Seminar: Confirming and characterizing small transiting planets with ESPRESSO
The ESPRESSO spectrograph at the Very Large Telescope in Chile is the premier instrument for the RV characterization of small planets. Between 2018 and 2023, the ESPRESSO consortium followed up some 50 stars hosting small transiting planet candidates from the K2 and TESS space missions, as part of the ESPRESSO Guaranteed Time Observations (GTO). In this presentation, I will give an overview of the 43 planets in 17 systems confirmed by this program to date, which range from super-Mercuries through super-Earths and water worlds to sub-Neptunes. I will also discuss the importance of mitigating stellar activity, showcasing a particularly complex system with two planets orbiting an active star at periods close to the stellar rotation period and its first harmonic.