Related papers: Potential Biosignatures in Super-Earth Atmospheres
Extrasolar super-Earths (1-10 M$_{\earth}$) are likely to exist with a wide range of atmospheres. Some super-Earths may be able to retain massive hydrogen-rich atmospheres. Others might never accumulate hydrogen or experience significant…
In recent years it has become common practice to divide observed transit absorption spectra by synthetic absorption spectra computed for the transit of an atmosphere-less planet. This action supposedly corrects the observed absorption…
Protoplanets are able to accrete primordial atmospheres when embedded in the gaseous protoplanetary disk. The formation and structure of the proto-atmosphere are subject to the planet--disk environment and orbital effects. Especially, when…
Many planetary parameters impact the climate state of Earth-like exoplanets and could vary significantly from those on Earth. However, some of these parameters may be impossible to observe, causing ambiguity in determining exoplanet climate…
The search for life in the universe mainly uses modern Earth as a template. However, we know that Earth's atmospheric composition changed significantly through its geological evolution. Recent discoveries show that transiting, potentially…
Ultra-hot Jupiters are perfect targets for transmission spectroscopy. However, their atmospheres feature strong spatial variations in temperature, chemistry, dynamics, cloud coverage, and scale height. This makes transit observations at…
In this work we present Spitzer 3.6 and 4.5 micron secondary eclipse observations of five new cool (<1200 K) transiting gas giant planets: HAT-P-19b, WASP-6b, WASP-10b, WASP-39b, and WASP-67b. We compare our measured eclipse depths to the…
To date, the ability for observers to reveal the composition or thermal structure of an exoplanet's atmosphere has rested on two techniques: high-contrast direct imaging and time-series observations of transiting exoplanets. The former is…
We assess the dependence of Earth's disk-integrated mid-infrared thermal emission spectrum on observation geometries and investigate which and how spectral features are impacted by seasonality on Earth. We compiled an exclusive dataset…
Absorption lines from water, methane and carbon monoxide are detected in the atmosphere of exoplanet HR8799b. A medium-resolution spectrum presented here shows well-resolved and easily identified spectral features from all three molecules…
Terrestrial exoplanets orbiting M-dwarf stars are promising targets for transmission spectroscopy with existing or near-future instrumentation. The atmospheric composition of such rocky planets remains an open question, especially given the…
The TRAPPIST-1 planetary system provides an unprecedented opportunity to study terrestrial exoplanet evolution with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and ground-based observatories. Since M dwarf planets likely experience extreme…
The theory of remote sensing shows that observing a planet at multiple phase angles ($\alpha$) is a powerful strategy to characterize its atmosphere. Here, we analyse how the information contained in reflected-starlight spectra of…
Exoplanet surveys around M dwarfs have detected a growing number of exoplanets with Earth-like insolation. It is expected that some of those planets are rocky planets with the potential for temperate climates favourable to surface liquid…
The critical first step in the search for life on exoplanets over the next decade is to determine whether rocky planets transiting small M-dwarf stars possess atmospheres and, if so, what processes sculpt them over time. Because of its…
The emergent spectra of close-in, giant exoplanets ("hot Jupiters") are expected to be distinct from those of self-luminous objects with similar effective temperatures because hot Jupiters are primarily heated from above by their host stars…
The H2O abundance of a planetary atmosphere is a powerful indicator of formation conditions. Inferring H2O in the solar system giant planets is challenging, due to condensation depleting the upper atmosphere of water vapour. Substantially…
A terrestrial planet is molten during formation and may remain so if subject to intense insolation or tidal forces. Observations continue to favour the detection and characterisation of hot planets, potentially with large outgassed…
Recent transmission spectroscopy has revealed that clouds and hazes are common in the atmospheres of close-in exoplanets. In this study, using the photochemical, microphysical, and transmission spectrum models for close-in warm ($\lesssim$…
Atmospheric regions below a refractive boundary are hidden in limb observations. Refraction thus creates a gray continuum in the planet's transmission spectrum which can hide spectral features associated with sources of atmospheric opacity.…