[Baps] Thursday 6 March - Zach Berta-Thompson (M.I.T.) - BU Seminar - Exoplanets

[Paul Withers]

Zach Berta-Thompson
M.I.T.

*Super-Earths and Sub-Neptunes in the Solar Neighborhood*
*Thursday, March 6, 2014*
*725 Commonwealth Ave.*
*Refreshments at 3:30pm in CAS 500*
*Talk begins at 4:00pm in CAS 502*

Abstract:

Results from the NASA Kepler Mission indicate that planets intermediate
in size between Earth and Neptune make up a significant fraction of the
Milky Way’s planet population, yet no such planets exist in our own
Solar System. The composition, formation, and evolution of these alien
worlds is still largely a mystery. Our current best hope to learn more
about super-Earths and sub-Neptunes is to find such planets transiting
very nearby, very small stars. In this talk I will review the progress
we’ve made toward finding such systems, the complicated picture that
observations of their masses, sizes, and atmospheres of these planets
have painted so far, and our very real prospects for improving our
knowledge of these enigmatic planets in the next five years.



-------------- next part --------------
_______________________________________________
Csp_seminar mailing list
Csp_seminar at skynet.bu.edu
http://skynet.bu.edu/mailman/listinfo/csp_seminar