Characterising the internal structures of exoplanets with CHEOPS

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• Thomas Wilson (St Andrews)
• Tuesday 15 February 2022, 13:00-14:00
• Ryle seminar room + ONLINE - Details to be sent by email.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Dr Annelies Mortier.

The successful Kepler and TESS missions have discovered thousands of exoplanets and let the community focus on the characterisation of these bodies. One area of research utilises ultra-high-precision photometric and spectroscopic follow-up observations in order to accurately constrain the bulk densities of terrestrial exoplanets. Combining these observables with Bayesian internal structure modelling that uses geological equations of state, we can start to learn about the compositions of planets. Importantly, by studying multi-planet systems we can conduct comparative planetology that can reveal important aspects that challenge our knowledge of planet formation and evolution via the contrastment of the observational and modelling results of a planet against its neighbours.

In this talk, I will present observational studies characterising multi-planet systems initially discovered with TESS and followed-up with the CHEOPS satellite and ground-based instruments, such as NGTS and ESPRESSO . Additionally, I will discuss our Bayesian internal structure and atmospheric escape modelling, and present the results of utilising such models on several key, multi-planet systems observed with CHEOPS . Important knowledge about these systems was uncovered via a combination of precise observations using a new generation of instruments and cutting-edge planetary internal structure modelling. Therefore, utilising these resources we are at the beginning of a new era in characterising terrestrial bodies outside of our Solar System.

This talk is part of the Exoplanet Seminars series.

This talk is included in these lists:

• Cambridge Astronomy Talks
• Combined External Astrophysics Talks DAMTP
• Cosmology, Astrophysics and General Relativity
• Exoplanet Seminars
• Institute of Astronomy Talk Lists
• LCLU Departmental Talks
• Ryle seminar room + ONLINE - Details to be sent by email

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