Icy Planets, Windswept Worlds: Into a New Era of Exoplanet Characterization with JWST

Speaker: Caroline Morley (University of Texas) In Person and zoom

Zoom Recording Passcode: D=6ztoX$

We stand at an incredible time in exoplanet science, about to characterize worlds outside the solar system in great detail. The exquisite capabilities of JWST allow us to see the atmospheres of planets from super-Jupiters to sub-Neptunes to Earths. I will discuss two aspects of exoplanet atmosphere science as it stands in 2024, as we watch this revolution unfold. First, I’ll discuss our path to observing true Jupiter analogs, which takes us through observations of the coldest brown dwarfs and directly-imaged planets. I’ll highlight some discoveries from the first cycle of JWST observations of cold brown dwarfs, including detections of deuterium and possible aurorae. Next, I’ll discuss how atmosphere loss may be sculpting the atmospheres of planets both large and small, with huge implications for the next five years of studying Earth-sized planets with JWST.