Title: Looking for exorings towards Beta Pictoris, J1407 and PDS 110

Speaker: Matthew Kenworthy (Leiden)

Abstract:
Circumplanetary disks are part of the planet and moon formation process, passing from an optically thick regime of gas and dust through to a planet with retinue of moons and Roche lobe rings formed from the accreted material. There should therefore be a transitional phase where moons are beginning to form and these will clear out lanes in the circumplanetary disk, producing Hill sphere filling 'rings' hundreds of times larger than Saturn's rings.

We have seen evidence of these objects transiting their young star - with J1407, and more recently, with the young star PDS 110. This star shows periodic eclipses lasting over two weeks of up to 30% in depth, and the next eclipse is predicted to occur in September this year. The star is 10th magnitude in the belt of Orion, and can be followed in the early morning skies from most places on Earth.

We are also following the Hill sphere transit of Beta Pictoris b, a gas giant planet around a nearby bright star, and I will also present the latest light curves from this experiment.