[PLS] Emily Pass (MIT)

“The Stellar Recipe for an Earth-like Planet”

How does stellar diversity sculpt exoplanet populations? In this talk, I will explore this question through the lens of small M dwarfs, the most common type of star and key hosts for exoplanet detection and characterization. First, I will describe our volume-complete spectroscopic survey of small M dwarfs within 15pc, including my work using this sample to constrain the occurrence rate of cold Jupiter-like planets around these stars. While outer giant companions to inner terrestrial planets have been found to be relatively common around Sun-like stars, I find that Jovians are rare beyond the snow lines of these M dwarfs, with implications for the evolution and habitability of their abundant terrestrial worlds. Next, I will discuss a series of projects that explore how small M dwarfs spin down, transitioning from the magnetically active, rapidly rotating state of their youth to the slowly rotating, mostly quiescent population we see in the field — and with important implications for planetary atmosphere retention. Looking beyond M dwarfs, I will also discuss some ongoing projects that explore how chemical diversity sculpts planet populations, leveraging the ancient, alpha-enriched stars in the galactic thick disk.

Planetary Lunch Seminar —

Colloquia topics span the range of research interests of the department’s planetary sciences research program, and the talks are intended to appeal to any graduate students, postdocs, research scientists, and faculty with a background in planetary science. Speakers include members of the MIT community and visitors.

Contact: planetary-org@mit.edu