Vectis Astronomical Society will be hosting a talk by Dr Joanne Barstow, titled “How To Be An Exoplanet Detective” this September.
Jo Barstow holds an STFC fellowship to investigate exoplanet atmospheres from transit and eclipse observations. She takes part in several major international working groups and has a long list of publications to her name. She teaches at the Open University.
Techniques used to discover exoplanets
Over 5,000 planets, orbiting stars other than our Sun, are now known. Exoplanets are much fainter than their parent stars, so we can only infer their properties from their influence on their parent star’s light. New telescopes such as JWST, overcome such challenges and reveal the conditions on these worlds: many are dramatically different from the solar system’s planets.
In this talk, you will hear about the techniques astronomers use to discover exoplanets, and be introduced to giant planets like WASP-39b and the seven rocky worlds orbiting red dwarf star TRAPPIST-1.
You will learn about how we look for the fingerprints of different chemicals in exoplanet atmospheres, and about the detective work to pin down exactly what those atmospheres are made of. Finally, you’ll be challenged to think whether finding aliens on one of these planets is really on the cards.
Where and when
The talk takes place on Friday 26th September from 7.30pm at Newchurch Pavilion, Watery Lane, Newchurch (the closest postcode is PO36 0LX).
It is free to members of Vectis Astronomical Society; for non-members, please follow the Eventbrite link (tickets £2.50).
The talk can also be viewed online. Tickets to view online may be obtained from Eventbrite.
News shared by Simon on behalf of Vectis Astronomical Society. Ed
