I am an astronomical data scientist at Space Telescope Science Institute and observational astronomer. I am the product owner and developer for Python-based open source visualization software supporting JWST and Roman. My astronomical research focuses on accretion mechanism from circumstellar disks onto young brown dwarfs & planetary mass companions, and icy dust grains in debris disks around young stars. I got my Ph.D. in Astronomy at UMass Amherst, and my B.S. in Astrophysics at Haverford College in Pennsylvania.

Full CV

Astronomical Data Visualization Tools

Building visualization tools at STScI


Research

My work studying forming brown dwarfs and stars


Software & Databases

Developing archives and building analysis pipelines

Recent Projects

A data visualization tool for JWST, HST, and Roman astronomical data.

docs source code app (coming soon)

The Comprehensive Archive of Substellar and Planetary Accretion Rates (CASPAR) is the largest database of accretion rates to-date. These have been gathered from literature and self-consistently rederived producing a uniform catalog of brown dwarf, star, and planet physical and accretion properties.

database publication python analysis tools

Using JWST/NIRSpec, we have detected ices in debris disks for the first time! Using advanced high contrast imaging techniques, we are able to image the disks of young planet forming systems, and with the IFU capabilities of NIRSpec, extract a spectra of the reflected ice at every pixel in the image.

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Recent Publications

    The Statistical Properties of Dark Ramps for the Roman-WFI Detectors

    S. K. Betti, T. Brandt, et. al, 2025, Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Technical Reports, Roman-STScI-000814
    ADS pdf

    Fluorescently excited CO emission in the 49 Ceti debris disk spatially resolved by JWST/NIRSpec

    K. Worthen, et al., incl. S. K. Betti, 2025, Nature Astronomy, 9, 11
    ADS Nature Astronomy

    A Near-infrared Spectral Library of Very Young Brown Dwarf and Planetary Mass Objects in the Orion Nebula Cluster

    E. Manjavacas, et al., incl. S. K. Betti, 2025, ApJ, 994, 1
    ADS ApJ

    Water ice in the debris disk around HD 181327

    C. Xie, et al., incl. S. K. Betti, 2025, Nature, 641, 8063
    ADS Nature

    Application and Characterization of IRRC on Roman/WFI TVAC1 Data

    S. K. Betti, S. Casertano, et. al, 2024, Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Technical Reports, Roman-STScI-000673
    ADS pdf

    The Comprehensive Archive of Substellar and Planetary Accretion Rates

    S. K. Betti, K. B. Follette, et al., 2023, 023, AJ, 166, 262B
    ADS AJ

Fun Times in the control room at the KPNO WIYN 0.9m

timelapse credit: Kim Ward-Duong