About the Speaker: Dr Jo Barstow, holds an STFC fellowship to investigate exoplanet atmospheres from transit and eclipse observations. She takes part in several large inter-national working groups and has a long list of publications to her name and teaches at the Open University.
About the Talk: Over 5000 planets, orbiting stars other than our Sun, are now known. Exoplanets are much fainter than their parent stars, so we can only infer their properties from their influence on their parent star’s light. New telescopes such as JWST, overcome such challenges and reveal the conditions on these worlds: many are dramatically different from the solar system’s planets.
In this talk, you will hear about the techniques astronomers use to discover exoplanets, and be introduced to giant planets like WASP-39b and the seven rocky worlds orbiting red dwarf star TRAPPIST-1. You will learn about how we look for the fingerprints of different chemicals in exoplanet atmospheres, and about the detective work to pin down exactly what those atmospheres are made of. Finally, you’ll be challenged to think whether finding aliens on one of these planets is really on the cards.
About the Host:
The Vectis Astronomical Society (http://www.wightstronomy.org) hosts a public event on the 4th Friday of most months, except for December. The talks are open for non-members to attend. We have a suggested donation of £2.50 for non-members of VAS. The speakers come from all over the country and give a presentation for around 45 minutes, with a chance for questions and answers afterwards.
