Exoplanets, -moons, -comets

Exoplanet Atmospheres And Demographics In The 2040s

By Keith Cowing

Status Report

astro-ph.IM

January 21, 2026

Filed under astronomy, Biosignatures, ESO Expanding Horizons initiative, exoplanet, Gaia mission, Stellar Cartography, telescope

Exoplanet Atmospheres And Demographics In The 2040s — Currently known exoplanet population color-coded by detection technique in the companion mass vs. semi-major axis plane. The detection limits of various facilities are overlaid with solid lines. The boundary between giant planets and brown dwarfs is highlighted by a dotted red line and the boundary between brown dwarfs and stars is highlighted by a dashed red line. VLTI+ is an upgraded VLTI and KPI stands for Kilometric Baseline Interferometry. — astro-ph.IM

Direct observations of exoplanets probe the demographics and atmospheric composition of young self-luminous companions, yielding insight into their formation and early evolution history.

In the near future, Gaia will reveal hundreds of nearby young exoplanets amenable to direct follow-up observations. Long-baseline interferometry with current and future facilities is best capable of exploiting this unique synergy which is poised to deliver a statistical sample of benchmark planets with precise dynamical masses and in-depth atmospheric characterization.

This will enable tackling the longstanding question of how giant planets form from multiple angles simultaneously, shining light on the complex physical processes underlying planet formation.

Jens Kammerer, Sydney Vach, Sylvestre Lacour, Mathias Nowak, Thomas Winterhalder, Antoine Mérand, Akke Corporaal, Guillaume Bourdarot, Stefan Kraus, Sasha Hinkley

Comments: Submitted as science white paper to ESO Expanding Horizons call
Subjects: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM); Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP)
Cite as: arXiv:2601.11695 [astro-ph.IM] (or arXiv:2601.11695v1 [astro-ph.IM] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2601.11695
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Submission history
From: Jens Kammerer
[v1] Fri, 16 Jan 2026 17:49:11 UTC (475 KB)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.11695
Astrobiology, Astronomy, Exoplanet,

Keith Cowing

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) 🖖🏻

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