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Colloquium Details
Date and time: Thursday, October 29, 2009 at 4:10 PM
Location: 807 Dennison
Speaker: Alex Wolszczan from Penn State
Title/topic: Planets around evolved stars
Abstract:
Discoveries of planets around Sun-like stars have taught us much about the nature of extrasolar planetary systems. However, issues such as planet formation around higher mass stars and long-term evolution of planetary systems have been left out from the mainstream exoplanet research, because the radial velocity method of planet detection becomes inefficient for spectral types earlier than F6-F8. An attractive way to remove this deficiency is to search for planets around giant stars, which have cool atmospheres and their spectra are rich in absorption lines that can be used for planet detection. In addition, with the aid of the timing method, planets have been discovered around neutron stars, post-red-giant stars and, possibly, around at least one white dwarf, all of which demonstrates the spectacular robustness of the planet formation process. In this talk, I will review the development of this relatively new field in the exoplanet research and present the Penn State - Torun Centre for Astronomy search for planets around GK-giants and other stars with the 9.2-m Hobby-Eberly Telescope.
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