Related papers: Characterizing the atmosphere of Proxima b with a …
We estimate flux ratios of the extrasolar planet XO-2b to its host star XO-2 at 3.6, 4.5, 5.8 and 8.0 micron with IRAC on the Spitzer Space Telescope to be 0.00081 +- 0.00017, 0.00098 +- 0.00020, 0.00167 +- 0.00036 and 0.00133 +- 0.00049,…
Much of the focus of exoplanet atmosphere analysis in the coming decade will be at infrared wavelengths, with the planned launches of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST). However,…
The mission of NASA's Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) is to find Earth-like planets orbiting other stars and characterize the atmospheres of these planets using spectroscopy. Because of the enormous brightness ratio between the star and the…
The circumstellar disk of PDS 70 hosts two forming planets, which are actively accreting gas from their environment. In this work, we report the first detection of PDS 70 b in the Br$\alpha$ and $M'$ filters with VLT/NACO, a tentative…
The proposed infrared space interferometry mission Darwin has two main aims: (i) to detect and characterize exo-planets similar to the Earth, and (ii) to carry out astrophysical imaging in the wavelength range 6 - 20 micron at a sensitivity…
We propose to search for biosignatures in the spectra of reflected light from about 100 Earth-sized planets that are already known to be orbiting in their habitable zones (HZ). For a sample of G and K type hosts, most of these planets will…
A decade ago, the detection of the first transiting extrasolar planet provided a direct constraint on its composition and opened the door to spectroscopic investigations of extrasolar planetary atmospheres. As such characterization studies…
Located at the bottom of the main sequence, ultracool dwarf stars are widespread in the solar neighbourhood. Nevertheless, their extremely low luminosity has left their planetary population largely unexplored, and only one of them,…
The direct observation of cold and temperate planets within 1 to 10 AU would be extremely valuable for uncovering their atmospheric compositions but remains a formidable challenge with current astronomical methods. Ground-based optical…
Context. Direct imaging provides a steady flow of newly discovered giant planets and brown dwarf companions. These multi-object systems can provide information about the formation of low-mass companions in wide orbits and/or help us to…
We investigate the possiblity to detect Earth-like planets, in the visible and the near infrared domains, with ground based Extremely Large Telescopes equipped with adaptive systems capable of providing high Strehl ratios. From a detailed…
Observations of the Earth's exosphere have unveiled an extended envelope of hydrogen reaching further than 10 Earth radii composed of atoms orbiting around the Earth. This large envelope increases significantly the opacity of the Earth to…
Directly imaged planets and substellar companions are key targets for the characterization of self-luminous atmospheres. Their photometric appearance at 4-5 $\mu$m is sensitive to the chemical composition and cloud content of their…
We have imaged $\epsilon$ Indi B, the closest brown dwarf binary known, with VISIR at the VLT in three narrow-band mid-infrared bandpasses located around 8.6$\mu$m, 10.5$\mu$m and 11.3$\mu$m. We are able to spatially resolve both…
Chauvin et al. 2005 imaged a co-moving companion at ~260 AU from the young star AB Pic A. Evolutionary models predictions based on J H K photometry of AB Pic b suggested a mass of ~13 - 14 MJup, placing the object at the deuterium-burning…
The discovery of epsilon Indi Ba, Bb, a binary brown dwarf system very close to the Sun, makes possible a concerted campaign to characterise the physical parameters of two T dwarfs. Recent observations suggest substellar atmospheric and…
Proxima Centauri is our nearest stellar neighbor and one of the most well-studied stars in the sky. In 2016, a planetary companion was detected through radial velocity measurements. Proxima Centauri b has a minimum mass of 1.3 Earth masses…
Atmospheric temperatures are to be estimated from thermal emission spectra of Earth-like exoplanets orbiting M-stars as observed by current and future planned missions. To this end, a line-by-line radiative transfer code is used to generate…
Space interferometry is the inevitable endpoint of high angular resolution astrophysics, and a key technology that can be leveraged to analyse exoplanet formation and atmospheres with exceptional detail. However, the anticipated cost of…
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…