Observations of planets and brown dwarfs: putting all the pieces together

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The overall long-term objectives of my research program are to establish the prevalence and diversity of planetary systems in our galaxy, to understand how these systems form and evolve, to comprehend the physics involved in the atmosphere and interior of planets, and ultimately, to detect traces of life elsewhere in the universe. Over the next few years, I will focus on making observations to detect and characterize new planets in yet unexplored regimes of orbital separations, planet masses, star masses, and system ages. The data to be uncovered through this observational work will form the essential basis upon which all formation, evolution, interior and atmosphere models of giant planets and planetary systems will be developed and validated. Specifically, I will first participate in a direct imaging search for planets around young nearby stars with the Gemini Planet Imager. For the first time ever, this survey will detect and characterize Jupiter-mass planets with orbits the size of our solar system. Beyond establishing the frequency of giant planets at these separations, the planet sample uncovered will be sufficient to establish the global properties of this previously unseen population. Second, I will conduct a direct imaging survey for planet and brown dwarf companions to stars in star-forming regions. This will provide the first systematic and comprehensive assessment of the primordial population of giant planets at large separations, helping us understand the formation and evolution of giant planets. It will also allow determining the physical characteristics of giant planets immediately after they formed. Finally, I will lead a transit-timing survey to detect exomoons and new planets in transiting exoplanet systems. This survey could be the first to establish the existence of large satellites around exoplanets. It also bears a good potential for identifying some of the first habitable worlds, whether they are moons around giant planets or terrestrial planets in transiting systems. It will also complement other searches for Earth-mass planets and help completing the census and determining the configurations of multiple planet systems.