Title: Flares & magnetic fields & rotation, oh my! Searching for and characterizing planets around M dwarfs
Speaker: Megan Delamer (Penn State)
Abstract:
As the most numerous stars in the galaxy and the closest, M dwarfs represent an incredible opportunity for detailed studies of planets across a range of methods. While their activity levels can present a serious challenge, they also present new opportunities for studying interactions between planets and their host stars out to the distance of the habitable zone. In this talk, I will discuss the detection and characterization of planets around M dwarfs and what we can learn about their formation and evolution from transmission spectroscopy and low frequency radio emission. I will finish the talk with a brief discussion of the exoplanet science that will be enabled by the next generation of spectroscopic telescopes and my role in fabricating optical elements for the Large Fiber Array Spectroscopic Telescope (LFAST).