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The detection of emission lines associated with accretion processes is a direct method for studying how and where gas giant planets form, how young planets interact with their natal protoplanetary disk and how volatile delivery to their…
Direct observation of extra-solar planets (exoplanets) is essential to understand how planetary systems were born, how they evolve, and ultimately, to identify biological signatures on these planets. However, the enormous contrast in flux…
Recent studies regarding the habitability, observability, and possible orbital evolution of the indirectly detected exoplanet Proxima b have mostly assumed a planet with $M \sim 1.3$ $M_\oplus$, a rocky composition, and an Earth-like…
The Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) Coronagraph Instrument (CGI) will be the first high-performance stellar coronagraph using active wavefront control for deep starlight suppression in space, providing unprecedented levels of…
A key factor in determining the potential habitability of synchronously rotating planets is the strength of the atmospheric boundary layer inversion between the dark side surface and the free atmosphere. Here we analyse data obtained from…
High-energy radiation caused by exoplanetary space weather events from planet-hosting stars can play a crucial role in conditions promoting or destroying habitability in addition to the conventional factors. In this paper, we present the…
A next generation of space-based observatories aims to detect and characterize potentially Earth-like exoplanets around Sun-like stars using reflected light spectroscopy. However, it remains unclear how such direct imaging…
Proxima b is a terrestrial exoplanet orbiting in the habitable zone of our closest star Proxima Centauri. The separation between the planet and the star is about 40 mas and this is with current instruments only reachable with direct…
(Abridged) We report results from a comprehensive study of the nearby M dwarf Proxima Centauri with the XMM-Newton satellite. We find strongly variable coronal X-ray emission, with flares ranging over a factor of 100 in peak flux. The…
The discovery of an Earth-mass exoplanet around the nearby star Proxima Centauri provides a prime target for the search for life on planets outside our solar system. Atmospheric characterization of these planets has been proposed by…
We apply a mathematical model for photosynthesis to quantitatively assess the habitability of a hypothetical planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, inside the so called habitability zone. Results suggest significant viability for primary…
One of the promising methods to search for life on extra-solar planets (exoplanets) is to detect life's signatures in their atmospheres. Spectra of exoplanet atmospheres at the modest resolution needed to search for oxygen, carbon dioxide,…
Stars of stellar type later than about M3.5 are believed to be fully convective and therefore unable to support magnetic dynamos like the one that produces the 11-year solar cycle. Because of their intrinsic faintness, very few late M stars…
We propose the application of coronagraphic techniques to the spectroscopic direct detection of exoplanets via the Doppler shift of planetary molecular lines. Even for an unresolved close-in planetary system, we show that the combination of…
We observed Io's optical aurora in eclipse on six nights between 2022 and 2024 using Keck I/HIRES. Spectra revealed 13 new auroral emissions not identified previously, tripling the total number of optical emissions lines detected at Io.…
We analyzed the combined near-infrared spectrum of a star-planet system with thermal emission atmospheric models, based on the composition and physical parameters of the system. The main objective of this work is to obtain the inclination…
Direct imaging of exoplanets relies on complex wavefront sensing and control architectures. In addition to fast adaptive optics systems, most of the future high-contrast imaging instruments will soon be equipped with focal plane wavefront…
We explore the possible Proxima Centauri b's interiors assuming the planet belongs to the class of dense solid planets (rocky with possible addition of water) and derive the corresponding radii. To do so, we use an internal structure model…
Context: The detection and characterization of Earth-like exoplanets (exoEarths) from space requires exquisite wavefront stability at contrast levels of $10^{-10}$. On segmented telescopes in particular, aberrations induced by cophasing…
The search for rocky exoplanets plays an important role in our quest for extra-terrestrial life. Here, we discuss the extreme physical properties possible for the first characterized rocky super-Earth, CoRoT-7b (R_pl = 1.58 \pm 0.10…