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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)