From February 3–7, the Know Thy Star, Know Thy Planet 2 conference was held in Pasadena, focusing on how stars influence exoplanet discovery and characterization. Attendees from the department included Professor Songhu Wang and Postdoc Xian-Yu Wang.
Songhu presented new findings on hot Jupiters, exploring the relationship between their orbital properties and the mass of their host stars. His research suggests that hot Jupiters around more massive stars are more frequently isolated, eccentric, and spin-orbit misaligned, shedding light on their formation and dynamical evolution.
Xian-Yu highlighted six new Rossiter-McLaughlin measurements, primarily from the NEID spectrograph. His findings confirm alignment in all studied single-star warm-Jupiter systems and suggest that the misalignments of hot Jupiters arise from post-formation processes rather than initial conditions.
The conference provided an excellent platform for discussing the latest advancements in stellar and exoplanetary research, reinforcing IU’s contributions to the field.
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