Related papers: Generic Models for Disk-Resolved and Disk-Integrat…
We present and discuss a polarimetric effect caused by a planet transiting the stellar disk thus breaking the symmetry of the light distribution and resulting in linear polarization of the partially eclipsed star. Estimates of this effect…
Emission from an accretion disc around compact objects, such as neutron stars and black holes, is expected to be significantly polarized. The polarization can be used to put constraints on geometrical and physical parameters of the compact…
Studying the albedos of the planets and moons of the Solar System dates back at least a century. Of particular interest is the relationship between the albedo measured at superior conjunction, known as the ``geometric albedo", and the…
We investigate optical characteristics of flashes caused by impacting meter- to decameter-sized outer solar system objects on Jupiter and contributions of reflected light from surface clouds at visible wavelengths to estimate more accurate…
We predict how a remote observer would see the brightness variations of giant planets similar to Jupiter and Saturn as they orbit their central stars. We model the geometry of Jupiter, Saturn and Saturn's rings for varying orbital and…
We present a method that employs the secondary eclipse light curves of transiting extrasolar planets to probe the spatial variation of their thermal emission. This technique permits an observer to resolve the surface of the planet without…
We present a sequence of toy models for irradiated planet atmospheres, in which the effects of geometry and energy redistribution are modelled self-consistently. We use separate but coupled grey atmosphere models to treat the ingoing…
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…
Thermal light-curve analysis is a powerful approach to probe the thermal structures of exoplanetary atmospheres, which are greatly influenced by the planetary obliquity and eccentricity. Here we investigate the thermal light curves of…
The close-in extrasolar giant planets [CEGPs], $\ltorder$ 0.05 AU from their parent stars, may have a large component of optically reflected light. We present theoretical optical photometric light curves and polarization curves for the CEGP…
Earth-like, potentially habitable exoplanets are prime targets in the search for extraterrestrial life. Information about their atmosphere and surface can be derived by analyzing light of the parent star reflected by the planet. We…
The distribution of instellation at the top of a planet's atmosphere or surface is usually calculated using the inverse-square law of radiation. This is based on the assumption that the host star is far enough to be considered a point-sized…
While recent observational progress is converging on the detection of compact regions of thermal emission due to embedded protoplanets, further theoretical predictions are needed to understand the response of a protoplanetary disk to the…
We present a semi-analytic model atmosphere for close-in exoplanets that captures the essential physics of phase curves: orbital and viewing geometry, advection, and re-radiation. We calibrate the model with the well-characterized…
Magnetic fields play essential roles in protoplanetary disks. Magnetic fields in the disk atmosphere are of particular interest, as they are connected to the wind-launching mechanism. In this work, we study the polarization of the light…
Due to its proximity to Earth, Jupiter of the Solar System serves as a unique case study for gas-giant exoplanets. In the current study, we perform fits of ab initio, reflective, semi-infinite, homogeneous model atmospheres to 61 phase…
We analyzed the combined near-infrared spectrum of a star-planet system with thermal emission atmospheric models, based on the composition and physical parameters of the system. The main objective of this work is to obtain the inclination…
The peak amplitude of linear polarization detected recently from an extrasolar hot giant planet HD 189733b, is a few times of $10^{-4}$, more than an order of magnitude higher than all theoretical predictions. Rayleigh scattering off $H_2$…
[Abridged] The transmission of light through a planetary atmosphere can be studied as a function of altitude and wavelength using stellar or solar occultations, giving often unique constraints on the atmospheric composition. For exoplanets,…
We study the linear polarization of the accretion disk around black holes with a dark matter halo. The interaction of the black hole with the dark matter is modelled by considering an exact solution to the Einstein equations which describes…