Extrasolar planet observations and analysis: recent advances and future directions.

DÍAZ, R. F.

Córdoba

Congreso; 8th Friends of Friends Meeting; 2018

Our understanding of extrasolar planets has been revolutionised in the last two decades. Advances in the observational techniques and analysis methods have permitted detections to move progressively from the regime of Jupiter-like planets on close orbits --the easiest to detect and characterise-- to that of low-mass planets in the habitable zone of low-mass stars. They also got us the first hints of extrasolar planet atmospheres. The catalogue of planets amassed so far permitted improving our knowledge on planet formation and evolution dramatically. At the same time, the huge diversity of planets and system architectures also brought forth a myriad new questions, some of which are among the most pressing ones in astrophysics.I will review the current state of the field, highlighting some of the most recent advances and detections, and their importance for the future of the field. Then, I will present some of the most relevant upcoming observational projects. From the already-comissioned ESPRESSO spectrograph on the VLT, the IR instruments SPIRou and NIRPS, and the soon-to-be-launched NASA mission TESS, to the future PLATO space mission, these instrumental projects herald a new revolution. Coupled with state-of-the-art algorithms and data analysis techniques, they have the potential to produce the detection of hundreds of rocky planets in the habitable zone of their stars, and to provide new insights into on the quest for life outside the Solar System.