Validation and compilation of Kepler habitable zone candidates
Rationale.
The last decade has witnessed an extraordinary progression in the field of
exoplanetary science.
The rate of exoplanet discovery has continued to increase as the sensitivity to
smaller planets has dramatically improved.
The discoveries of the Kepler mission have had a major impact on our
understanding of exoplanet orbit, size, and multiplicity distributions.
These discoveries have shown that the frequency of planets increases to smaller
sizes.
The significance of a terrestrial-planet-rich universe is fully realized in the
study of habitability.
The Kepler mission has a primary science goal of determining the
frequency of terrestrial planets in the Habitable Zone (HZ).
Commonly referred to as η-Earth, the frequency of HZ terrestrial planets has
become a major focus of interpreting Kepler results.
The process of determining η-Earth requires a reliable list of HZ candidates
whose properties have been adequately vetted to produce robust planetary
and stellar properties.
The latter constitutes the main task of the Kepler HZ Working
Group.
The purpose of this special session is to present the results of the working
group's activities and to serve as a venue for discussing the habitability of
extrasolar planets through contributions from the members of the community.
Schedule.
| Hour | Title | Contributor | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14:00-14:10 | Welcome and introduction to joint satellite meeting Kepler's HZWG and Part I | Nader Haghighipur | ||
| 14:10-14:40 | Kepler's HZWG | Habitable worlds around ultracool dwarfs? (invited talk) | Franck Selsis (U-Bordeaux, France) |
|
| 14:40-14:55 | Habitable zones around main-sequence stars: current estimates and applications (contributed talk) | Ravi K. Kopparapu (PSU, PA, USA) |
||
| 14:55-15:10 | The need for follow-up observations in transit surveys - More than just for planet validation (contributed talk) | David R. Ciardi (Caltech, CA, USA) |
||
| 15:10-15:40 | Statistical validation of habitable-zone planets: techniques and challenges (invited talk) | Guillermo Torres (Harvard, MA, USA) |
||
| 15:40-16:10 | Part I: From habitable planets... | |||
| 16:10-16:30 | Kepler Habitable Zone Working Group and η-Earth (open discussion) | Convenors, contributors, all. Moderators: Nader Haghighipur, Stephen R. Kane and Ravi K. Kopparapu | ||
|
Contact for Kepler's HZWG.
- Nader Haghighipour: (IFA, HI, USA): nader©ifa.hawaii.edu
- Stephen R. Kane: (SFSU, CA, USA): skane©sfsu.edu
- Ravi K. Kopparapu (PSU, PA, USA): ruk15©psu.edu