Lunch Talk on Nov. 27, 2019

The CARMENES search for extrasolar planets around M stars

Speaker: Juergen Schmitt (Hamburg Univ.)

Venue: Room 2111, SWIFAR Building

Time: 12:30 PM, Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Abstract: 

Within the context of the CARMENES project a consortium consisting out of German and Spanish institutions has built a high-resolution dual spectrograph that covers the visual and near-infrared wavelength bands between 0.52 - 1.71 micron at a spectral resolution of 80000 and above.  The project's goal is obtain spectral series of at least 50 spectra for a sample of nearby M stars in the range M0 - M8 in order to search for the presence of earth-like planets around these objects.  Because of the intrinsic faintness of these stars the typical orbital periods of such planets are in the range 10 - 30 days. Given the wide spectral band pass of CARMENES, a wide range of chromospheric activity indicators are also contained in the CARMENES band pass.  I will present some of the new planetary detections obtained by CARMENES as well as discuss various aspects of magnetic activity of M stars explored with CARMENES.