Speaker
Description
The ensemble of the more than 6000 known extrasolar planets in our
galaxy exhibits a diversity of objects unseen in our solar
system. Exoplanet research has therefore turned from discovering such
planets outside the solar system to characterizing these objects that
orbit stars other than the Sun. Recent progress in characterizing
exoplanets with the CHEOPS, TESS, and JWST space telescopes has
demonstrated that extrasolar gas giants exhibit climate regimes
ranging from ultra-hot to rather cold. Ultra-hot Jupiters (like
WASP-18b and Kelt-7b) exhibit enormous day-nigh temperature different
of more than 2000K. Strong eastward wind jets therefore transport hot
gases from the dayside to the nightside where mineral cloud particles
form.
The resulting chemical asymmetries are observable with space
telescopes like JWST but also PLATO in the future and may be used to
characterize exoplanet climate regimes. In order to physically
interpret such complex atmosphere behavior, our research group has
build virtual laboratories that enable us to predict temperature,
velocity, cloud and chemistry maps for planets orbiting different host
stars. Such virtual laboratories that describe and explore the
atmosphere structure and cloud formation allow us detailed studies of
specific planets (e.g. the JWST target WASP-39b) as well as ensemble
studies, for example, in preparation of observational campaigns.
This talk will present some of our most resent works on exoplanet
climate characterisation.