Exoplanets: Interiors, Atmospheres, and the Search for Habitable Worlds
Mar 25, 2009
3:20PM to 4:20PM
Date/Time
Date(s) - 25/03/2009
3:20 pm - 4:20 pm
Title: Exoplanets: Interiors, Atmospheres, and the Search for Habitable Worlds
Speaker: Dr. Sara Seager – MIT
Institute: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Location: ABB 102
Description:
Over 300 exoplanets are known to orbit nearby stars. Now that their existence is firmly established, a new era of â??exoplanet characterizationâ? has begun. A subset of exoplanetsâ??called transiting planetsâ??pass in front of their stars as seen from Earth. Transiting planets have immeasurably changed the field of exoplanets because their physical properties, including average density and atmospheric thermal emission, can be now be routinely measured. I will summarize the observations and their interpretation of some of the 50 transiting exoplanets. I will discuss how the race to find habitable exoplanets has accelerated with the realization that â??big Earthsâ? transiting small stars can be both discovered and characterized with current technology. These ideas will lead us down a path to the ultimate goal of finding and identifying Earth analogs.