Joshua Pepper (Lehigh University) --- The Future of Exoplanet Discovery

Title: The Future of Exoplanet Discovery

Abstract: The field of astronomy is already drowning in exoplanets, and yet our exploration of these bodies has barely begun.  Thousands of exoplanets are known, and tens of thousands are on track for discovery over the next 20 years, with major new planet populations to be revealed by upcoming surveys.  I will describe the current and future landscape of exoplanet discovery.  What do we know now, what will we know in the next generation, and what will be still be struggling to understand? In the next couple decades, the exoplanet field will be both shockingly different and strangely similar to the current situation.