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Clouds are prevalent in many of the exoplanet atmospheres that have been observed to date. For transiting exoplanets, we know if clouds are present because they mute spectral features and cause wavelength-dependent scattering. While the…
Aerosols is an old topic in the young field of exoplanet atmospheres. Understanding what they are, how they form, and where they go has long provided a fertile playground for theorists. For observers, however, aerosols have been a…
The nature of aerosols in hot exoplanet atmospheres is one of the primary vexing questions facing the exoplanet field. The complex chemistry, multiple formation pathways, and lack of easily identifiable spectral features associated with…
The James Webb Space Telescope will enable astronomers to obtain exoplanet spectra of unprecedented precision. Especially the MIRI instrument may shed light on the nature of the cloud particles obscuring planetary transmission spectra in…
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is expected to revolutionize the field of exoplanets. The broad wavelength coverage and the high sensitivity of its instruments will allow characterization of exoplanetary atmospheres with unprecedented…
Dust clouds are ubiquitous in the atmospheres of hot Jupiters and affect their observable properties. The alignment of dust grains in the clouds and resulting dust polarization is a promising method to study magnetic fields of exoplanets.…
WASP-96b is a hot Saturn exoplanet, with an equilibrium temperature well within the regime of thermodynamically expected extensive cloud formation. Prior observations with Hubble/WFC3, Spitzer/IRAC, and VLT/FORS2 have been combined into a…
Context: Before JWST, telescope observations were not sensitive enough to constrain the nature of clouds in exo-atmospheres. Recent observations, however, have inferred cloud signatures as well as haze-enhanced scattering slopes motivating…
Ultra-hot Jupiters are the hottest exoplanets discovered so far. Observations begin to provide insight into the composition of their extended atmospheres and their chemical day/night asymmetries. Both are strongly affected by cloud…
Isolated planetary-mass objects share their mass range with planets but do not orbit a star. They lack the necessary mass to support fusion in their cores and thermally radiate their heat from formation as they cool, primarily at infrared…
Several studies in the recent past have inferred the existence of thermal inversions in some transiting hot Jupiter atmospheres. Given the limited data available, the inference of a thermal inversion depends critically on the chemical…
Aerosols are capable of having a huge influence on reflected, emitted and transmitted planetary spectra. The Near InfraRed Spectrograph (NIRSpec) using the PRISM mode on board of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is providing valuable…
Near-term studies of Venus-like atmospheres with JWST promise to advance our knowledge of terrestrial planet evolution. However, the remote study of Venus in the Solar System and the ongoing efforts to characterize gaseous exoplanets both…
Producing optimized and accurate transmission spectra of exoplanets from telescope data has traditionally been a manual and labor-intensive procedure. Here we present the results of the first attempt to improve and standardize this…
The discovery of hot Jupiters that orbit very close to their host stars has long challenged traditional models of planetary formation and migration. Characterising their atmospheric composition - mainly in the form of the carbon-to-oxygen…
Clouds are ubiquitous in extrasolar planet atmospheres and are critical to our understanding of planetary climate and chemistry. They also represent one of the greater challenges to overcome when trying to interpret transit transmission…
JWST has shown a large diversity in warm Jupiter spectra, despite only small variations in the planetary parameters. However, the main driver of this diversity remains unclear. We aim to identify the mechanisms responsible for the spectral…
Spectroscopic phase curves of hot Jupiters measure their emission spectra at multiple orbital phases, thus enabling detailed characterisation of their atmospheres. Precise constraints on the atmospheric composition of these exoplanets offer…
JWST will provide moderate resolution transit spectra with continuous wavelength coverage from the optical to the mid-infrared for the first time. In this paper, we illustrate how different aerosol species, size-distributions, and spatial…
A primary objective of exoplanet atmosphere characterisation is to learn about planet formation and evolution, however, this is challenged by degeneracies. To determine whether differences in atmospheric composition can be reliably traced…