Related papers: Traveling planetary-scale waves cause cloud variab…
The TRAPPIST-1, Proxima Centauri, and LHS 1140 systems are the most exciting prospects for future follow-up observations of potentially inhabited planets. All orbit nearby M-stars and are likely tidally locked in 1:1 spin-orbit states,…
The recent detections of temperate terrestrial planets orbiting nearby stars and the promise of characterizing their atmospheres motivates a need to understand how the diversity of possible planetary parameters affects the climate of…
Hot Jupiters are expected to form far from their host star and move toward close-in, circular orbits via a smooth, monotonic decay due to mild and constant tidal dissipation. Yet, three systems have recently been found exhibiting…
The scenario and efficiency of water transport by icy asteroids and comets are still amongst the most important unresolved questions of planetary systems. A better understanding of cometary dynamics in extrasolar systems shall provide…
Most transiting planets orbit very close to their parent star, causing strong tidal forces between the two bodies. Tidal interaction can modify the dynamics of the system through orbital alignment, circularisation, synchronisation, and…
Results from the laboratory experiments on the evolution of vortices (eddies) generated in a rotating tank with topographic beta-effect are presented. The surface elevation and velocity fields are measured by the Altimetric Imaging…
It has been established theoretically that atmospheric thermal tides on rocky planets can lead to significant modifications of rotational evolution, both close to synchronous rotation and at faster rotations if certain resonant conditions…
A planet's axial tilt ("obliquity") substantially affects its atmosphere and habitability. It is thus essential to comprehend the various mechanisms that can excite planetary obliquities, particularly at the primordial stage. Here, we…
The temperature profile of a planetary atmosphere is a key diagnostic of radiative and dynamical processes governing the absorption, redistribution, and emission of energy. Observations have revealed dayside stratospheres that either cool…
We report a calculation of time-dependent quasi-geostrophic core flows for 1940-2010. Inverting recursively for an ensemble of solutions, we evaluate the main source of uncertainties, namely the model errors arising from interactions…
Earth-like planets have viscoelastic mantles, whereas giant planets may have viscoelastic cores. The tidal dissipation of such solid regions, gravitationally perturbed by a companion body, highly depends on their rheology and on the tidal…
Sub-Neptune type exoplanets are abundant in our galaxy yet have no solar system analogs. They exist in a broad range of stellar forcing and rotational regimes that are distinctly different from solar system planets and more commonly studied…
Cloudy atmospheres produce electric discharges, including lightning. Lightning, in turn, provides sufficient energy to break down air molecules into reactive species and thereby affects the atmospheric composition. The climate of tidally…
Transmission spectroscopy supports the presence of uncharacterised, light-scattering and -absorbing aerosols in the atmospheres of many exoplanets. The complexity of factors influencing the formation, 3-D transport, radiative impact, and…
A planet's atmospheric constituents (e.g., O$_2$, O$_3$, H$_2$O$_v$, CO$_2$, CH$_4$, N$_2$O) can provide clues to its surface habitability, and may offer biosignature targets for remote life detection efforts. The plethora of rocky…
With the discovery of hundreds of exoplanets and a potentially huge number of Earth-like planets waiting to be discovered, the conditions for their habitability have become a focal point in exoplanetary research. The classical picture of…
According to the standard liquid-water definition, the Earth is only partially habitable. We reconsider planetary habitability in the framework of energy-balance models, the simplest seasonal models in physical climatology, to assess the…
New observational facilities are beginning to enable insights into the three-dimensional (3D) nature of exoplanets. Transmission spectroscopy is the most widely used method for characterizing transiting temperate exoplanet's atmospheres,…
Terrestrial exoplanets in habitable zones are ubiquitous. It is, however, unknown which have Earth-like or Venus-like climates. Distinguishing different planet-types is crucial for determining whether a planet could be habitable. We…
We study systems of close orbiting planets evolving under the influence of tidal circularization. It is supposed that a commensurability forms through the action of disk induced migration and orbital circularization. After the system enters…