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Scientific meeting

Characterising exoplanets: detection, formation, interiors, atmospheres and habitability

  • 11 - 12 March 2013, 09:00 - 17:00
Add to Calendar 03/11/13 09:00 AM 03/12/13 05:00 PM United Kingdom (GMT) Characterising exoplanets: detection, formation, interiors, atmospheres and habitability The Royal Society, London, SW1Y 5AG
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Overview Organisers Programme

Overview

Scientific discussion meeting organised by Professor Athena Coustenis, Professor Steve Miller, Professor Peter Read and Professor Jonathan Tennyson FRS

Event details

This meeting aims to set the agenda for the next decade in this rapidly expanding field of extra-solar planet science. Some 800 planets orbiting stars outside of our solar system have now been detected, with varying masses and orbital parameters. The challenge now is to move from detection to understanding these planets as bodies in their own right.

Biographies of speakers and their talk abstracts can be found below and you can download the programme. Recorded audio of the presentations are available below. Papers of this meeting have been published in Philosophical Transactions A.

Enquiries: Contact the events team.

Organisers

Dr Athena Coustenis, Paris Observatory, PSL, CNRS, France

Dr Athena Coustenis, Paris Observatory, PSL, CNRS, France

Athena Coustenis is an Astrophysicist, Director of Research at the French Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), working at Paris Observatory in Meudon. She specializes in space exploration and works in the field of Planetology investigating atmospheres and surfaces of planets and exoplanets. She contributes to the definition and development of space missions and the exploitation of the acquired data. Coustenis is currently President of the European Science Foundation Space Sciences Committee (ESF/ESSC); Chair of the Human Exploration and Science Advisory Committee (HESAC) of ESA; Chair of the COSPAR Panel on Planetary Protection; Chair of the Comité d'Evaluation sur la Recherche et l'Exploration Spatiale (CERES) of CNES; member of several other international advisory bodies (ESA/SSAC, ESA/ACEO, SNSB/SAC, US NAS/SSB); Deputy coordinator of the EUROPLANET Society. She has written more than 230 scientific papers and given over 500 presentations.

Professor Steve Miller, University College London, UK

Professor Steve Miller, University College London, UK

Steven Miller is Professor of Science Communication and Planetary Science at University College London, where he is head of the Science and Technology Studies (STS) Department.

As a planetary scientist, Professor Miller’s main interests lie in understanding how the atmospheres of giant planets – like Jupiter and Saturn, and some of the hot, giant exoplanets – couple with the space environment around them. He is Co-Coordinator of Europlanet RI activities supporting ground-based observations to back up space missions, outreach and dissemination.

A former political journalist, Professor Miller researches issues surrounding science and society at the European level. He is Director of the European Science Communication network (ESConet: https://esconet.wordpress.com), author of The Chemical Cosmos: a guided tour (http://www.springer.com/physics/book/978-1-4419-8443-2) and co-author of Science in Public: communication, culture and credibility.

Professor Peter Read, University of Oxford, UK

Professor Peter Read, University of Oxford, UK

Peter Read is currently Professor of Physics and Head of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics in the Department of Physics at the University of Oxford. He graduated in Physics at the University of Birmingham (UK) in 1975 and obtained a PhD in Radioastronomy at the University of Cambridge in 1980. After completing his PhD, he became a Research Scientist in remote sensing and geophysical fluid dynamics at the Met. Office. He joined the academic staff of Oxford University in 1991, where he has been based until the present. His research interests cover a wide range of subjects, including aspects of fundamental fluid dynamics, planetary meteorology and climate, involving a mixture of laboratory experiments, numerical climate models and planetary observations. He has been a Co-Investigator or collaborator on NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Cassini Orbiter missions. He has published more than 140 refereed scientific papers and review articles, and a major research monograph on the Martian atmosphere and climate.

Professor Jonathan Tennyson FRS, University College London, UK

Professor Jonathan Tennyson FRS, University College London, UK

Jonathan Tennyson gained a BA in Natural Sciences from King's College, Cambridge in 1977 and a PhD in Theoretical Chemistry from the University of Sussex in 1980. He spent a productive two years as Royal Society Western European Exchange Fellow at the University of Nijmegen in the Netherlands, In 1982 he joined the Theory Group at Daresbury Laboratory. He was appointed a “New Blood” lecturer at University College London in Theoretical Atomic Physics in 1985. He became Professor of Physics in 1994; was Head of Department in 2004-11 and became Massey Professor of Physics in 2005. He was elected an FRS in 2009.

His research interests cover a range of topics on the theory of small molecules. In particular I compute spectra of these molecules (such as water) and collide electrons (and occasionally positrons) with them. He is interested in the astrophysical, atmospheric and other consequences of these processes. He recently started a new project, ExoMol (www.exomol.com), aimed at calculating comprehensive line lists for models exoplanets and other hot atmosphere.

Schedule