Seminars

Astronomy seminar via zoom: Observing planetary atmosphere at high spectral resolution. The path from Hot Jupiters to biomarkers.

With over 4000 confirmed planets, one of the main goals of exoplanets research is the detailed characterization of the most accessible planetary systems, including the bulk atmospheric composition of their atmospheres. Space and ground-based planet searches are concentrating on finding the brighter and closer stars to us hosting exoplanets. Most of the atmospheric characterization so far has been carried out using space facilities such as HST, Spitzer and soon JWST and Ariel. However, ground-based instrumentation, particularly using high-dispersion spectrographs, is quickly becoming a powerful tool to perform transmission spectroscopy and cross-correlation studies in search for molecular, atomic or ionized species signatures in planetary atmospheres. Here I will review the major achievements in planetary atmospheric characterization using these techniques, including the latest highlights from instruments such as CARMENES and ESPRESSO. Finally I will discuss the potential discovery space for this type of techniques (including biomarker detection) when similar instrumentation is available at the Extremely Large Telescope facilities currently under construction.