{"id":3848,"date":"2012-09-25T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-09-25T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpdev.hmc.edu\/physics\/2012\/09\/25\/small-stars-with-small-planets-and-big-consequences\/"},"modified":"2012-09-25T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-09-25T00:00:00","slug":"small-stars-with-small-planets-and-big-consequences","status":"publish","type":"physics_colloquium","link":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/physics\/research\/colloquium\/small-stars-with-small-planets-and-big-consequences\/","title":{"rendered":"Small Stars with Small Planets and Big Consequences"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"page-featured-image\" class=\"wp-block-image is-style-alignleft\" data-pic=\"pic-529.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/physics\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2023\/01\/pic-529.jpg\" alt=\"Promotional image for talk: Elements of a successful scientific talk\" data-pic=\"pic-529.jpg\" \/><\/figure>\n<p><strong>Speaker(s):<\/strong> Philip Muirhead<\/p>\n<p>With the success of NASA\u2019s <em>Kepler<\/em> Spacecraft, extrasolar planet science has entered a new era. Prior to <em>Kepler\u2019s<\/em> launch exoplanet science was primarily concerned with gas-giant exoplanets, since gas giants comprised the majority of discoveries, numbering in the hundreds. NASA\u2019s <em>Kepler<\/em> Mission has since discovered <em>thousands<\/em> of exoplanets with many of them terrestrial-sized. Of particular interest are terrestrial exoplanets orbiting low-mass stars, which are roughly 1\/10 to 1\/2 the mass of Sun. Low-mass stars dominate stellar populations, so understanding the prevalence of terrestrial exoplanets orbiting low-mass stars, life-harboring or otherwise, is crucial to understanding their prevalence in the Universe. I will present a ground-based observation program to characterize low-mass stars with exoplanets discovered by the <em>Kepler<\/em> Spacecraft, and our identification of the three smallest exoplanets detected to date: Kepler 41 b, c and d (formerly KOI 961 b, c and d). The program uses a fully-cryogenic infrared spectrograph built by myself and others and deployed on the 200-inch Hale Telescope at Palomar Observatory in Southern California.<\/p>\n<p><a>Reading for the pre-talk discussion<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/news\/three-tiny-exoplanets-suggest-solar-system-not-so-special-1.9786\">a short Nature blurb<\/a> to be held in the Aviation Room over lunch on the day of the colloquium. Dr. Muirhead will join us for the discussion, so read up and bring your questions!<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"template":"","class_list":["post-3848","physics_colloquium","type-physics_colloquium","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/physics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/physics_colloquium\/3848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/physics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/physics_colloquium"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/physics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/physics_colloquium"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/physics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/physics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}