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The technique of transmission spectroscopy -- the variation of the planetary radius with wavelength due to opacity sources in the planet's terminator region -- has been to date one of the most successful in the characterization of exoplanet…
The thermal X-ray spectra of several isolated neutron stars display deviations from a pure blackbody. The accurate physical interpretation of these spectral features bears profound implications for our understanding of the atmospheric…
Transit spectroscopy of terrestrial planets around nearby M dwarfs is a primary goal of space missions in coming decades. 3-D climate modeling has shown that slow-synchronous rotating terrestrial planets may develop thick clouds at the…
Studying the atmospheres of exoplanets is one of the most promising ways to learn about distant worlds beyond our solar system. The composition of an exoplanet's atmosphere can provide critical insights into its geology and potential…
Transmission spectroscopy probes exoplanet atmospheres via the wavelength dependence of transit depths, but stellar contamination from magnetic activity can significantly bias these measurements. Activity-induced changes in the chromatic…
The structure and composition of simple ices can be modified during stellar evolution by protostellar heating. Key to understanding the involved processes are thermal and chemical tracers that can diagnose the history and environment of the…
Transit spectroscopy is a powerful tool for probing atmospheric structures of exoplanets. Accurately accounting for the effects of aerosols is key to reconstructing atmospheric properties from transit spectra, yet this remains a significant…
Previous estimates of the annual mean surface temperature of Jupiter's moon, Europa, neglected the effect of the eccentricity of Jupiter's orbit around the Sun, the effect of the emissivity and heat capacity of Europa's ice, the effect of…
We present JWST spectral and photometric observations of the Type IIP supernova (SN) 2022acko at ~50 days past explosion. These data are the first JWST spectral observations of a core-collapse SN. We identify ~30 different H I features,…
(Abridged) Rotational H$_2$O spectra as observed with JWST/MIRI provide a good probe of the temperature and column density structure of the inner disk. H$_2$O emission can also be influenced by dynamical processes, such as dust grains…
We report the first fully sampled maps of the distribution of interstellar CO2 ices, H2O ices and total hydrogen nuclei, as inferred from the 9.7 micron silicate feature, toward the star-forming region Cepheus A East with the IRS instrument…
Recent JWST observations with NIRCam and MIRI of the ultra-short-period super-Earth 55 Cancri e indicate a possible volatile atmosphere surrounding the planet. Previous analysis of the NIRCam spectra suggested potential absorption features…
IRTF/SpeX observations of Pluto's near-infrared reflectance spectrum during 2013 show vibrational absorption features of CO and N$_2$ ices at 1.58 and 2.15 {\mu}m, respectively, that are weaker than had been observed during the preceding…
Models of the escape and retention of volatiles by minor icy objects exclude any presence of volatile ices on the surface of TNOs smaller than ~1000km in diameter at the typical temperature in this region of the solar system, whereas the…
Reflection spectroscopy holds great promise for characterizing the atmospheres and surfaces of potentially habitable terrestrial exoplanets. The surface of the modern Earth exhibits a sharp albedo change near 750 nm caused by vegetation -…
Photosynthetic eukaryotes show a remarkable variability in photosynthesis, including large differences in light harvesting proteins and pigment composition. In vivo circular spectropolarimetry enables us to probe the molecular architecture…
We examine high spatial resolution Galileo/NIMS observations of the young (~1 My - 20 My) impact features, Pwyll and Manann\'{a}n craters, on Europa's trailing hemisphere in an effort to constrain irradiation timescales. We characterize…
(Abridged) We show that sizeable fractions of incident ionizing radiation from stochastic astrophysical sources can be redistributed to biologically and chemically important UV wavelengths, a significant fraction of which can reach the…
Carbon dioxide is one of the three most abundant species within the ice mantles around dust grains inside molecular clouds. Since a substantial amount of interstellar grains is made of siliceous materials, we have studied the infrared…
Unmixing the disk-integrated spectra of exoplanets provides hints about heterogeneous surfaces that we cannot directly resolve in the foreseeable future. It is particularly important for terrestrial planets with diverse surface compositions…