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VERSION:2.0
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
PRODID:UW-Madison-Physics-Events
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SEQUENCE:0
UID:UW-Physics-Event-8521
DTSTART:20231207T213000Z
DTEND:20231207T223000Z
DTSTAMP:20260414T025943Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20231128T133909Z
LOCATION:4421 Sterling Hall
SUMMARY:Decoding Exoplanet Atmospheres: The Revolutionary Role of JWST
 \, Astronomy Colloquium\, Luis Welbanks\, Arizona State University
DESCRIPTION:The 2020s and beyond will be the era of spectroscopy of ex
 oplanet atmospheres. In just 2 years\, our field has made dramatic adv
 ancements\, moving from having very limited wavelength coverage and pr
 ecision data from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST)\, to having high-pr
 ecision spectroscopy over a wide wavelength range (~0.4 to 20μm) with
  the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). These exquisite observations c
 ome with the opportunity to perform detailed reconnaissance of exoplan
 et atmospheres\, explore their chemical and physical properties\, and 
 perform population-level studies to test our hypotheses for planet for
 mation and evolution.<br>\n<br>\nIn this talk\, I will share with you 
 the advancements ushered by the era of JWST\, allowing us to answer no
 t only what exoplanet atmospheres are made of\, but also which data dr
 ive our inferences and how reliable these inferences are. I will prese
 nt the results from several programs with JWST. In these programs\, we
  detect and constrain several chemical species that were previously el
 usive in exoplanetary atmospheres\, including methane (CH4)\, ammonia 
 (NH3)\, sulfur dioxide (SO2)\, carbon monoxide (CO)\, and carbon dioxi
 de (CO2)\, alongside several precise water (H2O) measurements. The atm
 ospheric retrievals performed on these data provide insights into the 
 dynamics\, chemistry\, and climatic conditions of these distant worlds
 \, as well as their metallicities. They also provide the relative elem
 ental ratios (C/O\, N/O\, N/S) necessary to better understand the form
 ation and evolution pathways of planetary systems.<br>\n<br>\nI will p
 resent our progress in robustly and accurately processing JWST Time-Se
 ries Observations data. Additionally\, I'll discuss modeling advanceme
 nts and our methods for reliably inferring the complete chemical inven
 tory of our diverse exoplanet sample. Our findings underscore the tran
 sformative power of JWST and pave the way for future\, in-depth atmosp
 heric investigations of a larger exoplanet population.
URL:https://www.physics.wisc.edu/events/?id=8521
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