Related papers: Water Vapour Transit Ambiguities for Habitable M-E…
A planet's surface conditions can significantly impact its climate and habitability. In this study, we use the 3D general circulation model ExoPlaSim to systematically vary dayside land cover on a synchronously rotating, temperate rocky…
Cloud cover at the planetary limb of water-rich Earth-like planets is likely to weaken chemical signatures in transmission spectra, impeding attempts to characterize these atmospheres. However, based on observations of Earth and solar…
Orbital phase-dependent variations in thermal emission and reflected stellar energy spectra can provide meaningful constraints on the climate states of terrestrial extrasolar planets orbiting M dwarf stars. Spatial distributions of water…
Our recent work shows how M-Earth climates and transmission spectra depend on the amount of ice-free ocean on the planet's dayside and the mass of N2 in its atmosphere. M-Earths with more ice-free ocean and thicker atmospheres are hotter…
Transiting planets provide a unique opportunity to study the atmospheres of extra-solar planets. Radiative hydrodynamical models of the atmosphere provide a crucial link between the physical characteristics of the atmosphere and the…
Proxima Centauri b provides an unprecedented opportunity to understand the evolution and nature of terrestrial planets orbiting M dwarfs. Although Proxima Cen b orbits within its star's habitable zone, multiple plausible evolutionary paths…
Previous studies have demonstrated that continental carbon-silicate weathering is important to the continued habitability of a terrestrial planet. Despite this, few studies have considered the influence of land on the climate of a…
A planet's spectrum is dynamic and only represents a time-dependent snapshot of its properties. Changing atmospheric conditions due to climate and weather patterns, particularly variation in cloud cover, can significantly affect the…
Radial velocity monitoring has found the signature of a $M \sin i = 1.3$~M$_\oplus$ planet located within the Habitable Zone (HZ) of Proxima Centauri \citep{Anglada16}. Despite a hotter past and an active host star the planet Proxima~b…
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…
We present results of simulations of the climate of the newly discovered planet Proxima Centauri B, performed using the Met Office Unified Model (UM). We examine the responses of both an `Earth-like' atmosphere and simplified nitrogen and…
Planetary obliquity (axial tilt) plays an important role in regulating the climate evolution and habitability of water-covered planets. Despite the suspicion of large obliquities in several exoplanetary systems, this phenomenon remains hard…
Most of the exoplanets detected up to now transit in front of their host stars, allowing for the generation of transmission spectra; the study of exoplanet atmospheres relies heavily upon accurate analysis of these spectra. Recent…
Water is predicted to be among, if not the most abundant molecular species after hydrogen in the atmospheres of close-in extrasolar giant planets (hot-Jupiters) Several attempts have been made to detect water on an exoplanet, but have…
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-type exoplanets orbiting nearby red dwarf stars (M dwarfs) are the first potentially habitable exoplanets suitable for atmospheric characterization in the near future. Understanding the stability of water in cold-trap regions on…
The nearby exoplanet Proxima Centauri b will be a prime future target for characterization, despite questions about its retention of water. Climate models with static oceans suggest that an Earth-like Proxima b could harbor a small dayside…
Extreme instellation on lava planets causes the rocky surface to melt and vaporize. Because the rock vapour composition is intrinsically tied to the mantle, atmospheric characterization of lava planets can hold valuable insight into the…
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…
With the recent discoveries of hundreds of extrasolar planets, the search for planets like Earth and life in the universe, is quickly gaining momentum. In the future, large space observatories could directly detect the light scattered from…