group through the analysis of radial velocity curves obtained with the HARPSN and ESPRESSO spectrographs.
With this work he managed to win the regional level of the ‘SOČ’ competition and advanced to the national level. It was held on 13-15 June 2025 in Teplice and he managed to take the first place in the competition of high quality works from all over the Czech Republic. This also opens up further possibilities for the future, as the victory at the national level is associated with a nomination for the Jaroslav Heyrovský Foundation Award, the ‘Česká hlavička’ competition and in the autumn will be followed by the selection of the representation for international competitions. Congratulations!
