Related papers: Limits on Clouds and Hazes for the TRAPPIST-1 Plan…
Close-in terrestrial exoplanets around M dwarfs reside in dense, magnetized winds, where non-ideal plasma coupling can strongly affect how electromagnetic energy is redistributed within the dayside interaction region. We present…
Near-term studies of Venus-like atmospheres with JWST promise to advance our knowledge of terrestrial planet evolution. However, the remote study of Venus in the Solar System and the ongoing efforts to characterize gaseous exoplanets both…
We present new self-consistent atmosphere models for transiting planets TrES-1 and HD209458b. The planets were recently observed with the Spitzer Space Telescope in bands centered on 4.5 and 8.0 $\mu$m, for TrES-1, and 24 $\mu$m, for…
Recently, properties of exoplanet atmospheres have been constrained via multi-wavelength transit observation, which measures an apparent decrease in stellar brightness during planetary transit in front of its host star (called transit…
The recent discovery of three Earth-sized, potentially habitable planets around a nearby cool star, TRAPPIST-1, has provided three key targets for the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Depending on their atmospheric…
Terrestrial planets in the habitable zones (HZs) of low-mass stars and cool dwarfs have received significant scrutiny recently because their shorter orbital periods increase their chances of detection and characterization compared to…
The nearby (d = 12 pc) M8 dwarf star TRAPPIST-1 (2MASS J23062928-0502285) hosts a compact system of at least seven exoplanets with sizes similar to Earth. Given its importance for testing planet formation and evolution theories, and for…
We model the long-term XUV luminosity of TRAPPIST-1 to constrain the evolving high-energy radiation environment experienced by its planetary system. Using Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC), we derive probabilistic constraints for TRAPPIST-1's…
A quantitative understanding of the nature and composition of low-mass rocky (exo)planet atmospheres during their evolution is needed to interpret observations. The magma ocean stage of terrestrial- and sub-Neptune planets permits mass…
Ultracool dwarfs (UCD; $T_{\rm eff}<\sim3000~$K) cool to settle on the main sequence after $\sim$1 Gyr. For brown dwarfs, this cooling never stops. Their habitable zone (HZ) thus sweeps inward at least during the first Gyr of their lives.…
To identify promising exoplanets for atmospheric characterization and to make the best use of observational data, a thorough understanding of their atmospheres is needed. 3D general circulation models (GCMs) are one of the most…
Using a 3D General Circulation Model, the Unified Model, we present results from simulations of a tidally-locked TRAPPIST-1e with varying carbon dioxide CO2 and methane CH4 gas concentrations, and their corresponding prescribed spherical…
One significant difference between the atmospheres of stars and exoplanets is the presence of condensed particles (clouds or hazes) in the atmosphere of the latter. The main goal of this paper is to develop a self-consistent microphysical…
The first nearby very-low mass star planet-host discovered, TRAPPIST-1, presents not only a unique opportunity for studying a system of multiple terrestrial planets, but a means to probe magnetospheric interactions between a star at the end…
Some of the exoplanets so far observed show featureless or flat transmission spectra, possibly indicating the existence of clouds and/or haze in their atmospheres. Thanks to its large aperture size and broad wavelength coverage, JWST is…
Ultra-cool dwarf stars are abundant, long-lived, and uniquely suited to enable the atmospheric study of transiting terrestrial companions with JWST. Amongst them, the most prominent is the M8.5V star TRAPPIST-1 and its seven planets. While…
With more than 1000 hours of observation from Feb 2016 to Oct 2019, the Spitzer Exploration Program Red Worlds (ID: 13067, 13175 and 14223) exclusively targeted TRAPPIST-1, a nearby (12pc) ultracool dwarf star orbited by seven transiting…
Ongoing observing projects like the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and future missions offer the chance to characterize Earth-like exoplanetary atmospheres. Thereby, M-dwarfs are preferred targets for transit observations, for example,…
Stellar surface heterogeneities, such as spots and faculae, often contaminate exoplanet transit spectra, hindering precise atmospheric characterization. We demonstrate a novel, epoch-based, model-independent method to mitigate stellar…
Precise atmospheric observations have been made for a growing sample of warm Neptunes. Here we investigate the correlations between these observations and a large number of system parameters to show that, at 95% confidence, the amplitude of…