[Baps] Debra Fischer talk: Thurs Feb 16, 4:15 pm, Harvard Science Center

[Sarah Stewart-Mukhopadhyay]

Radcliffe Institute Lectures in the Sciences

DEBRA FISCHER
"Formation and Evolution of Extrasolar Planetary Systems"

Thursday, February 16
4:15 p.m.
Lecture Hall A in Science Center
1 Oxford Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts
For more information, call 617-495-8600

http://www.radcliffe.edu/events/lectures/2006_fischer.php

This lecture is designed for the scientifically interested layperson
and is free and open to the public. This event is cosponsored by the
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

Debra Fischer received her PhD from the University of California at
Santa Cruz in 1998. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the
University of California at Berkeley, and she is currently an
associate professor of astronomy at San Francisco State University.
Fischer is the project scientist for the Lick Observatory planet
search program and for a dedicated robotic telescope that will be
commissioned in April 2006. She is also program scientist for a Key
Science Project to find earth-mass planets using the Space
Interferometry Mission. Fischer has participated in the discovery of
more than 100 extrasolar planets, and she now leads an international
consortium using the Keck, Subaru, and Magellan telescopes to search
for short-period planets. Such planets have a high probability of
transiting their host stars and thereby revealing their size,
structure, and atmospheric constituents. One surprising discovery from
this new survey is a transiting saturn-mass planet with a 70
earth-mass core of heavy elements (Sato, Fischer, Henry et. al, 2005).
Fischer recently characterized the chemical composition and properties
of more than 1500 stars on current Doppler planet surveys, quantifying
a correlation between iron abundance and the formation of gas giant
planets (Fischer & Valenti, 2005). Recent work suggests that
alpha-elements (e.g., silicon and oxygen) may be even stronger
indicators of extrasolar planet formation and points to core accretion
as the formation mechanism for detected extrasolar planets.



--
Sarah T. Stewart-Mukhopadhyay
Asst. Professor of Planetary Science
Dept. of Earth & Planetary Sciences, Harvard University
Office 617.496.6462 Lab 617.496.5782 Fax 617.496.7411
sstewart at eps.harvard.edu
http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~planets/sstewart/