Past Events

Abstract

Our current view of extra-solar planets is one derived primarily from Sun-like stars with a strong focus on understanding our Solar System. Our knowledge about the properties of extra-solar planets around the dominant stellar population by number, the so-called cool stars or M dwarfs, is much more cursory. In the same way as hot-Jupiters paved the road during the first years of exoplanet discoveries, dedicated programs to detect and characterize hot Earths and super-Earths are the natural step towards the detection and characterisation of potentially habitable worlds. Current techniques to investigate planetary systems around cool stars will be considered with an emphasis on radial velocity surveys. These lead to the inference that that the orbital distribution of M dwarf planets appears to be broadly similar to those around other stars and thus formation and migration processes are common for all stars. Although, the mass of M dwarf planets is relatively much lower than the expected stellar mass dependency and thus it may be inferred that the build up of planetary mass is relatively impaired. In order to detect Earth analogues around cool stars despite their faintness and sustained activity, the talk will emphasise key factors such as (i) the wavelength sensitivity of signals, (ii) the combination of data from different experiments, (iii) appropriate selection of targets and (iv) new instrumentation.

Coffee and tea will be served 20 minutes prior to the seminar.