Meet the Fellows Research Following the chemical signatures of drifting dust around young stars to understand how rocky materials take the shape of planets. Host University Carnegie Science Year Awarded 2026 Website Professional Page Marbely Micolta Ph.D. candidate, Astronomy and Astrophysics, Scientific Computing, University of Michigan Research Following the chemical signatures of drifting dust around young stars to understand how rocky materials take the shape of planets. Host University Carnegie Science Year Awarded 2026 Website Professional Page “I’m excited to find a clear connection between the rocky composition of other planetary systems and our own. If we see the same kind of separation Jupiter created in the solar system, that could tell us a lot about how rocky material is influenced.” Marbely Micolta After learning about how Halley’s Comet swept past Earth, an inspired primary school student in Venezuela announced she would become an astronomer. That childhood fascination never faded for Marbely Micolta. Today, she studies the cosmic construction sites that build stars and planets, searching for missing ingredients in the gas surrounding young stars—clues to where new worlds may be taking shape. Opportunities in astronomy were initially limited, but during the COVID-19 pandemic, science learning shifted online and doors opened. A virtual class arranged through a mentor at Venezuela’s Centro de Investigaciones de Astronomía and an online summer school at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany, deepened Ms. Micolta’s interest and commitment. Both opportunities introduced her to planetary and star formation—as well as a highly collaborative global community. In her research, Ms. Micolta examines protoplanetary disks—the swirling gas and dust around young stars that serve as planetary raw material. She developed a new way to investigate planet formation by looking at the dust in these disks, and for evidence that material is actively falling toward the star. By analyzing light from powerful ground- and space-based telescopes and utilizing models, she measures whether key rock-forming elements—like calcium, magnesium, and iron—are missing from a star’s immediate surroundings. In several systems that otherwise looked identical, she discovered unexpected shortages of these rocky ingredients. Her finding suggests that those tiny solid grains drift, grow, gather, and eventually form the cores of both gas giant and terrestrial planets. As a 51 Pegasi b Fellow, Ms. Micolta will expand her work across a broader range of wavelengths—from ultraviolet to near-infrared—adding iron as a new probe of rocky depletion in the innermost regions of disks. She plans to observe at least ten additional systems, including older disks, to build one of the most comprehensive studies of its kind. Her ultimate goal is to anchor planet formation models directly to observed disk conditions to draw the clearest link yet between our solar system and other planetary systems across the galaxy. Beyond her research, Ms. Micolta enjoys building community. Throughout graduate school, she served as co-organizer for Astronomía en Español, an affinity group that connects history, culture, and science to highlight Latin American contributions to the field. Ms. Micolta will receive a Ph.D. in astronomy and astrophysics and scientific computing from the University of Michigan in Summer 2026.