[Astronomy seminar] Astronomy seminar TODAY 10:30 FC61: Rubén Asensio Torres

[Astronomy seminar announcements]

On 2019-02-18 5:49 , Alexis Brandeker wrote:
> Time & location: Friday 22/2, 10:30 in FC61
>
> Speaker: Rubén, Asensio Torres (SU)
>
> Title: High-contrast imaging of low-mass companions
>
> Abstract:
> The search for exoplanets, i.e., planets orbiting other stars than the
> Sun, is a relatively new research field, but has already established
> itself as one of the most prolific and intriguing areas of astronomy. By
> now we are in a situation where the focus is not only on finding
> companions to stars, but also on characterising their atmospheres and
> physical properties, which overall allows us to put our Solar System
> into context. In this seminar I will provide an introduction to the
> basis of the direct imaging technique, and discuss how it can be used to
> find and characterise low-mass companions. In particular, I will present
> the first direct imaging survey aimed at discovering circumbinary
> planets (SPOTS: Search for Planets Orbiting Two Stars), which includes
> the observations of 62 targets with VLT/NaCo and VLT/SPHERE, and a
> statistical analysis on the findings. These results put constraints on
> the population of giant planets and brown dwarfs on wide orbits.
> Moreover, I will present a second project where the new SCExAO/CHARIS
> integral field spectrograph is used to constrain the physical properties
> of a young stellar triple system via low-resolution spectroscopy. The
> observational data seem to point to a model age-mass discrepancy for
> young systems.
>
> All welcome!
>      Alexis Brandeker (Astronomy seminar organiser VT 2019)
>
>