Related papers: A secondary atmosphere on the rocky exoplanet 55 C…
Long-period transiting exoplanets provide an opportunity to study the mass-radius relation and internal structure of extrasolar planets. Their studies grant insights into planetary evolution akin to the Solar System planets, which, in…
The aim of our study is to explore the possible existence of Earth-mass planets in the habitable zone of 55~Cancri, an effort pursued based on detailed orbital stability simulations. This star is known to possess (at least) five planets…
The characterization of exoplanets relies on that of their host star. However, stellar evolution models cannot always be used to derive the mass and radius of individual stars, because many stellar internal parameters are poorly…
Phase curves and secondary eclipses of gaseous exoplanets are diagnostic of atmospheric composition and meteorology, and the long observational baseline and high photometric precision from the Kepler Mission make its dataset well-suited for…
We demonstrate the effectiveness of the Exoplanet Characterisation Observatory mission concept for constraining the atmospheric properties of hot and warm gas giants and super Earths. Synthetic primary and secondary transit spectra for a…
One of the outstanding goals of the planetary science community is to measure the present-day atmospheric composition of planets and link this back to formation. As giant planets are formed by accreting gas, ices, and rocks, constraining…
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…
Recent advances in space and ground-based facilities now enable atmospheric characterization of a selected sample of rocky exoplanets. These atmospheres offer key insights into planetary formation and evolution, but their interpretation…
Infrared radiation emitted from a planet contains information about the chemical composition and vertical temperature profile of its atmosphere. If upper layers are cooler than lower layers, molecular gases will produce absorption features…
Helium is the second-most abundant element in the Universe after hydrogen and is one of the main constituents of gas-giant planets in our Solar System. Early theoretical models predicted helium to be among the most readily detectable…
We report 18 years of Doppler shift measurements of a nearby star, 55 Cancri, that exhibit strong evidence for five orbiting planets. The four previously reported planets are strongly confirmed here. A fifth planet is presented, with an…
We provide estimates of atmospheric pressure and surface composition on short-period rocky exoplanets with dayside magma pools and silicate vapor atmospheres. Atmospheric pressure tends toward vapor-pressure equilibrium with surface magma,…
Recent studies regarding the habitability, observability, and possible orbital evolution of the indirectly detected exoplanet Proxima b have mostly assumed a planet with $M \sim 1.3$ $M_\oplus$, a rocky composition, and an Earth-like…
Detecting and characterizing the atmospheres of rocky exoplanets has proven to be challenging for JWST. Transit spectroscopy of the TRAPPIST-1 planets has been impacted by the effects of spots and faculae on the host star. Secondary…
Terrestrial exoplanets orbiting nearby small, cool stars known as M dwarfs are well suited for atmospheric characterisation. Given the strong XUV irradiation from M dwarf host stars, orbiting exoplanets are thought to be unable to retain…
Exoplanets on eccentric orbits experience an incident stellar flux that can be markedly larger at periastron versus apoastron. This variation in instellation can lead to dramatic changes in atmospheric structure in regions of the atmosphere…
The increasing numbers of rocky, terrestrial exoplanets known to orbit nearby stars (especially M dwarfs) has drawn increased attention to the possibility of studying these planets' surface properties, and atmospheric compositions & escape…
Detection of an atmosphere around a terrestrial exoplanet will be a major milestone in the field, but our observational capacities are biased towards to tidally locked, close-in planets orbiting M-dwarf stars. The atmospheres of these…
Planets reflect and linearly polarize the radiation that they receive from their host stars. The emergent polarization is sensitive to aspects of the planet atmosphere such as the gas composition and the occurrence of condensates and their…
Exoplanets that orbit close to their host stars are much more highly irradiated than their Solar System counterparts. Understanding the thermal structures and appearances of these planets requires investigating how their atmospheres respond…