CATA researchers conduct a workshop on Exoplanets and Astrobiology

25 scientists discussed the latest research in this area

In order to analyze the progress and status of research in progress, scientists associated with Area 6 -Exoplanets and Astrobiology- of the Center for Astrophysics and Related Technologies held a meeting on May 27 at the Astrophysics Institute of the UNAB.

The initiative, which is held twice a year, was organized by astronomers Dante Minniti and Claudio Cáceres, both associated researchers of CATA and members of the Organizing Committee of the Andrés Bello University, with the aim of exchanging their latest research, which generated, among other things, discussion of the problems encountered, but also shared new discoveries that will be a contribution to the astronomical community.

During the meeting, the researchers present presented some twenty talks, including research associated with planetary formation, search and characterization of exoplanets, studies on meteorites, asteroids of the solar system, extremophiles, among other topics that will contribute to the dissemination of astronomy to the general public and that will be the subject of study for the training of new generations of scientists.

Twenty-five CATA members participated, including principal investigators James Jenkins and Dante Minniti; associates Claudio Cáceres, Millarca Valenzuela, Cristina Dorador, Bárbara Rojas, Cristóbal Petrovich and César Fuentes, along with their postdoctoral researchers, doctoral, master’s and undergraduate students, as well as some guests from other CATA research areas interested in exoplanet and astrobiology topics.

The program included the following exhibitions:

Cristobal Petrovich (Indiana University) “Formation and evolution of exoplanet systems hosting gas giants”.

Marcy Best (Universidad Católica) “How giant planets influence inner planet formation”.

Juan Ignacio Espinoza (Universidad Católica) “Studying the population of Isolated and Polar Neptunes with ESPRESSO”.

Bárbara Rojas Ayala (Universidad de Tarapacá) “Testing interferometric temperatures of M dwarfs in the Gaia Era”.

James Jenkins (Universidad Diego Portales) “The Search and Characterization of Extreme Exoplanets: Destroying the Peas in a Pod Systems”.

Florence de Almeida (Universidad Diego Portales) “Planets Beyond the Milky Way: High Precision Spectroscopy of Accreted Stars”.

Suman Saha (Universidad Diego Portales) “Updating physical properties of hundreds of transiting exoplanets through TESS”.

Ricardo Ramírez Reyes (Universidad de Chile) “Transmission Spectroscopy on LTT9779b”.

Millarca Valenzuela (Universidad Católica del Norte) “Advances with meteoritic studies and important workshops and congress co-organized by CATA”.

Evgenii Krestianinov (Universidad Católica del Norte) “My projects at CATA”.

Camila Caviedes (Universidad Católica del Norte) “Terrestrial Biological Colonization and Weathering Processes in Meteorites from the Atacama Desert”.

Kevin Soto Durán (Universidad Católica del Norte) “Petrological characterization of new carbonaceous and ordinary chondrites from the Atacama Desert”.

Claudio Cáceres (Universidad Andres Bello) “Planet formation and characterization”.

Daniela Rojas Bozza (Universidad Andres Bello) “Multiwavelength ALMA observations of the disk around T Cha”.

César Fuentes (Universidad de Chile) “Solar System in dynlab”.

Cristina Dorador (Universidad de Antofagasta) “Extreme environments of Northern Chile: Opportunities for Astrobiology”.

Valeska Molina (Universidad de Antofagasta) “Biomarkers: purple sulfur bacteria – exoplanets atmospheres”.

Nitya Pandey (Universidad de Chile) “Deep Learning for TNO Detection with DECam Data”.

Dante Minniti (Universidad Andrés Bello) “Free Floating Planets”.