Dr. Veselin Kostov presented the topic "Planets with two suns". The abstract stated, "Planets with two suns have long captivated our imagination, yet it was only recently that we have started discovering them. Eclipsing binaries, in particular, have long been considered to be ideal targets to search for these planets but early efforts to detect them through transits suffered from incomplete temporal coverage. It was not until 2011 and the continuous monitoring of thousands of eclipsing binaries by NASA’s Kepler mission that the first transiting circumbinary planet was discovered. The field has gathered a considerable momentum since then and today we know of ten such planets, all from Kepler. The small number leaves a vast gap in our understanding of these fascinating distant worlds — similar to the state of exoplanet science twenty years ago." Dr. Kostov reviewed the current status of the field, described the detection methods and analysis tools required for the detection and characterization of planets with two suns, discussed the theoretical implications of our discoveries, and touched on future prospects to fill this gap.
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