Stellar structure and exoplanet studies in the Kepler and SONG era

Authors
Prof.
Hans Kjeldsen
Date and time
13 May 2009 - 00:00 Europe/London
Address

Aula

Talk language
English
Slides language
English
Serie number
0
Description

NASA's Kepler Satellite was successfully launched into space on 6 March 2009. The goal of this mission is ambitious and exciting. Using Kepler we expect to answer a very fundamental question; do planets the size of Earth exist in orbit around other stars? The Kepler Satellite is equipped with a large telescope that will allow observations of 170,000 stars simultaneously and continuously for a period of 3.5 years. The Kepler Satellite will not only be able to search for planets around other stars. The measurements from the satellite can also be used to study stars and their interiors. By use of stellar oscillations the Kepler team will use asteroseismic techniques to probe the core of a large number of stars. At the same time the Stellar Observations Network Group (SONG) is developing a ground based network of telescopes addressing exoplanet and stellar studies. It is expected that the first node in the network will have first light in November 2011. In the present talk I will describe the expected results we foresee throughout the Kepler mission and review the prospects of the SONG network.