Pierce Prize: Who is Under the HAT? Small Telescopes Yield Big Science

Details Pierce Prize: Who is Under the HAT? Small Telescopes Yield Big Science Pierce Prize: Who is Under the HAT? Small Telescopes Yield Big Science

Jan 2012

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2012aas...21923101b&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #219, #231.01

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

Scientific paper

Astronomy with small telescopes has experienced a renaissance over the past decade. In this talk I will advocate small telescope astronomy in general, and focus in particular on one such project which I am heavily involved in. The HATNet survey uses 10 centimeter 'telescopes' to discover extrasolar planets which transit their host stars at regular intervals, blocking a small fraction of the stellar light as they do so. Candidate planets are initially identified using these small telescopes, and then confirmed using 1 and 10 meter class telescopes. To date our survey has discovered several dozen planets in this manner. During my talk I will describe the entire procedure leading to these discoveries. The transiting nature of these systems provides an opportunity to gain a deep insight into their astrophysics. Just some of the wealth of scientific results which come out of these systems, which I will describe, include measurements of the planetary masses, radii and equilibrium temperatures, the alignment between the planetary orbit and the stellar spin axis, the composition of the planetary atmospheres, the existence of perturbing planets or moons, and precisely measured parameters for the host stars. These new worlds exhibit an amazing diversity, and surprising correlations between some of the physical parameters, having important consequences for theories of planet formation and evolution.

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