Astronomy and Astrophysics Seminars

Accreting protoplanetary discs and Evaporating exospheres

by Dr. Joe Philip Ninan (Pennsylvania State University, USA)

Tuesday, February 11, 2020 from to (Asia/Kolkata)
at Lecture Theatre ( AG 66 )
Description
How did the universe form the plethora of exo-planet systems we have uncovered in the last two decades? From Hot Jupiters to Super-Earths, the exo-planet systems we have discovered are fundamentally different from our own solar system. To understand these mysteries we need to start at the very beginning. Protoplanetary discs are the nurseries of star and planet formation. In this chronologically arranged talk, I shall first present the exciting observations and results we have made to understand the accretion environment of the inner disc of proto-planetary discs; the connection we uncovered between accretion and outflows; and a proposed future instrument for probing the inner accretion discs of many protoplanetary systems.  Subsequently, I shall present the results from our ongoing HPF program to understand the orbital properties of the previously unexplored parameter space of exo-planets around M-dwarfs. I shall also present new algorithms I am currently developing to further improve the sensitivity by mitigating stellar activity contamination. And finally, in the last part of the talk, I shall present our latest, exciting result of the detection and modeling of the evaporation of atmospheres from Hot Jupiters and Warm Neptunes.