Closing Remarks(Summary of Conference Highlights)

M. Shao JPL/Caltech

Conference Topics

• Optical and IR Radial Velocity search for exoplanets

• Astrometry, Photometry, exoplanet spectra• High Contrast Imaging, ground, space• Large China projects, BD surveys, sub-mm,

interferometry

Conference Topics

• Optical and IR Radial Velocity search for exoplanets– RV has provided the vast majority of known

exoplanets.– Leading groups continue to produce exciting new

results• 5 new planets announced (Berkeley group)• Data inconsistant with 30% of stars having super-earths

<50 day perios– RV is expanding in several major ways

Next Gen RV Instruments/Facilities

• Massive RV surveys, Survey of 10’s of 1000’s of stars (Ge, et. al.)

• IR doppler surveys• Follow on to Harps (Geneva/ESO) Expressso,

Codex

Astrometry, Photometry• Ground based astrometry– VB-10 (Shanlan) first astrometric discovered planet– VLTI /Prima (Quirrenbach)

• Space based astrometry (SIM)– Future, first discovery of nearby Earths

• Photometry, new discoveries (Corot, microlensing) and promise of much more to come (Kepler)– All exoplanet techniques have observational biases, eg

more sensitive to large planets. Microlensing (Gaudi) is sensitive to the least massive exoplanets, to give us an estimate of mass distribution at low masses, will less bias correction.

Photometry, Spectroscopy of Transiting Exoplanets

• Spectroscopy of transiting planets is a new and to many an unexpected area, of now very active exoplanet research. (Harrington, Barnes)

• With Kepler launched, this area will likely explode, with followup from major facilities like JWST, SOFIA

Direct Detection of Exoplanets & BDs(ground and space)

• Ground based direct detection of exoplanets have finally been successful.– HR8799 system with 3 young self luminous planets

(Marois) (also Fomalhaunt , Beta Pic)• A slew of new instruments will come on line in the

next several years, and very ambitious instruments are planned for the future Giant Telescopes– Suburu, PIAA coronagraph (Guyon)– Phase mask coronagraphs (Serabyn) (not discussed here,

GPI, Sphere, Palomar)– ELT coronagraph (Gladysz)

Space Coronagraphy • A huge amount of technology development has occurred

in the last ~1/2 dozen years. (Kuchner) Most recently the technology has been aimed at coronagraphs that can work at 2 /D. (Belikov, Lyon, Clampin, Shao, Guyon, Lawson)

• A newer approach the external occulter has received a lot of attention in the last few years. But an external occulter mission will always be ~10X more expensive than a coronagraphic instrument. This approach may not be viable in the long term as the “internal coronagraph” technologies become successful.

Large China Projects/Wide Field BD Searches/Submm-mm Interferometry

• Two talks on large China projects brought the international community up to date on China’s large astronomical facilities underway or recently completed. (LAMOST - Yuan, Southpole projects – Lodieu)

• BD surveys are conducted by a variety of approaches, exploiting different observational properties of BD’s.

• ALMA is a major facility that will also make major contributions to exoplanet research