SHAO Astrophysics Colloquium

Title： Exoplanets from the radial velocities of nearby stars

Speaker: Hugh Jones (University of Hertfordshire)

Time: 3 pm, July 11 (Thursday)

Location: Lecture hall, 3rd floor

Abstract - For most of human history extrasolar planets had a lot in common with dragons. Many people believed in them, but there were no confirmed cases. In 1995 some people's view of both changed with the potential discoveries such as 51 Peg b and Nine Dragon Pillar. In 2000 with the discovery of the transits event in the star HD209458, exoplanets became widely accepted and have since been discovered in large numbers. Though still we are only barely sensitive to Solar System's like our own. Our knowledge about the exoplanets around the dominant population of stars, the low-mass stars or M dwarfs is even more cursory. Hence the discovery of terrestrial-like exoplanets around Proxima, Trappist-1 and Barnard's star is providing interesting insights into their prevalence and diversity. This talk will be focussed on efforts to constrain Solar System analogues around cool stars and Solar type stars despite their faintness and sustained activity and will emphasise (i) the combination of data from different experiments, (ii) the wavelength sensitivity of signals and (iii) new instrumentation.