Past Events

2022

Astro Tuesday: Kayla Owens (UChicago) and Siddhartha Gupta (UChicago)

12:00–1:00 pm Zoom

Talks: Kayla Owens (UChicago) “Current Challenges in Cepheid Distance Calibrations Using Gaia EDR3” and Siddhartha Gupta (UChicago) “Lepton-driven Non-resonant Streaming Instability” | Host: Vikram Dwarkadas

Jan 11

A&A Colloquium: Daniel Fabrycky (University of Chicago)

3:30–4:30 pm Zoom - Please contact Laticia at lrebeles@oddjob.uchicago.edu for info.

Resonant Chains versus More “Typical” Exoplanetary Systems


In the field of exoplanets, the most extreme systems often capture our attention, and they teach us interesting lessons. However, statistical modeling of survey data is important too, as it identifies what are the more common processes involved in planet formation.

For some systems, three or more planets are linked by mean-motion resonances, forming a “resonant chain.”  The observable transit timing variations allow masses and orbital parameters to be measured to excellent precision. Their current orbits, including orbital phase information, teaches us about the interactions of planets with disks. The spreading of resonant chains from exact resonance implicates tidal dissipation in the planets.

Resonant configurations are rare in the transit survey data though, and we report methods for characterizing the more “typical” close-in exoplanetary systems. After we had gotten used to extreme orbits among exoplanetary gas giants, we found surprisingly small mutual inclinations and eccentricities of the very common close-in systems of super-earths and sub-neptunes. Despite being on sub-AU scales, these architectural properties are very similar to the Solar System. Confronting planet formation theories with all this fossil evidence is an ongoing project.

Jan 5

2021

Open group seminar: Shivam Pandey (UPenn)

2:30–3:30 pm ERC 401

Shivam Pandey (UPenn) “Perturbation theory for non-linear galaxy biasing in photometric galaxy surveys”

Dec 9

KICP seminar: Maria Vincenzi (Duke)

12:00–1:00 pm ERC 401

Maria Vincenzi (Duke) “Present and future of SN Ia cosmology: from the Dark Energy Survey to the Vera Rubin Observatory”

Dec 9

Webinar: SH0ES team with new H0 results and Pantheon updates

11:00 am–12:00 pm ERC 401

SH0ES team Webinar with new H0 results and Pantheon updates

Dec 9

KICP Colloquium: Will Farr (Stony Brook University)

3:30–4:30 pm ERC 161

Will Farr (Stony Brook University) “Ringing Black Hole Bells and Other Exciting Recent Results in Gravitational Wave Astronomy”

Dec 8
Dec 3

Open group seminar: Rohan Naidu (Harvard)

2:00–3:00 pm ERC 517

Rohan Naidu (Harvard) “Unraveling the Galactic Stellar Halo with the H3 Survey”

Dec 2

KICP seminar: Carles Sanchez (Penn)

12:00–1:00 pm ERC 401

Carles Sanchez (Penn) “Pushing the limits of the Dark Energy Survey: Selecting and characterizing high redshift galaxy samples for optimal CMB lensing cross-correlations”

Dec 2