Related papers: A secondary atmosphere on the rocky exoplanet 55 C…
Volcanism is a major and long-term source of volatile elements such as C and H to Earth's atmosphere, likely has been to Venus's atmosphere, and may be for exoplanets. Models simulating volcanic growth of atmospheres often make one of two…
Detailed characterization of an extrasolar planet's atmosphere provides the best hope for distinguishing the makeup of its outer layers, and the only hope for understanding the interplay between initial composition, chemistry, dynamics &…
Past occultation and phase-curve observations of the ultra-short period super-Earth 55 Cnc e obtained at visible and infrared wavelengths have been challenging to reconcile with a planetary reflection and emission model. In this study, we…
HD3167b is a transiting super-Earth that has a density which is consistent with a rocky composition. The planet is exposed to strong radiation, intense stellar wind, and likely strong tidal forces and induction heating. According to theory,…
We report on the detection of a transit of the super-Earth 55 Cnc e with warm Spitzer in IRAC's 4.5-micron band. Our MCMC analysis includes an extensive modeling of the systematic effects affecting warm Spitzer photometry, and yields a…
Relatively long-period nonsynchronized planets---such as warm Jupiters---potentially retain the primordial rotation, eccentricity, and obliquity that might encapsulate information on planetary climate and formation processes. To date, there…
[Abridged] A key hypothesis in the field of exoplanet atmospheres is the trend of atmospheric thermal structure with planetary equilibrium temperature. We explore this trend and report here the first statistical detection of a transition in…
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a key chemical species that is found in a wide range of planetary atmospheres. In the context of exoplanets, CO2 is an indicator of the metal enrichment (i.e., elements heavier than helium, also called…
The best-characterized exoplanets to date are planets on close-in transiting orbits around their host stars. The high level of irradiation and transiting geometry of these objects make them ideal targets for atmospheric investigations.…
Detecting the atmospheres of low-mass low-temperature exoplanets is a high-priority goal on the path to ultimately detect biosignatures in the atmospheres of habitable exoplanets. High-precision HST observations of several super-Earths with…
H$_2$-dominated terrestrial exoplanets are highly accessible to atmospheric characterization via transmission spectroscopy, but such atmospheres are generally thought to be unstable to escape. Here, we propose that close-in, eccentric…
Hot rocky super-Earths are thought to be sufficiently irradiated by their host star to melt their surface and thus allow for long-lasting magma oceans. Some processes have been proposed for such planets to have retained primordial hydrogen…
We examine the possibility that icy super-Earth mass planets, formed over long time scales (0.1--1~Gyr) at large distances ($\sim$ 200--1000~AU) from their host stars, will develop massive H-rich atmospheres. Within the interior of these…
The bulk composition of an exoplanet is commonly inferred from its average density. For small planets, however, the average density is not unique within the range of compositions. Variations of a number of important planetary…
Molecules present in exoplanetary atmospheres are expected to strongly influence the atmospheric radiation balance, trace dynamical and chemical processes, and indicate the presence of disequilibrium effects. Since molecules have the…
Ultrashort-period (USP) exoplanets -- with $R_p \leq 2~$R$_{\oplus}$ and periods $\leq$1 day -- are expected to be stripped of volatile atmospheres by intense host star irradiation, which is corroborated by their nominal bulk densities and…
Transit spectroscopy is the most frequently used technique to reveal the atmospheric properties of exoplanets, while that at high resolution has the advantage to resolve the small Doppler shift of spectral lines, and the trace signal of the…
Most of the molecules detected thus far in exoplanet atmospheres, such as water and CO, are present for a large range of pressures and temperatures. In contrast, metal hydrides exist in much more specific regimes of parameter space, and so…
Thermal phase curves of short period exoplanets provide the best constraints on the atmospheric dynamics and heat transport in their atmospheres. The published Spitzer Space Telescope phase curve of 55 Cancri e, an ultra-short period…
Over the last decade, precise exoplanet transmission spectroscopy has revealed the atmospheres of dozens of exoplanets, driven largely by observatories like the Hubble Space Telescope. One major discovery has been the ubiquity of…