Speaker
Description
The search for and characterisation of extra-solar planets is at the forefront of scientific research. My research project aims to investigate astrometric possibilities for the identification of exoplanets, to get ready to fully exploit the forthcoming huge Gaia data release, foreseen to deliver thousands of new exoplanet candidates. In the anticipation of this dataset, astrometric observations collected with Hubble Space Telescope and James Webb Space Telescope will also be exploited. Ground-based photometric and spectroscopic follow-up is needed for confirmation of Gaia exoplanet candidates, and we plan to prepare such observations. Results will provide unprecedented constraints on the distribution, orbital architectures and masses of long period giant extra-solar planets orbiting bright late-type targets in the neighbourhood of the Sun.
