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OATS-DAUT SEMINAR
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Speaker: Giovanna Tinetti (University College London, UK)

Title: Exploring extrasolar worlds: from Gas-Giants to terrestrial habitable planets

Date: Wednesday, May 27th, 2009
Time: 12:00
Venue: Villa Bazzoni

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Abstract:
In the past decade, almost 350 planets orbiting other stars (extrasolar planets) have been discovered. For a growing sample of giant extrasolar planets orbiting very close to their parent star (hot-Jupiters), we can already probe their atmospheric constituents using transit techniques. With the primary transit method, we can indirectly observe the thin atmospheric ring surrounding the optically thick disc of the planet -the limb- while the planet is transiting in front of its parent star. With the secondary transit method, we can collect photons emitted or reflected by the planet. In our talk, we will focus in the most recent detections of water vapour and other carbon-bearing molecules in the atmospheres of hot-Jupiters using photometry and spectroscopy measurements with the Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes. The next generation of space telescopes, such as the James Webb Space Telescopes or SPICA, will allow us to probe the exoplanet atmospheres with higher spectral resolution and observe planets down to the Super-Earth size. Further into the future, new mission concepts from the space or the ground, will focus on the direct imaging and spectroscopic characterisation of Earth-like planets in the habitable zone of solar-type stars.
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contact: Giovanni Vladilo (OATS)