James Webb Space Telescope Feed Post

Harvard ADS: Exoplanet atmospheres in the JWST era

Paper abstract: An exoplanet's overall composition is presumably determined by its formation, accretion, and migration history. Observing a planet's atmosphere provides the best hope for distinguishing the makeup of its outer layers, and the only hope for understanding the interplay between initial composition and present-day chemistry, dynamics and circulation, and disequilibrium processes. Interpretation of a planet's spectrum is far easier when the planet has a known mass and radius. JWST is now the world-leading facility for exoplanet atmospheric characterization, and offers one of the most promising avenues for revealing the exoplanet atmospheric compositions. Although numerous atmospheres have been probed by HST and ground-based observations, a major breakthrough is underway thanks to the increased sensitivity and wavelength coverage of JWST. This talk will review recent results and open questions in the field of exoplanet atmospheres, with a particular focus on JWST's latest discoveries and how these are complemented by ongoing TESS observations.