Q&A

摘要

What recent exoplanetary finds have amazed you? The best thing that's happened in the past year or so is the [large] number of potentially habitable planets that have been found. I grew up with this field, so for me it's so thrilling. The entire field is just snowballing. The discoveries often are made possible by new instruments. What new equipment are you especially eager to use? Any time you put a new and more capable instrument on a telescope, you always find new things. The latest is the Gemini Planet Imager [in Chile]. It blocks out starlight, so you can see the planet directly and study its atmosphere. It will do direct imaging of giant Jupiter-like planets.