Travis Barman is an astronomer at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona, in the United States.
While studying a combination of the previously published Hubble Space Telescope measurements and new theoretical models, Barman found strong evidence for water absorption in the atmosphere of HD 209458 b.
[1][2] A planet about 150 light years away from earth, HD 209458 b was known previously to contain an evaporating hydrogen atmosphere, along with oxygen and carbon.
HD 209458 b, a transiting planet, passes in front of its star, where it can be viewed from earth every three and a half days.
Barman found the water signature after applying new theoretical models he developed to visible and infrared Hubble data collected by then-Harvard graduate student Heather Knutson in 2007, which measured the perceived size of the planet over a broad range of wavelengths.