Abstract
The search for new worlds in the Galaxy in the past three decades has been highly successful and the prospects for the next decade are even brighter. A succession of space missions and ground-based facilities defines a timeline extending well into the 2030s. Many advances on the planet discovery front will come from the PLATO mission, which will find long-period planets and even true Earth analogues, and from the many ongoing and future precise radial velocity instruments from the ground, such as CARMENES and ESPRESSO.
A major leap forward is expected regarding exoplanet detailed characterisation. The goal is to understand the nature of the exoplanetary bodies and their formation and evolutionary histories through remote sensing of their atmospheres. JWST is measuring a select sample of key transiting exoplanets while Ariel will take this methodology to the next level by analysing over 1000 planets. And in the farther future, extremely large telescopes or interferometers, both on the ground and in space, should permit the measurement of temperate rocky planet atmospheres and, perhaps, the solid identification of molecules of biological interest, which will truly be a revolutionary finding.
In this talk, the state of the art of exoplanet research will be described and the main future exoplanet facilities will be presented and put in context.
About Ignasi
Ignasi Ribas is the Director of the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC) and Research Professor at the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE) of the Spanish Higher Research Council (CSIC). He has a degree and a PhD in Physics from the University of Barcelona and carried out a post-doctoral stay at Villanova University (USA) with a Fulbright scholarship. Prof. Ribas’ work primarily focuses on exoplanet discovery and characterization, with the ultimate goal to find new planets similar to our Earth, for the eventual search for life. He holds high-level responsibilities in several space missions and astronomical instruments, such as the CARMENES spectrometer (Project Scientist) and the CHEOPS (Board Member), PLATO (follow-up coordination), and Ariel (co-PI) missions and is also deeply involved in the development of nanosatellite projects as part of his role as Director of IEEC.
Prof. Ribas has published about 400 research papers in international journals, including Nature and Science. He has been a member of ESA’s Astronomy Working Group, President of IAU Division G on Stars and Stellar Physics, and advisor of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. He is strongly committed to outreach activities and dissemination of scientific results.
