Related papers: Identifying Candidate Atmospheres on Rocky M dwarf…
The upcoming launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) means that we will soon have the capability to characterize the atmospheres of rocky exoplanets. However, it is still unknown whether such planets orbiting close to M dwarf stars…
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will open up the possibility of comprehensively measuring the emission spectra of rocky exoplanets orbiting M dwarfs to detect and characterize their atmospheres. In preparation for this opportunity, we…
A number of transiting, potentially habitable Earth-sized exoplanets have recently been detected around several nearby M dwarf stars. These worlds represent important targets for atmospheric characterization for the upcoming NASA James Webb…
Determining which rocky exoplanets have atmospheres, and why, is a key goal for the James Webb Space Telescope. So far, emission observations of individual rocky exoplanets orbiting M stars (M-Earths) have not provided definitive evidence…
Detecting an atmosphere on nearby temperate planets is one of the most important scientific objectives of the Webb mission, an endeavour in practice limited to a handful of well-characterized planets: Trappist-1d, e, f, g, LHS1140b, and the…
Rocky exoplanet characterization has been a top priority for early James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) science operations. Several milestones have been achieved, including the most precise rocky planet transmission spectra measured to date,…
We investigate the detectability of atmospheric spectral features of Earth-like planets in the habitable zone (HZ) around M dwarfs with the future James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). We use a coupled 1D climate-chemistry-model to simulate…
[Abridged] We have only been able to comprehensively characterize the atmospheres of a handful of transiting planets, because most orbit faint stars. TESS will discover transiting planets orbiting the brightest stars, enabling, in…
M dwarf systems offer an opportunity to study terrestrial exoplanetary atmospheres due to their small size and cool temperatures. However, the extreme conditions imposed by these host stars raise question about whether their close-in rocky…
The critical first step in the search for life on exoplanets over the next decade is to determine whether rocky planets transiting small M-dwarf stars possess atmospheres and, if so, what processes sculpt them over time. Because of its…
The prevalence of atmospheres on rocky planets is one of the major questions in exoplanet astronomy, but there are currently no published unambiguous detections of atmospheres on any rocky exoplanets. The MIRI instrument on JWST can measure…
Visible and near-infrared spectra of transiting hot Jupiter planets have recently been observed, revealing some of the atmospheric constituents of their atmospheres. In the near future, it is probable that primary and secondary eclipse…
The era of exoplanet characterization is upon us. For a subset of exoplanets -- the transiting planets -- physical properties can be measured, including mass, radius, and atmosphere characteristics. Indeed, measuring the atmospheres of a…
Nine transiting Earth-sized planets have recently been discovered around nearby late M dwarfs, including the TRAPPIST-1 planets and two planets discovered by the MEarth survey, GJ 1132b and LHS 1140b. These planets are the smallest known…
JWST is transforming our ability to characterise small exoplanets, from sub-Neptunes to rocky worlds. A key open question is whether highly irradiated rocky planets can retain atmospheres or are stripped bare by stellar irradiation -- a…
We present a new first-principles analytic approach to interpreting eclipses and phase curves of rocky planets. Observations with JWST have reported nondetections of atmospheres around the majority of hot rocky planets orbiting M dwarfs.…
Determining whether temperate rocky exoplanets orbiting M stars retain atmospheres is currently a central goal of exoplanet astronomy. To this end, the James Webb Space Telescope has begun searching for atmospheres on these worlds with MIRI…
Eclipse exoplanet spectroscopy has yielded detection of H_2O, CH_4, CO_2 and CO in the atmosphere of hot jupiters and neptunes. About 40 large terrestrial planets are announced or confirmed, two of which are transiting, and another deemed…
Answering the question "do rocky exoplanets around M stars have atmospheres?" is a key science goal of the JWST mission, with 500 hours of Director's Discretionary Time (DDT) awarded to address it. Theoretically, the so-called "Cosmic…
We explore how well James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) spectra will likely constrain bulk atmospheric properties of transiting exoplanets. We start by modeling the atmospheres of archetypal hot Jupiter, warm Neptune, warm sub-Neptune, and…