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Astronomy seminar<br>
<br>
Time & location: Friday September 13, 10:30 in FC61<br>
<br>
Speaker: Carina Persson (Chalmers)<br>
<br>
Title: Exoplanet discovery and characterisation<br>
<br>
Abstract:<br>
Observations during the last decade have uncovered large populations
of exoplanets without any counterparts in our own planetary system.
This diversity has been one of the major discoveries. One of the
most powerful tools in the hunt for new exoplanets is dedicated
space mission surveys using the technique of ultra-high precision
transit photometry. This allows not only discoveries of new planets,
but also measurements of the radius relative to the host star and
orbital parameters. By combining the photometry from space missions
with ground-based radial velocity measurements, true planet masses
and bulk densities can be obtained. But although more than 4000
exoplanets have been detected to date, mainly by the Kepler space
telescope, far fewer have been fully characterised and hence the
composition and internal structure for most exoplanets are unknown.
Only a few tens of Super-Earths have been securely identified. This
paucity is related to the faintness of the target stars and a new
generation of spacecrafts is therefore specifically targeting bright
stars. NASA's TESS spacecraft, launched in April 2018, is an all sky
survey mission of short period planets orbiting bright stars which
will enable precise follow-up observations. CHEOPS (Characterising
Exoplanet Satellite), to be launched 17 Dec 2019, is a European
mission equipped with ultra-high precision photometers. The targets
will be bright stars already known to host exoplanets and will be
observed individually. The European PLATO mission with a launch in
2026 is a next-generation planet-hunter with an emphasis on rocky
planets in the habitable zone around solar-type stars. In this talk,
I will give an overview of our work at Chalmers and the
collaboration with the international KESPRINT consortium.<br>
<br>
Other upcoming activites:<br>
<br>
18/9 (Wed) @ 10:00: PhD Defence Emanuel Gafton in FA31<br>
20/9 (Fri) @ 10:30: [CANCELLED: John Miller (Oxford)]<br>
23/9 (Mon) @ 13:00: PhD Defence Anders Nyholm in FB42<br>
27/9 (Fri) @ 10:30: Katja Poppenhaeger (Potsdam)<br>
4/10 (Fri) @ 10:30: <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;" id="docs-internal-guid-6e813b0c-7fff-f8fc-5870-62e7048ff5d4">Tim Dietrich (Amsterdam)</span><br>
<br>
All welcome! Alexis Brandeker (Astronomy seminar organiser 2019)<br>
<br>
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