How to Detect & Characterize Exoplanets: The St. Louis Astronomical Society March Meeting
Exoplanets are planets that orbit other stars. Over six thousand exoplanets have been detected since the first one was discovered thirty-five years ago. Observation, particularly from space telescopes, has enabled the detection of numerous planetary systems and the characterization of the different planets that compose them. During this presentation, Dr. Ollivier will focus on the potential of photometry and spectrophotometry of planetary transits. Dr. Ollivier will explain this method and the different exoplanet observables it reveals. He will also demonstrate the full potential of this technique by illustrating it with a few concrete examples. Finally, he will show how two highly complementary observatories, the James Webb Space Telescope and the European ARIEL spacecraft, will very soon be able to provide us with information that will give us a better understanding of the formation and evolution of exosystems.
Dr. Olivier is an astronomer at the Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale d'Orsay (IAS - CNRS / Univ Paris-Saclay, France), where he contributes to the development of space instrumentation for the detection and characterization of exoplanets. He contributed to the development and scientific operation of the European CoRoT space mission. He is now the instrument scientist for AIRS, the infrared spectrometer on ESA's ARIEL mission dedicated to the spectroscopy of several hundred exoplanets.
The St. Louis Astronomical Society is an organization for individuals interested in astronomy and telescopes. The public is invited to attend its meetings, telescope observing sessions, and special events. For more information about Astronomical Society events, please visit www.slasonline.org.
Free parking will be available.
Header image: Artist’s concept of how rocky, potentially habitable worlds elsewhere in our galaxy might appear. Data gathered by telescopes in space and on the ground suggest that small, rocky planets are common. (Placing them so close together in a line is for illustrative purposes only.) NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (SSC-Caltech)