The CARMENES search for exoplanets around M dwarfs

by Lev Tal-Or

at Astrophysics and Cosmology Seminar

Wed, 06 Jun 2018, 11:15
Physics building (#54) room 207

Abstract

Thousands of planetary systems were discovered around Sun like stars in the past 30 years However the fraction of planets detected around M dwarfs is still way below their representation in the Solar neighborhood Spectroscopic observations of M dwarfs bring both great promise and great challenge for planet detection: their lower mass and luminosity make their low mass habitable zone planets detectable by nowadays radial velocity RV instruments but their faintness and activity make such measurements challenging Importantly finding planets around nearby stars opens the way for various follow up studies with complementary techniques such as direct imaging and astrometry The CARMENES instrument and survey were designed to address these challenges Using a high resolution dual channel spectrograph CARMENES provides M star RV measurements with a precision down to 1 m s After two years of surveying gt 300 nearby M dwarfs the first discoveries see light In this talk I will give a brief overview of the latest results with the main focus being the CARMENES capability of detecting low mass habitable zone planets I will also discuss the ways M star activity and rotation impact their spectra and RVs and mention additional science done with CARMENES including spectroscopic binary and transiting planet characterization

Created on 01-06-2018 by Bar Lev, Yevgeny (ybarlev)
Updaded on 01-06-2018 by Bar Lev, Yevgeny (ybarlev)