Seminar
It's About Time: Exploring Planet Evolution with the Zodiacal Exoplanets In Time (ZEIT) Project

Abstract

Time is one of the least explored dimensions of exoplanet research; most 
stars targeted by large surveys are middle-aged by  necessity or statistics. 
Yet the first few hundred million years of a planetary system are probably 
the most formative and include  accretion, migration, and escape of atmospheres.  
While the Kepler  prime field included a small number of young stars by chance, the 
K2  mission is deliberately selecting some target stars by age, and  previews the 
potential of TESS and PLATO.  The Zodical Exoplanets in  Time (ZEIT) project studies 
K2 systems in stellar clusters of established ages.  Transiting planets as small as 
Earth-size have been  detected in the Upper Scorpius, Pleiades, Hyades, and Praesepe 
clusters.  Mysterious aperiodic signals related to circumstellar disks  were found in 
Upper Scorpius, these may be related to planet  formation. We are also investigating 
planets around evolved stars and  report a Jupiter-mass planet inflated by irradiation 
from its host  star. Gaia distances, proper motions, and spectra can identify large numbers 
of young stars for observation by the TESS and PLATO missions,  enabling robust comparisons 
across a range of ages to understand  evolutionary trends, and select propitious targets for 
follow-up by  ELTs and space observatories such as JWST.