Atmospheres and Interiors of Extrasolar Planets

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• Nikku Madhusudhan, Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge
• Tuesday 03 December 2013, 16:30-17:30
• Harker 1 seminar room, Department of Earth Sciences.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact John Maclennan.

Recent advances in exoplanet observations and theoretical methods are leading to unprecedented constraints on the physicochemical properties of exoplanetary atmospheres, interiors, and their formation conditions. In this talk, I will present some of the latest results in this emerging frontier. I will present constraints on the atmospheric chemical compositions and temperature profiles for a variety of exoplanets based on infrared observations from a wide range of facilities including HST , Spitzer, and ground-based telescopes. I will discuss how these constraints are being used to understand various equilibrium and non-equilibrium processes in exoplanetary atmospheres, to develop new classification schemes for exoplanets, and to understand the conditions of their formation and subsequent evolution. I will also present the latest constraints emerging on the atmospheres, interior structures, and formation environments of super-Earths, whose interior compositions span a wide gamut – from water worlds with thick volatile envelopes to super-Mercuries, lava planets, and carbon planets – thereby testing the limits of our understanding of planetary mineralogies and their equations of state under exotic astrophysical conditions. The exciting future prospects for characterizing exoplanets using current, upcoming, and future observational facilities will be discussed, along with several open questions of fundamental nature in the field.

This talk is part of the Department of Earth Sciences Seminars (downtown) series.

This talk is included in these lists:

• Department of Earth Sciences Seminars (downtown)
• Department of Earth Sciences seminars
• Harker 1 seminar room, Department of Earth Sciences
• ps635

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