Related papers: Detecting and Constraining N$_2$ Abundances in Pla…
A defining characteristic of the planet Venus is its thick, CO2-dominated atmosphere. Despite over fifty years of robotic exploration, including thirteen successful atmosphere probes and landers, our knowledge of N2, the…
Atmospheric nitrogen may provide important constraints on giant planet formation. Following our semi-analytical work (Ohno & Fortney 2022), we further pursue the relation between observable NH3 and an atmosphere's bulk nitrogen abundance by…
Molecular nitrogen is the most commonly assumed background gas that supports habitability on rocky planets. Despite its chemical inertness, nitrogen molecule is broken by lightning, hot volcanic vents, and bolide impacts, and can be…
Molecular nitrogen is one of the key species in the chemistry of interstellar clouds and protoplanetary disks and the partitioning of nitrogen between N and N2 controls the formation of more complex prebiotic nitrogen-containing species.…
Studying the atmospheres of exoplanets is one of the most promising ways to learn about distant worlds beyond our solar system. The composition of an exoplanet's atmosphere can provide critical insights into its geology and potential…
In the past decade, observations from space and ground have found H$_2$O to be the most abundant molecular species, after hydrogen, in the atmospheres of hot, gaseous, extrasolar planets. Being the main molecular carrier of oxygen, H$_2$O…
This work presents theoretical studies which combine aspects of combustion and explosion theory with exoplanetary atmospheric science. Super Earths could possess a large amount of molecular hydrogen depending on disk, planetary and stellar…
Our interpretation of terrestrial exoplanet atmospheric spectra will always be limited by the accuracy of the data we use as input in our forward and retrieval models. Ultraviolet molecular absorption cross sections are one category of…
Terrestrial exoplanets likely form initial atmospheres through outgassing during and after accretion, although there is currently no first-principles understanding of how to connect a planet's bulk composition to its early atmospheric…
With the rapid developments in the exoplanet field, more and more terrestrial exoplanets are being detected. Characterising their atmospheres using transit observations will become a key datum in the quest for detecting an Earth-like…
We present a study of the photochemistry of abiotic habitable planets with anoxic CO$_2$-N$_2$ atmospheres. Such worlds are representative of early Earth, Mars and Venus, and analogous exoplanets. H$_2$O photodissociation controls the…
In this paper, we compare the chemistry and the emission spectra of nitrogen-dominated cool, warm, and hot ultra-short-period (USP) super-Earth atmospheres in and out of chemical equilibrium at various surface pressure scenarios ranging…
The Great Oxidation Event was a period during which Earth's atmospheric oxygen (O$_2$) concentrations increased from $\sim 10^{-5}$ times its present atmospheric level (PAL) to near modern levels, marking the start of the Proterozoic…
Even though sub-Neptunes likely represent the most common outcome of planet formation, their natures remain poorly understood. In particular, planets near 1.5-2.5$\,R_\oplus$ often have bulk densities that can be explained equally well with…
We present a retrieval method based on Bayesian analysis to infer the atmospheric compositions and surface or cloud-top pressures from transmission spectra of exoplanets with general compositions. In this study, we identify what can…
In recent years, several potentially habitable, probably terrestrial exoplanets and exoplanet candidates have been discovered. The amount of CO2 in their atmosphere is of great importance for surface conditions and habitability. In the…
Understanding the evolution of Earth and potentially habitable Earth-like worlds is essential to fathom our origin in the Universe. The search for Earth-like planets in the habitable zone and investigation of their atmospheres with climate…
Of the many recently discovered worlds orbiting distant stars, very little is yet known of their chemical composition. With the arrival of new transit spectroscopy and direct imaging facilities, the question of molecular detectability as a…
We present the results of simulations on the detectability of $O_2$ in the atmosphere of Earth twins around nearby low mass stars using high resolution transmission spectroscopy. We explore such detectability with each of the three upcoming…
Although non-greenhouse gases can vary substantially in abundance in Earth-like atmospheres, their climatic influences remain insufficiently understood. To investigate how such gases regulate climate, we vary the abundance of N$_2$ as a…