The First Images of Exoplanets

René Doyon

Université de Montréal

The last year has been particularly fruitful in exoplanet science with the discovery of 5-6 new exoplanets around four main sequence stars, all detected through imaging techniques. Not too suprisingly, these exoplanets have been found at relatively large orbital separations, up to 330 astronomical units. This seminar will review what has been learned from these new fascinating systems. I will also describe how these spectacular discoveries, combined with numerous imaging non-detections, give us some quantitattive constraints on the population of gas giant planets at relatively large separations from main sequence stars. Finally, I will briefly describe exciting new instruments and facilities, among many, for detecting and characterizing exoplanets in the near and long term future: the Gemini Planet Imager and the James Webb Space Telescope.

Date:	Tuesday, 1 December 2009
Time:	16:00
Where:	McGill University
	Ernest Rutherford Physics Building, R.E. Bell Conference Room (room 103)
Contact:	Andrew Cumming