The current scientific revolution from imaging exoplanets

Direct imaging has now arrived as an excellent method for discovering and characterizing extrasolar giant planets. One of the science breakthroughs of 2008 was the discovery of a mysterious planet around the very bright star Fomalhaut using the Hubble Space Telescope. I will show how I made this discovery and discuss what astronomers have learned about this enigmatic planetary system. Over the last 10 years we have also been busy building and using a high-performance exoplanet imaging system called the Gemini Planet Imager. I will briefly summarize some of the exciting new discoveries enabled by this remarkable new instrument.

Speaker: Dr. Paul Kalas, UC Berkeley