Today is the first day of the American Astronomical Society’s (AAS) 223rd meeting. This 4 day conference is being held at the National Harbor outside of Washington, DC. It is one of the largest yearly gatherings of astronomers and astrophysicists from across the US and around the world. Most of the Planet Hunters science team will be in attendance this year. You can follow along with the attendees (including me) who will be live tweeting the conference with the hashtag #AAS223.
Most attendees at AAS will present talks and posters about their current research. Typical talks are about 5 minutes in length with a minute or two for questions. There are also longer plenary talks from invited speakers and the winners from the previous year’s AAS-sponsored awards and prizes. I’ve been invited to give a longer talk in one of the two special sessions being organized at the meeting on Kepler science. I will be one of the first talks of the meeting, giving the first talk in the ‘Exoplanets and Kepler Astrophysics Special Session’ today. I will have 30 minutes (including the time for audience questions) to give an overview of Planet Hunters and the science highlights from the past 3 years. My talk is titled ‘Planet Hunters: Kepler by Eye’. You can read the abstract here. I’m very excited about this opportunity to promote Planet Hunters and show the rest of the field the science we’ve been doing with your help. I’ll try to post my slides on the blog later in the week.
Also Joey Schmitt from Yale will be presenting a poster titled ‘Two New Confirmed Planets and the First Kepler Seven Candidate System’ this week at AAS as well. You can read his poster abstract here.