Exoplanets & Exomoons

Highlights in the Study of Exoplanet Atmospheres

By Keith Cowing
astro-ph.EP
September 29, 2014
Filed under
Highlights in the Study of Exoplanet Atmospheres

Exoplanets are now being discovered in profusion. However, to understand their character requires spectral models and data.

These elements of remote sensing can yield temperatures, compositions, and even weather patterns, but only if significant improvements in both the parameter retrieval process and measurements are achieved. Despite heroic efforts to garner constraining data on exoplanet atmospheres and dynamics, reliable interpretation has oftimes lagged ambition. I summarize the most productive, and at times novel, methods employed to probe exoplanet atmospheres, highlight some of the most interesting results obtained, and suggest various broad theoretical topics in which further work could pay significant dividends.

Adam Burrows (Submitted on 25 Sep 2014)

Comments: Published in Nature, September 18, 2014, as an Insight Review Subjects:

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP)

Journal reference: Nature, 513, pp. 345-352, 2014 Cite as: arXiv:1409.7320 (or arXiv:1409.7320v1 [astro-ph.EP] for this version)

Submission history From: Adam Burrows [view email] [v1] Thu, 25 Sep 2014 16:37:22 GMT (6651kb http://arxiv.org/abs/1409.7320

Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Station Payload manager/space biologist, Away Teams, Journalist, Lapsed climber, Synaesthete, Na’Vi-Jedi-Freman-Buddhist-mix, ASL, Devon Island and Everest Base Camp veteran, (he/him) 🖖🏻