Related papers: VULCAN: an Open-Source, Validated Chemical Kinetic…
Astrochemical modeling is needed for understanding the formation and evolution of interstellar molecules, and for extracting physical information from spectroscopic observations of interstellar clouds. The modeling usually involves handling…
Neptune-size exoplanets are less studied as characterizing their atmospheres presents challenges due to their relatively small radius and atmospheric scale height. As the most common outcome of planet formation, these planets are crucial…
The chemistry of planetary atmospheres containing molecular nitrogen as a major atmospheric component is strongly influenced by the reactions of atomic nitrogen. Although nitrogen atoms in their ground electronic state N(4S) are mostly…
Photochemistry induced by stellar UV flux should produce haze particles in exoplanet atmospheres. Recent observations indicate that haze and/or cloud layers exist in the atmospheres of exoplanets. However, photochemical processes in…
A number of transiting exoplanets have featureless transmission spectra that might suggest the presence of clouds at high altitudes. A realistic cloud model is necessary to understand the atmospheric conditions under which such…
The recent advancements in exoplanet observations enable the potential detection of exo-Venuses, rocky planets with carbon-rich atmospheres. How extended these atmospheres can be, given high carbon abundances, has not been studied. To…
Accurate simulations of combustion phenomena require the use of detailed chemical kinetics in order to capture limit phenomena such as ignition and extinction as well as predict pollutant formation. However, the chemical kinetic models for…
Flexible 3D models to explore the vast diversity of terrestrial planets and interpret observational data are still in their early stages. In this work, we present OASIS: a novel and flexible 3D virtual planet laboratory. With OASIS we…
UV absorption cross sections are an essential ingredient of photochemical atmosphere models. Exoplanet searches have unveiled a large population of short-period objects with hot atmospheres, very different from what we find in our solar…
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…
Accurate and thorough characterization of the chemistry of compounds containing the third-row elements sulfur and chlorine is critical for modeling the composition of the atmosphere of Venus. We have used a combination of ab initio quantum…
Characterizing temperate exoplanet atmospheres remains challenging due to their small size and low temperatures. Recent JWST observations provide valuable data, but their interpretation has led to diverging conclusions. Complementary…
Atmospheric studies of exoplanets and brown dwarfs are a cutting-edge and rapidly evolving area of astrophysics research. Calculating models of exoplanet or brown dwarf spectra requires knowledge of the wavelength-dependent absorption of…
The ExoMol project is dedicated to providing molecular line lists for exoplanet and other hot atmospheres. The ExoMol procedure uses a mixture of ab initio calculations and available laboratory data. The actual line lists are generated…
We present the open-source radiative transfer code named HELIOS, which is constructed for studying exoplanetary atmospheres. In its initial version, the model atmospheres of HELIOS are one-dimensional and plane-parallel, and the equation of…
Producing optimized and accurate transmission spectra of exoplanets from telescope data has traditionally been a manual and labor-intensive procedure. Here we present the results of the first attempt to improve and standardize this…
Close-in exoplanets with highly eccentric orbits are subject to large variations in incoming stellar flux between periapse and apoapse. These variations may lead to large swings in atmospheric temperature, which in turn may cause changes in…
Atmospheric retrievals on exoplanets usually involve computationally intensive Bayesian sampling methods. Large parameter spaces and increasingly complex atmospheric models create a computational bottleneck forcing a trade-off between…
Small rocky planets, as well as larger planets that suffered extensive volatile loss, tend to be drier and have thinner atmospheres as compared to Earth. Such planets probably outnumber worlds better endowed with volatiles, being the most…
Atmospheric escape is considered to be one of the main channels for evolution in sub-Jovian planets, particularly in their early lives. While there are several hypotheses proposed to explain escape in exoplanets, testing them with…