Berkeley's CIPS faculty are involved in the discovery, properties, origins, and structure of planets around other stars. We use the Lick, Keck, Hubble, and Kepler telescopes to detect planets by Doppler and transit measurements, and also by direct imaging. The first multi-planet systems and the first Saturn, Neptune, and Super-Earths around other stars were found by Berkeley astronomers, in collaboration with astronomers worldwide. Berkeley CIPS faculty also construct theories of the formation, gravitational interactions, and interior structures of exoplanets. Future observations will involve the new Thirty-Meter Telescope (TMT).

Berkeley's CIPS faculty are among the leaders of the NASA Kepler Space Telescope that has discovered over 1200 planet candidates, most smaller than 3 Earth radii, and 150 multi-planet systems. CIPS researchers also use the Hubble Space Telescope and Spitzer to detect planets and to study their atmospheres.

CIPS faculty are involved in a wide range of research: observation of Uranus, Neptune, Titan, Io, and asteroids using Keck adaptive optics, development of techniques for retrieving the 3-dimensional aerosol distribution on Titan, observations and theory of the Kuiper belt, the new planet "Xena," and protoplanetary and planetesimal debris disks.

Go to the Events Page for details on events and courses

FALL 2011

• To Be Announced

FALL 2011

• The Planets:
  Astron C12/ EPS C12/ L&S C70T
  Instructors: TBA
  When/ Where: TBA
  
• Graduate Seminar:
  Solar System Astrophysics
  C249
  Instructors: Chiang & De Pater
  When/ Where: TBA
  
• See class schedule for more detail.