We‘re back with #atmospheres and #interiors, kicked off by Stefan Pelletier on a gas giant planet that formed with more ices than rocks.
Stefan reminds us that back in the days we did not think we would be able to understand the composition of stars, but here we are, studying planetary atmospheres. Though forming planets is more complex because so many mechanisms contribute to the end product.
Nowadays, we can point at Jupiter + study its composition, right? No, we only got volatiles! #ExSSV
For forming planets, we‘ve got three components: Gas, volatiles, refractories. Jupiter only got the first two.
This brings us the ultra-hot Jupiter opportunity: our Jupiter is cloudy, while hot Jupiters let us glimpse into Jupiter-atmospheres and search for refractories and volatiles.
Using retrievals, they find that volatiles are super-solar, and the ice to rock ratio is super solar. So where did it form? Two scenarios are consistent, with enriched CO gas or solids #ExSSV
Next up, we‘ve got Louis-Philippe Coulombe talking a reflected light and thermal emission phase curve of an exo-Neptune.
Depending on the wavelength, we probe different chemistry, temperature, etc. regimes in the atmospheres of planets, see eg Jupiter. Often we need to observe at least twice or we just ignore reflected light, BUT #JWST can do both!
They looked at the full phase curve of the planet LTT 9779 b, sitting in the Neptune Desert. 🏜️
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