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The recent discovery and initial characterization of sub-Neptune-sized exoplanets that receive stellar irradiance of approximately Earth's raised the prospect of finding habitable planets in the coming decade, because some of these…
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…
Recent ground- and space-based surveys have shown that planets between Earth and Neptune in size, known as "super-Earths," are among the most frequently found planets in the Galaxy. Although the JWST era has provided high-quality…
Using data from the California-Kepler-Survey (CKS) we study trends in planetary properties with host star metallicity for close-in planets. By incorporating knowledge of the properties of the planetary radius gap identified by the CKS…
The Kepler transit survey with follow-up spectroscopic observations has discovered numerous super-Earth sized planets and revealed intriguing features of their sizes, orbital periods, and their relations between adjacent planets. For the…
Recent claims of biosignature gases in sub-Neptune atmospheres have renewed interest in water-rich sub-Neptunes with surface oceans, often referred to as Hycean planets. These planets are hypothesized to form beyond the snow line, accreting…
The planetary effective surface temperature alone is insufficient to characterize exoplanet atmospheres and their stability or evolution. Considering the star-planet system as a whole is necessary, and a critical component of the system is…
Hot-Jupiters are subject to extreme radiation and plasma flows coming from their host stars. Past ultraviolet Hubble Space Telescope observations, supported by hydrodynamic models, confirmed that these factors lead to the formation of an…
The exoplanet mass radius diagram reveals that super Earths display a wide range of radii, and therefore mean densities, at a given mass. Using planet population synthesis models, we explore the key physical factors that shape this…
Planets with 2 $R_{\oplus}$ < $R$ < 3 $R_{\oplus}$ and orbital period $<$100 d are abundant; these sub-Neptune exoplanets are not well understood. For example, $Kepler$ sub-Neptunes are likely to have deep magma oceans in contact with their…
The amount of nebular gas that a planet can bind is limited by its cooling rate, which is set by the opacity of its envelope. Accreting dust and pebbles contribute to the envelope opacity and, thus, influence the outcome of planet…
By means of three dimensional, high resolution hydrodynamical simulations we study the orbital evolution of weakly eccentric or inclined low-mass protoplanets embedded in gaseous discs subject to thermal diffusion. We consider both…
Constraining planet formation based on the atmospheric composition of exoplanets is a fundamental goal of the exoplanet community. Existing studies commonly try to constrain atmospheric abundances, or to analyze what abundance patterns a…
We simulate atmospheric fractionation in escaping planetary atmospheres using IsoFATE, a new open-source numerical model. We expand the parameter space studied previously to planets with tenuous atmospheres that exhibit the greatest helium…
Some super Earths and mini Neptunes will likely have thick atmospheres that are not H2-dominated. We have developed a photochemistry-thermochemistry kinetic-transport model for exploring the compositions of thick atmospheres on super Earths…
GJ 436b is a warm-- approximately 800 K--extrasolar planet that periodically eclipses its low-mass (half the mass of the Sun) host star, and is one of the few Neptune-mass planets that is amenable to detailed characterization. Previous…
In this paper, we investigate how external photo-evaporation influences the formation, dynamical evolution and the resultant planetary architecture of multi-planet systems born in stellar clusters. We use a model of N-body simulations of…
The exoplanet GJ1214b presents an interesting example of compositional degeneracy for low-mass planets. Its atmosphere may be composed of water, super-solar or solar metallicity material. We present atmospheric circulation models of GJ1214b…
Planet atmospheric escape induced by high-energy stellar irradiation is a key phenomenon shaping the structure and evolution of planetary atmospheres. Therefore, the present-day properties of a planetary atmosphere are intimately connected…
In the presence of a magnetic field and weakly ionizing winds, ohmic dissipation is expected to take place in the envelopes of Jovian and lower-mass planets alike. While the process has been investigated on the former, there have been no…