One astronomer's noise is another's signal: Stars, planets and magnetic fields

In the current era of precision radial velocity instruments, it is the stellar behaviour that limits the detection of planets. Stellar magnetic activity and surface phenomena can mask and mimic the signals of orbiting planets, even in quiet, 'inactive' stars. This talk explores the current and emerging avenues for studying and mitigating stellar activity, including the use of Gaussian Process (GP) regression to detect planets around stars of all activity levels, and a new instrument for studying stellar magnetic activity in the Southern hemisphere.