Institute for Advanced Study Astrophysics Seminar

NASA's Kepler mission conducted a large survey of planetary systems.  Recently, we have advanced from measuring occurrence rates as a function of planet size and period to characterizing the intrinsic distribution of planetary system architectures.  We have learned much about inner planetary systems with low mutual inclinations, but there's still much to learn about systems with moderate to large mutual inclinations.  A new generation of extremely precise radial velocity (EPRV) surveys is well-positioned to characterize such systems.  I will describe recent progress in helping EPRV surveys to characterize potential Earth-analogs in the presence of realistic levels of stellar variability.  Finally, I will compare optimistic and pessimistic scenarios for next-generation EPRV surveys and the implications for resolving questions about planetary architectures raised from Kepler.