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The recent discovery of potentially habitable exoplanets around Proxima Centauri and TRAPPIST-1 has attracted much attention due to their potential for hosting life. We delineate a simple model that accurately describes the evolution of…
Direct detection and spectroscopy of exoplanets requires high contrast imaging. For habitable exoplanets in particular, located at small angular separation from the host star, it is crucial to employ small inner working angle (IWA)…
The scenario and efficiency of water transport by icy asteroids and comets are still amongst the most important unresolved questions of planetary systems. A better understanding of cometary dynamics in extrasolar systems shall provide…
Context: Combining high-contrast imaging with medium- or high-resolution integral field spectroscopy has the potential to boost the detection rate of exoplanets, especially at small angular separations. Furthermore, it immediately provides…
It is now recognized that energetic stellar photon and particle radiation evaporates and erodes planetary atmospheres and controls upper atmospheric chemistry. Key exoplanet host stars will be too faint at X-ray wavelengths for accurate…
Transiting exoplanet atmospheric characterization is currently in a golden age as dozens of exoplanet atmospheres are being studied by NASA's Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes. This trend is expected to continue with NASA's Pandora…
Planets reflect and linearly polarize the radiation that they receive from their host stars. The emergent polarization is sensitive to aspects of the planet atmosphere such as the gas composition and the occurrence of condensates and their…
The next generation of ground- and space-based observatories will enable direct imaging and characterization of cold, mature planets through thermal emission and, for the first time, reflected light detection. Known RV and astrometrically…
We report the tentative detection of the near-infrared emission of the Hot Jupiter WASP-12b with the low-resolution prism on IRTF/SpeX. We find a K-H contrast color of 0.137% +/- 0.054%, corresponding to a blackbody of temperature 2400…
We analyze new/archival VLT/NaCo and Gemini/NICI high-contrast imaging of the young, self-luminous planet $\beta$ Pictoris b in seven near-to-mid IR photometric filters, using advanced image processing methods to achieve high…
Direct detection and detailed characterization of exoplanets using extreme adaptive optics (ExAO) is a key science goal of future extremely large telescopes (ELTs). However, wavefront errors will limit the sensitivity of this endeavor.…
The precision of radial velocity (RV) measurements to detect indirectly planetary companions of nearby stars has improved to enable the discovery of extrasolar planets in the Neptune and Super-Earth mass range. Discoveries of Earth-like…
We analyze the light curve of the M5.5 dwarf Proxima Centauri obtained by the TESS in Sectors 11 and 12. In the $\approx 50$ day-long light curve we identified and analyzed 72 flare events. The flare rate was 1.49 events per day, in total,…
At optical wavelengths, an exoplanet's signature is essentially reflected light from the host star - several orders of magnitude fainter. Since it is superimposed on the star spectrum its detection has been a difficult observational…
Extra-solar planets direct imaging is now a reality with the deployment and commissioning of the first generation of specialized ground-based instruments (GPI, SPHERE, P1640 and SCExAO). These systems allow of planets $ 10 ^ 7 $ times…
We simulate the formation of planetary systems around Alpha Centauri B. The N-body accretionary evolution of a 1/r disk populated with 400-900 lunar-mass protoplanets is followed for 200 Myr. All simulations lead to the formation of…
Studies of exoplanetary atmospheres have found no definite correlations between observed high altitude aerosols and other system parameters. This could be, in part, because of the lack of homogeneous exoplanet samples for which specific…
With an orbital distance comparable to that of Saturn in the solar system, \bpic b is the closest (semi-major axis $\simeq$\,9\,au) exoplanet that has been imaged to orbit a star. Thus it offers unique opportunities for detailed studies of…
Using a global network of small telescopes, we have obtained light curves of Proxima Centauri at 329 observation epochs from 2006 - 2017. The planet Proxima b discovered by Anglada-Escude et al. (2016) with an orbital period of 11.186 d has…
[abridged] We analyzed mid-infrared high-contrast coronagraphic images of the beta Pictoris system, taking advantage of the NEAR experiment using the VLT/VISIR instrument. The goal of our analysis is to investigate both the detection of the…