Related papers: Limits on Clouds and Hazes for the TRAPPIST-1 Plan…
With the discovery of a planetary system around TRAPPIST-1, there has been a surge of interest in ultracool dwarfs as potential planet hosts. Planetary systems around ultracool dwarfs represent our best chance of characterising temperate…
We are on the verge of characterizing the atmospheres of terrestrial exoplanets in the habitable zones of M dwarf stars. Due to their large planet-to-star radius ratios and higher frequency of transits, terrestrial exoplanets orbiting M…
Variations in the reflective properties of the bulk material that comprises the surface of land-dominated planets will affect the planetary energy balance by interacting differently with incident radiation from the host star. Furthermore,…
We present HST STIS optical transmission spectroscopy of the cool Saturn-mass exoplanet WASP-39b from 0.29-1.025 micron, along with complementary transit observations from Spitzer IRAC at 3.6 and 4.5 micron. The low density and large…
Formation of hazes at microbar pressures has been explored by theoretical models of exoplanet atmospheres to explain Rayleigh scattering and/or featureless transmission spectra, however observational evidence of aerosols in the low pressure…
`Super-puffs' are planets with anomalously low mean densities ($\lesssim 10^{-1}~{\rm g\ cm}^{-3}$). With a low surface gravity, the extended atmosphere is susceptible to extreme hydrodynamic mass loss (`boil off') on a timescale much…
HATS-75 b is one of the recently discovered Giant Exoplanets orbiting M-dwarf Stars (GEMS) with a transmission spectrum shaped by both its atmosphere and the active stellar surface it transits. As part of a JWST program studying 7 GEMS, we…
TRAPPIST-1 is a nearby ultra-cool dwarf that is host to a remarkable planetary system consisting of seven transiting planets. The orbital properties and radii of the planets have been well-constrained, and recently the masses of the inner…
Transmission spectroscopy provides a window to study exoplanetary atmospheres, but that window is fogged by clouds and hazes. Clouds and haze introduce a degeneracy between the strength of gaseous absorption features and planetary physical…
The nearby transiting planet HD 189733b was observed during three transits with the ACS camera of the Hubble Space Telescope in spectroscopic mode. The resulting time series of 675 spectra covers the 550-1050 nm range, with a resolution…
Although TRAPPIST-1's temperate planets have the highest transmission signals of any known system, flares contaminate 50-70% of transits at the 1000 ppm level, far above 100 ppm secondary atmospheres. Efforts to mitigate flare contamination…
The TRAPPIST-1 system is unique in that it has a chain of seven terrestrial Earth-like planets located close to or in its habitable zone. In this paper, we study the effect of potential cometary impacts on the TRAPPIST-1 planets and how…
We study the dynamical evolution of the TRAPPIST-1 system under the influence of orbital circularization through tidal interaction with the central star. We find that systems with parameters close to the observed one evolve into a state…
The TRAPPIST-1 Habitable Atmosphere Intercomparison (THAI) is a community project that aims to quantify how dfferences in general circulation models (GCMs) could impact the climate prediction for TRAPPIST-1e and, subsequently its…
The super-Neptune exoplanet WASP-107b is an exciting target for atmosphere characterization. It has an unusually large atmospheric scale height and a small, bright host star, raising the possibility of precise constraints on its current…
We obtained linear polarization photometry ($J$-band) and low-resolution spectroscopy ($ZJ$-bands) of Trappist-1, which is a planetary system formed by an M8-type low-mass star and seven temperate, Earth-sized planets. The photopolarimetric…
Extremely low density planets ('super-puffs') are a small but intriguing subset of the transiting planet population. With masses in the super-Earth range ($1-10$ M$_{\oplus}$) and radii akin to those of giant planets ($>4$ R$_{\oplus}$),…
We present a new optical (400-950nm) transmission spectrum of the hot Jupiter WASP-31b (M=0.48 MJ; R= 1.54 RJ; P=3.41 days), obtained by combining four transits observations. These transits were observed with IMACS on the Magellan Baade…
We present new 3.6 and 4.5 micron secondary eclipse measurements for five cool (less than approximately 1000 K) transiting gas giant planets: HAT-P-15b, HAT-P-17b, HAT-P-18b, HAT-P-26b, and WASP-69b. We detect eclipses in at least one…
The presence of aerosols is intimately linked to the global energy budget and the composition of a planet's atmospheres. Their ability to reflect incoming light prevents energy from being deposited into the atmosphere, and they shape…