Dr. Priyanka Chaturvedi

The search for planets beyond our solar system is one of the biggest scientific quests at present. The first exoplanet detection by the radial velocity (RV) method nearly three decades back was awarded the Nobel prize in Physics. Since then, the number of exoplanets found has increased exponentially with nearly 5000 exoplanet detections till date. We have learnt that diverse planetary systems form with orbits, densities, and planetary atmospheres that are very different from the planets in our solar system. In my talk, I will discuss planet demographics across the stellar spectral range focusing on large planets around the solar-type stars and smaller planets around the late spectral type stars. Despite the advent of large telescopes and precise spectrographs, the detection of smaller planets is largely limited by the intrinsic stellar jitter. I will talk about the ways that we devise to disentangle this stellar jitter from the planet signature. I will finally highlight the role of small to medium-size telescopes for exoplanet characterization in the era of current and future space missions like TESS and PLATO.