Related papers: Early-time small-scale structures in hot-exoplanet…
The discovery of Jupiter-mass planets in close orbits about their parent stars has challenged models of planet formation. Recent observations have shown that a number of these planets have highly inclined, sometimes retrograde orbits about…
We present a time-dependent radiative model for the atmosphere of extrasolar planets that takes into account the eccentricity of their orbit. In addition to the modulation of stellar irradiation by the varying planet-star distance, the…
Recent discoveries of extrasolar planets at small orbital radii, or with significant eccentricities, indicate that interactions between massive planets and the disks of gas and dust from which they formed are vital for determining the final…
The dynamical structure of the Solar System can be explained by a period of orbital instability experienced by the giant planets. While a late instability was originally proposed to explain the Late Heavy Bombardment, recent work favors an…
Recent observations have revealed the presence of a variety of small-scale ``micro-structures'' in Planetary Nebulae images. I discuss numerical hydrodynamics models of planetaries and outline the formation and growth of instabilities that…
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…
Planets lose mass to atmospheric outflows, and this mass loss is thought to be central in shaping the bimodal population of gaseous giant and rocky terrestrial exoplanets in close orbits. We model the escape of planetary atmospheres in…
We extend the description of equivalent-barotropic equations for exoplanets to the diabatic case -- that is, with explicit heating and/or cooling representation, rather than with a stationary deflection of the bottom bounding surface. In…
With a series of numerical simulations, we analyze the thermo-hydrodynamical evolution of circumstellar disks containing Jupiter-size protoplanets. In the framework of the two-dimensional approximation, we consider an energy equation that…
We present results from an atmospheric circulation study of nine hot Jupiters that comprise a large transmission spectral survey using the Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes. These observations exhibit a range of spectral behavior over…
The observation of gaseous giant planets is of high scientific interest. Although they have been the targets of several spacecraft missions, there still remains a need for continuous ground-based observations. As their atmospheres present…
Here we discuss the current state of knowledge on how atmospheric escape processes can fractionate noble gas isotopes and moderately volatile rock-forming elements that populate primordial atmospheres, magma ocean related environments, and…
Extreme weather is one of the main mechanisms through which climate change will directly impact human society. Coping with such change as a global community requires markedly improved understanding of how global warming drives extreme…
The results of large-scale exoplanet transit surveys indicate that the distribution of small planet radii is likely sculpted by atmospheric loss. Several possible physical mechanisms exist for this loss of primordial atmospheres, each of…
We explore the role of dynamics in shaping planetary system multiplicities, focussing on two particular problems. (1) We propose that the lack of close-in super-Earths in hot Jupiter systems is a signature of the migration history of the…
Hot Jupiters receive intense incident stellar light on their daysides, which drives vigorous atmospheric circulation that attempts to erase their large dayside-to-nightside flux contrasts. Propagating waves and instabilities in hot Jupiter…
Both simulations and observations indicate that stars form in filamentary, hierarchically clustered associations, most of which disperse into their galactic field once feedback destroys their parent clouds. However, during their early…
Although current sensitivity limits are such that true Solar System analogs remain challenging to detect, numerous planetary systems have been discovered that are very different from our own Solar System. The majority of systems harbor a…
In the early universe, substantial relative "stream" velocities between the gas and dark matter arise due to radiation pressure and persist after recombination. To asses the impact of these velocities on high-redshift structure formation,…
The relationship between vortex flows at different spatial scales and their contribution to the energy balance in the chromosphere is not yet fully understood. We perform three-dimensional (3D) radiation-magnetohydrodynamic (MHD)…