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JOINT DAUT-ICTP-OATS-SISSA COLLOQUIUM
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Speaker: Michel Mayor (Observatoire de Genève)

Title: From Gaseous Giant Planets to Rocky Planets. Eleven Years of Exoplanet Discoveries

Date: Thursday, May 11th, 2006
Time: 12:00 noon
Venue: Villa Bazzoni

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Abstract:
In the last eleven years, more than 170 exoplanets have been detected. These discoveries have revealed the impressive diversity of exoplanet orbital properties. Several statistical properties are already emerging and help constraining the formation mechanisms of these systems. The past eleven years have also witnessed a remarkable improvement of the precision of radial velocity measurements with a gain of about a factor 100. Planets with masses as small as a few earth-masses have been detected. Is it possible to expect further significant progresses of Doppler measurements? Such a possibility could be of interest to permit radial velocity follow-up measurements of planetary transit candidates expected from the COROT and KEPLER space missions : the goal being to get a precise determination of mass-radius relations from terrestrial planets to brown dwarfs. A radial velocity precision at the level of 0.1 m/s does not seem out of reach. With an observing strategy adapted to minimize the influence of the stellar intrinsic variability (magnetic activity, acoustic modes) we should be in position to explore statistical properties of terrestrial planetary systems.
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