#  Origins Chalk Talk Raphaëlle Haywood (Charbonneau Group) "Breaking the ultimate barrier to characterising other Earths" 

 



####  calendar\_today Date and Time 

 **November 3, 2016** 

 09:00AM - 09:00AM EDT 

####  pin\_drop Location 

 **Natio Laboratory, Room 205, 12 Oxford Street**  



 

 



 

Abstract

The recent Kepler mission discovered thousands of new worlds beyond our Solar System, hundreds of which may be terrestrial planets of similar size to our Earth. The mass of a planet is arguably its most fundamental physical parameter; it dictates its internal composition and structure, and its ability to have an atmosphere, an essential component for a potentially life-hosting planet. In an era of large telescopes and high-precision instruments, the ultimate challenge to determining the masses of small, rocky exoplanets lies not in our technological capabilities, but in our understanding of the host stars themselves. I will explain how magnetic features on the surfaces of stars compromise our efforts to determine the masses of these distant worlds. I will report on our ongoing investigation of the Sun, seen as an exoplanet-host star by one the world’s finest exoplanet-hunting instruments. This investigation is a crucial step in our endeavour to discover and characterise worlds like our own.This work is funded by the John Templeton Foundation and NASA XRP Program #NNX15AC90G. 

 

 



 

 See also:- [ Chalk Talks ](/events/chalk-talks)
 
 

 Share on:- [     Facebook ](#)
- [     Twitter ](#)
- [     Linkedin ](#)
 


 Save: [ Add to calendar calendar\_today ](https://origins.harvard.edu/node/900336/event-feed.ics)  Copy link link