Related papers: Prospects for Characterizing the Haziest Sub-Neptu…
We present a search for helium in the upper atmospheres of three sub-Neptune size planets to investigate the origins of these ubiquitous objects. The detection of helium for a low density planet would be strong evidence for the presence of…
Currently, the analysis of transmission spectra is the most successful technique to probe the chemical composition of exoplanet atmospheres. But the accuracy of these measurements is constrained by observational limitations and the…
The impact of unocculted stellar surface heterogeneities in the form of cool spots and hot faculae on the spectrum of a transiting planet has been a daunting problem for the characterization of exoplanet atmospheres. The…
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…
GJ 3470b is a warm Neptune-size planet transiting a M dwarf star. Like the handful of other small exoplanets for which transmission spectroscopy has been obtained, GJ 3470b exhibits a flat spectrum in the near- and mid-infrared. Recently, a…
The ultraviolet and optical wavelength ranges have proven to be a key addition to infrared observations of exoplanet atmospheres, as they offer unique insights into the properties of clouds and hazes and are sensitive to signatures of…
We present a reanalysis (using the Minnaert limb-darkening approximation) of visible/near-infrared (0.3 - 2.5 micron) observations of Uranus and Neptune made by several instruments. We find a common model of the vertical aerosol…
The nature of the sub-Neptune K2-18b is debated between Hycean and mini-Neptune interpretations. We test whether self-consistent Hycean atmospheres are compatible with current JWST transmission spectra by combining one-dimensional…
Terrestrial planets in the habitable zone around nearby stars are of great interest and provide a good sample for further characteristics of their habitability. In this paper, we collect a nearby star catalog within 20 pc according to the…
The atmospheric characterisation of temperate exoplanets is becoming accessible with JWST, providing a critical connection between Solar System planets and the more commonly observed hot-Jupiters. K2-18 b, a temperate sub-Neptune orbiting…
We have investigated the information content in reflected-starlight spectra of exoplanets. We specify our analysis to Barnard's Star b candidate super-Earth, for which we assume a radius 0.6 times that of Neptune, an atmosphere dominated by…
GJ 1214 is a nearby M dwarf star that hosts a transiting super-Earth-size planet, making this system an excellent target for atmospheric studies. Most studies find that the transmission spectrum of GJ 1214b is flat, which favors either a…
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…
[Abridged] After many attempts over more than a decade, high-resolution spectroscopy has recently delivered its first detections of molecular absorption in exoplanet atmospheres, both in transmission and thermal emission spectra. Targeting…
The nature of aerosols in hot exoplanet atmospheres is one of the primary vexing questions facing the exoplanet field. The complex chemistry, multiple formation pathways, and lack of easily identifiable spectral features associated with…
LHS 1140 b is the second-closest temperate transiting planet to the Earth with an equilibrium temperature low enough to support surface liquid water. At 1.730$\pm$0.025 R$_\oplus$, LHS 1140 b falls within the radius valley separating…
Atmospheric haze is the leading candidate for the flattening of expolanetary spectra, as it's also an important source of opacity in the atmospheres of solar system planets, satellites, and comets. Exoplanetary transmission spectra, which…
Planets residing in circumstellar habitable zones (CHZs) offer our best opportunities to test hypotheses of life's potential pervasiveness and complexity. Constraining the precise boundaries of habitability and its observational…
Transmission spectroscopy of exoplanets has the potential to provide precise measurements of atmospheric chemical abundances, in particular of hot Jupiters whose large sizes and high temperatures make them conducive to such observations. To…
We deploy a newly-generated set of geometric albedo spectral grids to examine the detectability of methane (CH4) in the reflected-light spectrum of an Earth-like exoplanet at visible and near-infrared wavelengths with a future exoplanet…