Parallel sessions

Stellar variability can manifest itself as many different phenomena with a range of timescales and amplitudes, such as oscillations, granulation, starspots, plage, flares and long-term magnetic cycles. Some of these processes arise due to stellar magnetic fields which are poorly understood and notoriously difficult to measure. Studying these phenomena is, therefore, important in furthering our understanding of magnetic activity, as well as stellar inner structures and their underlying dynamo processes. Additionally, stellar variability also impacts the detection and characterisation of exoplanets and their atmospheres, as most techniques used to study exoplanets rely on indirectly detecting the signal of the exoplanet in the stellar light. Low amplitude stellar variability is the main obstacle that hinders the detection of Earth-twins in exoplanet Doppler surveys. In addition, stellar variability can bias our inference of planetary masses, sizes, obliquities, and atmospheric composition - the latter of which is particularly relevant to some of the main science goals of JWST. Ideally, we would like to see contributed talks from early career researchers and minority groups to showcase their most recent work followed by a discussion with everyone regardless of career stage. This will allow for an exchange of knowledge between different groups and an informal space to share ideas and foster collaboration. Overall, our main goal is to cover a wide variety of topics within the bigger umbrella of both stellar variability and exoplanet detection/characterisation, bringing together experts from many different groups within the UK. With the recent advances experienced in the development of precise instrumentation, stellar variability has now arguably become the main obstacle in the identification of exoplanets, as their signals can be orders of magnitude larger than the planetary ones. Understanding stellar physics is therefore crucial, particularly when searching for low-mass, long-period planets (Earth-twins), as their observable signatures are often drowned within stellar variability. This ultimately contributes to the wider picture as humanity continues its search for Earth 2.0 while understanding how planetary systems like ours were formed.