[Baps] Harvard/MIT seminars on imaging exoplanets

[Paul Withers]

[I heard about this through a BU connection since the widget at the 
heart of this instrument was developed in collaboration with a group 
here - Paul]

"Images and Spectra of an Extrasolar Planetary System," Dr. Bruce
Macintosh, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

2/11 4:00PM Phillips Auditorium, Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden
Street, Cambridge, MA

2/9 4:00PM Marlar Lounge, Room 37-252, MIT Kavli Institute for
Astrophysics and Space Research 70 Vassar Street, Cambridge, MA

Abstract: Although more than 400 extrasolar planets are now known,
almost all have been detected indirectly - through radial velocity
measurements or eclipses of their parent star. Direct detection -
spatially resolving the planet from the star - opens up new areas of
exoplanet phase space and new avenues for planet characterization. It
is also extremely challenging, since a mature Jupiter-like planet is
10^9 times fainter than its host star. The promise of this approach
was recently demonstrated with HST images of a planet orbiting
Fomalhaut and adaptive optics images of a three-planet system orbiting
the young A star HR8799. I will discuss the HR8799 system in detail,
including photometry, properties of the host star, astrometry and
orbital stability. We have also now obtained a spectrum of the
outermost planet in the system - the coolest exoplanet ever studied
spectroscopically - and these are showing an atmosphere very different
from a brown dwarf. The HR8799 planets were detectable because they
are extremely young (60 Myr) and massive (5-10 Jupiter masses.) To
next major step in direct detection will be dedicated instruments such
as the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI). GPI will use a 4000-actuator MEMS
deformable mirror, an advanced coronagraph, and nanometer-precision
wavefront sensing to achieve contrasts 1-2 orders of magnitude better
than any current ground or space facility. I will briefly discuss the
design and scientific capabilities of GPI, which is planned to have
first light in 2011 on the Gemini South 8-m telescope.


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Paul Withers                            Center for Space Physics
Office  +1 617 353 1531                 Boston University
Fax     +1 617 353 6463                 725 Commonwealth Avenue
Email   withers at bu.edu                  Boston MA 02215, USA
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