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Conventional planet formation theory suggests that chondritic materials have delivered crucial atmospheric and hydrospheric elements such as carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and hydrogen (H) onto primitive Earth. However, recent measurements…
Super-Earths and mini-Neptunes are the most abundant types of planets among the ~3500 confirmed exoplanets, and are expected to exhibit a wide variety of atmospheric compositions. Recent transmission spectra of super-Earths and…
A primary goal of characterizing exoplanet atmospheres is to constrain planetary bulk properties, such as their metallicity, C/O ratio, and intrinsic heat. However, there are significant uncertainties in many aspects of atmospheric physics,…
Little is known about the interaction between atmospheres and crusts of exoplanets so far, but future space missions and ground-based instruments are expected to detect molecular features in the spectra of hot rocky exoplanets. We aim to…
Observations suggest an abundance of water and paucity of methane in the majority of observed exoplanetary atmospheres. We isolate the effect of atmospheric processes to investigate possible causes. Previously, we studied the effect of…
The orbital regime of a terrestrial planet plays a significant role in shaping its atmospheric dynamics, climate, and hence potential habitability. The orbit is also likely to play a role in shaping the response of a planetary atmosphere to…
Using forward models for representative exoplanet atmospheres and a radiometric instrument model, we have generated synthetic observational data to explore how well the major C- and O-bearing chemical species (CO, CO2, CH4, and H2O),…
Almost all planetary atmospheres are affected by disequilibrium chemical processes. In this paper we introduce our recently developed Chemical Kinetic Model (\texttt{ChemKM}). We show that the results of our HD189733b model are in good…
We present a new scaling law to predict the loss of atmosphere from planetary collisions for any speed, angle, impactor mass, target mass, and body compositions, in the regime of giant impacts onto broadly terrestrial planets with…
Small rocky planets, as well as larger planets that suffered extensive volatile loss, tend to be drier and have thinner atmospheres as compared to Earth. Such planets probably outnumber worlds better endowed with volatiles, being the most…
Large impacts onto young rocky planets may transform their compositions, creating highly reducing conditions at their surfaces and reintroducing highly siderophile metals to their mantles. Key to these processes is the availability of an…
Using smoothed particle hydrodynamics we model giant impacts of Super-Earth mass rocky planets between an atmosphere-less projectile and an atmosphere-rich target. In this work we present results from head-on to grazing collisions. The…
The discovery of thousands of highly irradiated, low-mass, exoplanets has led to the idea that atmospheric escape is an important process that can drive their evolution. Of particular interest is the inference from recent exoplanet…
Characterizing temperate exoplanet atmospheres remains challenging due to their small size and low temperatures. Recent JWST observations provide valuable data, but their interpretation has led to diverging conclusions. Complementary…
Observations of exoplanetary spectra are leading to unprecedented constraints on their atmospheric elemental abundances, particularly O/H, C/H, and C/O ratios. Recent studies suggest that elemental ratios could provide important constraints…
(abridged abstract) Theoretical arguments indicate that close-in terrestial exoplanets may have weak magnetic fields. As described in the companion article (Paper I), a weak magnetic field results in a high flux of galactic cosmic rays to…
Although current sensitivity limits are such that true Solar System analogs remain challenging to detect, numerous planetary systems have been discovered that are very different from our own Solar System. The majority of systems harbor a…
[Abridged] This review paper discussed which chemical effects may be at play in a planet-forming disk midplane, which effects are relevant under different conditions, and which tools are available for modelling chemical kinetics in a disk…
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…
Here we investigate how small amounts of hydrogen (much smaller than the mass of the exoplanet) above a magma ocean on a rocky exoplanet may modify the atmospheric chemistry and atmospheric escape.We use a chemical model of a magma ocean…