Why are Exoplanetary Systems unlike the Solar System?
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Location
Biology Building, Room 101
Start Date
21-3-2019 6:00 PM
End Date
21-3-2019 7:00 PM
Description
For about 400 years, scientists have known that all the stars we see in the night sky are similar to the Sun, but a lot further away. It was unknown what fraction of stars had planetary systems like our own until this decade when NASA’s Kepler mission discovered thousands of planets around other stars, allowing us to study types of worlds that had not been imagined and learn what typical planetary systems look like. This is a golden age in exoplanet science in large part because nature provided us with systems which proved that our understanding of the origin of planetary systems was wrong. In this talk, Dr Jontof-Hutter will highlight some of the amazing discoveries in exoplanets of recent years – from evaporating planets to puff-balls of light gases to potentially habitable worlds. He will also highlight what we have learned about planetary systems in general, how planets form, and why the solar system appears atypical. This will include discussion about the implications of exoplanet discoveries for the search for life elsewhere in the universe, and the expected discoveries in the near future; of exoplanets at the nearest neighboring systems with NASA’s TESS mission, and the search for water in exoplanetary atmospheres with the James Webb Space Telescope.
Why are Exoplanetary Systems unlike the Solar System?
Biology Building, Room 101
For about 400 years, scientists have known that all the stars we see in the night sky are similar to the Sun, but a lot further away. It was unknown what fraction of stars had planetary systems like our own until this decade when NASA’s Kepler mission discovered thousands of planets around other stars, allowing us to study types of worlds that had not been imagined and learn what typical planetary systems look like. This is a golden age in exoplanet science in large part because nature provided us with systems which proved that our understanding of the origin of planetary systems was wrong. In this talk, Dr Jontof-Hutter will highlight some of the amazing discoveries in exoplanets of recent years – from evaporating planets to puff-balls of light gases to potentially habitable worlds. He will also highlight what we have learned about planetary systems in general, how planets form, and why the solar system appears atypical. This will include discussion about the implications of exoplanet discoveries for the search for life elsewhere in the universe, and the expected discoveries in the near future; of exoplanets at the nearest neighboring systems with NASA’s TESS mission, and the search for water in exoplanetary atmospheres with the James Webb Space Telescope.
Speaker Bio
Dr. Jontof-Hutter has been an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics since 2016. He is an astronomer, who studies planetary systems around other stars. As a NASA postdoctoral fellow, he worked on the Kepler mission, a space telescope designed to measure the fraction of stars with Earth-like planets. His research has focused on measuring the masses and compositions of exoplanets, including the first characterized exoplanet smaller than Earth, and comparing other planetary systems to the solar system, with a view to understanding how planets form and why our solar system does not appear to be the norm. Dr. Jontof-Hutter majored in astrophysics at Monash University, Australia, before completing a Ph.D. (2012) at the University of Maryland.