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X-WR-CALNAME;VALUE=TEXT:Origins Chalk Talk  Raphaëlle Haywood (Charbonneau Group) "Breaking the ultimate barrier to characterising other Earths"
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SUMMARY:Origins Chalk Talk  Raphaëlle Haywood (Charbonneau Group) "Breaking the ultimate barrier to characterising other Earths"
DESCRIPTION:<p>Abstract</p><div style="margin:0px">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.</div><div style="margin:0px">This work is funded by the John Templeton Foundation and NASA XRP Program #NNX15AC90G.</div><div> </div>
LOCATION:Natio Laboratory, Room 205, 12 Oxford Street
STATUS:CONFIRMED
DTSTART:20161103T130000Z
DTEND:20161103T130000Z
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