Related papers: Plan 9: Detecting Atmospheric Deterrence Against I…
We use a model of aerosol microphysics to investigate the impact of high-altitude photochemical aerosols on the transmission spectra and atmospheric properties of close-in exoplanets, such as HD209458b and HD189733b. The results depend…
Spectral retrieval has long been a powerful tool for interpreting planetary remote sensing observations. Flexible, parameterised, agnostic models are coupled with inversion algorithms in order to infer atmospheric properties directly from…
We propose to search for biosignatures in the spectra of reflected light from about 100 Earth-sized planets that are already known to be orbiting in their habitable zones (HZ). For a sample of G and K type hosts, most of these planets will…
Theoretical arguments and observations suggest that the atmospheres of Brown Dwarfs and planets are very dynamic on chemical and on physical time scales. The modelling of such substellar atmospheres has, hence, been much more demanding than…
The atmospheres of exoplanets reveal all their properties beyond mass, radius, and orbit. Based on bulk densities, we know that exoplanets larger than 1.5 Earth radii must have gaseous envelopes, hence atmospheres. We discuss contemporary…
Of the 342 planets discovered so far orbiting other stars, 58 "transit" the stellar disk, meaning that they can be detected by a periodic decrease in the starlight flux. The light from the star passes through the atmosphere of the planet,…
Interstellar antiproton fluxes can arise from dark matter annihilating or decaying into quarks or gluons that subsequently fragment into antiprotons. Evaporation of primordial black holes also can produce a significant antiproton cosmic-ray…
Ultraviolet spectra of stars recorded by orbiting observatories since the 1970's have revealed absorption features produced by atoms in their favored ionization stages in the neutral ISM of our Galaxy. Most elements show abundances relative…
Being able to accurately estimate stellar parameters based on spectral observations is important not only for understanding the stars themselves but it is also vital for the determination of exoplanet parameters. M dwarfs are discussed as…
The spectra of exoplanet atmospheres are affected by aerosols (clouds and hazes) of uncertain origin. Proposed aerosol formation mechanisms include gas condensation or photochemical reactions. We measure the transmission spectrum of the…
Currently, there are about 3 dozen known super-Earth (M < 10 MEarth), of which 8 are transiting planets suitable for atmospheric follow-up observations. Some of the planets are exposed to extreme temperatures as they orbit close to their…
Detecting dark matter as it streams through detectors on Earth relies on knowledge of its phase space density on a scale comparable to the size of our solar system. Numerical simulations predict that our Galactic halo contains an enormous…
One of the promising methods to search for life on extra-solar planets (exoplanets) is to detect life's signatures in their atmospheres. Spectra of exoplanet atmospheres at the modest resolution needed to search for oxygen, carbon dioxide,…
Thousands of exoplanets orbit nearby stars, showcasing a remarkable diversity in mass, size, and orbits. With the James Webb Space Telescope now operational, we are observing exoplanet atmospheres and aiming to reach down to small,…
Technological progress related to astronomical observatories such as the recently launched James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) allows searching for signs of life beyond our Solar System, namely in the form of unambiguous biosignature gases in…
We have entered the phase of extrasolar planets characterization, probing their atmospheres for molecules, constraining their horizontal and vertical temperature profiles and estimating the contribution of clouds and hazes. We report here a…
Lightning has been suggested to play a role in triggering the occurrence of bio-ready chemical species. Future missions (PLATO, ARIEL, HWO, LIFE) and ground-based ELTs will investigate the atmospheres of potentially habitable exoplanets. We…
The characterization of the atmospheres of habitable-zone Earth-mass exoplanets that transit across main-sequence stars, let alone the detection of bio-markers in their atmospheres, will be challenging even with future facilities. It has…
We are investigating the possible origin of small-scale anomalies, like the annual stratospheric temperature anomalies. Unexpectedly within known physics, their observed planetary "dependency", does not match concurrent solar activity,…
In a companion paper, we introduced a publicly-available pipeline to characterise exoplanet atmospheres through high-resolution spectroscopy. In this paper, we use this pipeline to study the biases and degeneracies that arise in atmospheric…