SUPER-EARTH OR SUPER-VENUS?

Dr. James Lloyd of Cornell University will describe his work regarding extrasolar planets.The rapid growth in discovery of planets transiting their parent star has resulted not only in an abundance of known extrasolar planets, but planets for which interior composition may be inferred by density and atmospheric composition inferred by absorption spectroscopy.  Transit searches that focus on the smallest main sequence stars, M dwarf stars, can discover the smallest planets, including planets inferred to be a water-world based on low density and lack of a hydrogen/helium atmosphere.  This talk will discuss the discovery and characterization of these worlds, and how their properties can be inferred.