JAPC - Transiting Extrasolar Planets

Speaker: Prof. Bill Welsh, Dept. of Astronomy, SDSU

Topic: "Transiting Extrasolar Planets"

Time: 2:00 PM, Friday, November 9th, 2007

Place: P-148 (refreshments will be served at 1:45 PM in P145A)

Abstract: Over 250 extrasolar planets have been discovered as of late 2007. Twenty-eight of these are particularly important because they transit (eclipse) their host stars. Transiting systems provide a wealth of information about exoplanets. Photometry of the transit allows us to determine the orbital inclination and relative radius of the planet. Combined with the star's reflex motion, we can estimate the planet's mass and density, which tells us whether it is a terrestrial or gas giant planet. Precise photometry allows us to measure the planet's temperature, and in principle it can be used to detect small objects such as satellites and rings around the planet, as well as find other bodies in the system via their gravitational perturbations of the planet's orbit. In addition, transits allow unprecedented measurements of the host star itself, e.g., limb darkening, differential rotation, and spin-orbit axes alignment. In this talk I will review what we have learned from transiting exoplanets and discuss the research being done at SDSU on these systems.

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