Related papers: Jupiter's Occultation Radii: Implications for its …
We present spectroscopy of a transit of the exoplanet HD 189733b. By modeling the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect (the anomalous Doppler shift due to the partial eclipse of the rotating stellar surface), we find the angle between the sky…
More than two decades after the widespread detection of Jovian-class planets on short-period orbits around other stars, their dynamical origins remain imperfectly understood. In the traditional narrative, these highly irradiated giant…
Planets with non-zero obliquity and/or orbital eccentricity experience seasonal variations of stellar irradiation at local latitudes. The extent of the atmospheric response can be crudely estimated by the ratio between the orbital timescale…
It is now established that the hot Jupiters have extensive gaseous (ionospheric) envelopes, which expanding far beyond the Roche lobe. The envelopes are weakly bound to the planet and affected by strong influence of stellar wind…
Accurately understanding the interior structure of extra-solar planets is critical for inferring their formation and evolution. The internal density distribution of a planet has a direct effect on the star-planet orbit through the…
Through the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect, several hot Jupiters have been found to exhibit spin-orbit misalignment, and even retrograde orbits. The high obliquity observed in these planets can be attributed to two primary formation mechanisms,…
We investigate numerically the orbital evolution of massive extrasolar planets within central cavities of their parent protoplanetary discs. Assuming that they arrive at the inner edge of the disc due to type II migration, we show that they…
In coming years, the first truly Earth-like planets will be discovered orbiting other stars, and the search for signs of life on these worlds will begin. However, such observations will be hugely time-consuming and costly, and so it will be…
Thermal tides can torque the atmosphere of hot Jupiters into asynchronous rotation, while these planets are usually assumed to be locked into spin-orbit synchronization with their host star. In this work, our goal is to characterize the…
We quantify the systematic impact of the non-spherical shape of transiting planets and brown dwarfs, due to tidal forces and rotation, on the observed transit depth. Such a departure from sphericity leads to a bias in the derivation of the…
We present calculations of magnetic potential associated with the perturbation of Saturn's magnetic field by a rotating, equatorially-situated disc of plasma. Such structures are central to the dynamics of the rapidly rotating…
The evolution of a large-scale azimuthal velocity field in a rotating cylindrical layer of fluid with meridional convective circulation was studied experimentally. Two cases were considered: direct circulation provided by a rim heater at…
It has been suggested that tidal interaction is important for shaping the orbital configurations of close orbiting giant planets. The excitation of propagating waves and normal modes (dynamical tide) will be important for estimating time…
We calculate small amplitude gravitational and thermal tides of uniformly rotating hot Jupiters composed of a nearly isentropic convective core and a geometrically thin radiative envelope. We treat the fluid in the convective core as a…
Two decades after the discovery of 51 Peg b, the formation processes and atmospheres of short-period gas giants remain poorly understood. Observations of eccentric systems provide key insights on those topics as they can illuminate how a…
We present results from an atmospheric circulation study of nine hot Jupiters that comprise a large transmission spectral survey using the Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes. These observations exhibit a range of spectral behavior over…
Hot Jupiters, with atmospheric temperatures T ~ 1000 K, have residual thermal ionization levels sufficient for the interaction of the ions with the planetary magnetic field to result in a sizable magnetic drag on the (neutral) atmospheric…
Because of their intense incident stellar irradiation and likely tidally locked spin states, hot Jupiters are expected to have wind speeds that approach or exceed the speed of sound. In this work we develop a theory to explain the magnitude…
Giant planets that reside in close proximity to their host stars are subject to extreme irradiation, which gives rise to thermal ionization of trace Alkali metals in their atmospheres. On objects where the atmospheric electrical…
The $\kappa$-mechanism has been successful in explaining the origin of observed oscillations of many types of "classical" pulsating variable stars. Here we examine quantitatively if that same process is prominent enough to excite the…