Related papers: Eclipse Mapping with Ariel: Future Prospects for a…
(abridged) A complete census of planetary systems around a volume-limited sample of solar-type stars (FGK dwarfs) in the Solar neighborhood with uniform sensitivity down to Earth-mass planets within their Habitable Zones out to several AUs…
We advocate for further prioritisation of atmospheric characterisation observations of high mass transiting exoplanets and brown dwarfs. This population acts as a unique comparative sample to the directly imaged exoplanet and brown dwarf…
The detection and characterisation of extra-solar planets is a major theme driving modern astronomy, with the vast majority of such measurements being achieved by Doppler radial-velocity and transit observations. Another technique -- direct…
Recent analysis of the planet K2-18b has shown the presence of water vapour in its atmosphere. While the H2O detection is significant, the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) WFC3 spectrum suggests three possible solutions of very different nature…
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is nearing its launch date of 2018, and will undoubtedly revolutionize our knowledge of exoplanet atmospheres. While several studies have explored what the limits of the telescope will be in terms of…
A new generation of telescopes with mirror diameters of 20 m or more, called extremely large telescopes (ELTs) has the potential to provide unprecedented imaging and spectroscopy of exo-planetary systems, if the difficulties in achieving…
In this white paper, we assess the potential for JWST to characterize the atmospheres of super-Earth exoplanets, by simulating a range of transiting spectra with different masses and temperatures. Our results are based on a JWST simulator…
We present an approach for utilizing astrometric orbit information to improve the yield of planetary images and spectra from a follow-on direct detection mission. This approach is based on the notion-strictly hypothetical-that if a…
The study of extrasolar planets and of the Solar System provides complementary pieces of the mosaic represented by the process of planetary formation. Exoplanets are essential to fully grasp the huge diversity of outcomes that planetary…
EAGLE is a Phase A study of a multi-IFU, near-IR spectrometer for the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT). The design employs wide-field adaptive optics to deliver excellent image quality across a large (38.5 arcmin sq.) field. When…
With a scheduled launch in October 2018, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is expected to revolutionise the field of atmospheric characterization of exoplanets. The broad wavelength coverage and high sensitivity of its instruments will…
Exoplanet science is one of the most thriving fields of modern astrophysics. A major goal is the atmospheric characterization of dozens of small, terrestrial exoplanets in order to search for signatures in their atmospheres that indicate…
A key goal of exoplanet spectroscopy is to measure atmospheric properties, such as abundances of chemical species, in order to connect them to our understanding of atmospheric physics and planet formation. In this new era of high-quality…
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 goal of this white paper is to provide a snapshot of the data availability and data needs primarily for the Ariel space mission, but also for related atmospheric studies of exoplanets and brown dwarfs. It covers the following…
Using 2D thermal structure models and pseudo-2D chemical kinetics models, we explore how atmospheric temperatures and composition change as a function of altitude and longitude within the equatorial regions of close-in transiting…
One of the forefront goals in the field of exoplanets is the detection of an atmosphere on a temperate terrestrial exoplanet, and among the best suited systems to do so is TRAPPIST-1. However, JWST transit observations of the TRAPPIST-1…
The transmission spectra of exoplanet atmospheres observed with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) in the near-infrared range (1.1-1.65$\mu$m) frequently show evidence for some combination of clouds and hazes. Identification of systematic…
The Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey mission (ARIEL) is one of the three present candidates for the ESA M4 (the fourth medium mission) launch opportunity. The proposed Payload will perform a large unbiased…
Previous generation of instruments have the opportunity to discover thousands of extra-solar planets and more will come with the current and future planet-search missions. In order to go one step further in the characterization of…