Planck-cmb-allsky

Julian van Eyken (UCSB) - PTFO 8-8695b: A T-Tauri Transiting Planet

September
2
S M T W T F S

At only ~3Myr old, PTFO 8-8695b is a candidate for the youngest transiting planet yet found, and presents a potentially highly valuable snapshot of a close-in pre-main-sequence planet still in its infancy. Ongoing investigation is painting an unusual but increasingly compelling picture: orbiting a rapidly-rotating T-Tauri star at just under a half-day period, it appears the planet's orbit may be inclined and precessing on timescales as short as ~100s of days -- a timescale easily accessible to observation. The planet's measured radius also suggests that it may actively be losing mass. The many unusual properties of this object make it particularly interesting for continued investigation. I will discuss our current observations and outline our interpretation of the data. I will also discuss some avenues for further characterisation, including multi-band observations using the new MKIDs-technology-based camera, ARCONS, currently being developed at UCSB.

Date: September 2nd, 2014
Location: MR LCR