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OATS-UNI/TS SEMINAR
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Speaker: Alessandro Sozzetti (INAF-OATO)
Title: Finding and Characterizing Exoplanets Around Our Cool, Nearest Neighbors: A Multi-Technique Approach
Date: Wednesday, November 21th, 2012
Time: 11:30
Venue: Villa Bazzoni
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Abstract Cool, nearby M dwarfs within a few tens of parsecs from the Sun are today
becoming the focus of dedicated experiments in the realm of exoplanets
astrophysics. This is due to the shift in theoretical paradigms in light
of new observations, and thanks to the improved understanding of the
observational opportunities for planet detection and characterization
provided by this sample. I will outline a synergetic multi-technique approach to the detection and
(atmospheric) characterization of planetary systems across orders of
magnitude in mass and orbital separation around the sample of the nearest,
relatively bright low-mass M dwarfs. First, I will gauge the Gaia
potential for characterizing astrometrically giant planets around the
low-mass stellar sample in the solar neighborhood. I will then highlight
some of the important synergies between Gaia high-precision astrometry and
other ongoing and planned, indirect and direct planet-finding and
(atmospheric) characterization programs, both from the ground and in
space, and over a broad range of wavelengths. Next, I will describe two
direct examples of such a synergy: First, I will outline the status and
initial observational results of APACHE, a novel, Italy-based photometric
transit search for short-period, small-radius planets around thousands of
Northern-hemisphere early- to mid-M dwarfs. Finally, I will briefly
discuss the merit of a new survey program for Doppler detection at visible
wavelengths of low-mass, possibly habitable planets orbiting bright M
dwarfs using the state-of-the-art HARPS-N@TNG spectrograph.
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Contact: Stefano Cristiani (OATS)