CLEVER Planets Spring 2022 Seminar Series: Emily Rauscher (11/01/2022)
Channel: CLEVER Planets
Date: 2022-11-30

CLEVER Planets (https://cleverplanets.org/) is an interdisciplinary, multi-institutional research initiative to unravel the conditions of planetary habitability in the Solar System and other exoplanetary systems.  Its lead institution is Rice university, and it is one of the teams in the Nexus of Exoplanetary Systems Science (NExSS), a NASA research coordination network dedicated to the study of planetary habitability.

During the fall semester of 2022, CLEVER Planets hosts a bi-weekly seminar series. Throughout the seminars, broad topics of planetary habitability will be addressed, that utilize expertise in astrophysics, geochemistry, petrology, geodynamics, geophysics, and related disciplines.

The fourth seminar of this series was held on November 1st by Pr. Emily Rauscher from University of Michigan on the following topic:

Pushing the Boundaries of Exoplanet Atmospheric Characterization 
PUSHING THE BOUNDARIES OF EXOPLANET ATMOSPHERIC CHARACTERIZATION

Abstract: It has been two decades since the first exoplanet atmosphere was detected and in the intervening years multiple methods have been developed to measure exoplanet atmospheric properties. Many of these techniques are complementary, constraining different physical properties or regions of the planet’s atmosphere, and in combination they can give us access to increasingly detailed atmospheric information. In this talk I will focus on two cutting-edge methods for atmospheric characterization: spectral eclipse mapping (from space-based instruments such as JWST) and high-resolution cross-correlation spectroscopy (from ground-based instruments, including future Extremely Large Telescopes). I will explain each technique and the insights they give into atmospheric physics. I will discuss the current state of atmospheric characterization and its future trajectory. While there is certainly a limit to how well we will ever be able to measure exoplanet atmospheres, we do not know where that limit is yet and are working to push it as far as we can.