iPlex Lunch winter-2019

Stellar activity manifests itself in the form of spots and faculae on the star surface and also as flares and mass ejections. When an orbiting planet transits the star and occults one of these features, small signatures are imprinted in the transit light curve. These can be modeled to yield the physical characteristics of spots and faculae, stellar rotation and differential rotation, and even magnetic cycles given long enough time series. Flares have also been detected from active stars. The impact of these on possible living organisms in close orbits planets will be discussed.