Jason Wang Presents Real Images of Exoplanets

We have discovered over 6000 planets orbiting other stars. Most of these exoplanets are detected indirectly by measuring the effect each has on its star, so we are unable to take images of them and must rely on artist conceptions to visualize them. Imaging exoplanets is difficult because the bright diffracted glare of the star buries the faint light of the planet. He will discuss how we have been able to take images of some of these worlds by using the largest telescopes in the world combined with specialized optics and signal-processing techniques. Jason will show the dozen or so planets we have imaged, including a new planet orbiting a binary star system that we discovered last year. He will discuss what we learn from studying these planets directly and the prospects of imaging an Earth-like planet around another star.

Jason Wang is an assistant professor at Northwestern in CIERA and the Physics and Astronomy department. He takes images of faint exoplanets by removing the glare of their host stars using techniques such as coronagraphy, spectroscopy, and interferometry so that we can trace out their orbits and measure the properties of their atmospheres. Jason helps develop new instruments with these capabilities and machine learning/signal processing techniques to pull out faint exoplanet signals from the data. Jason also takes interest in software development, especially for astronomy.

You can learn more about Jason on his website.