Seminar

Planets Around Red Dwarfs

November 17, 2011

John Johnson

M-type dwarfs are the Galaxy’s most numerous denizens, and for many reasons they represent our best hope of finding Earth-like planets outside the Solar System. I will present recent advances in understanding the fundamental physical properties of M dwarfs using both broadband photometry and optical/NIR spectroscopy. These techniques provide estimates of stellar masses and metallicities without the need for parallaxes, allowing us to identify and characterize low-massplanet-search targets well beyond the solar neighborhood.

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