Exoplanet Clouds

Christiane Helling (Centre for Exoplanet Science, University of St Andrews)

(Submitted on 10 Dec 2018)

Clouds also form in atmospheres of planets that orbit other stars than our Sun, in so-called extrasolar planets or exoplanets. Exoplanet atmospheres can be chemically extremely rich. Exoplanet clouds are therefor made of a mix of materials that changes throughout the atmosphere. They affect the atmospheres through element depletion and through absorption and scattering, hence, they have a profound impact on the atmosphere’s energy budget. While astronomical observations point us to the presence of extrasolar clouds and make first suggestions on particle sizes and material compositions, we require fundamental and complex modelling work to merge the individual observations into a coherent picture. Part of this is to develop an understanding for cloud formation in non-terrestrial environments.

Comments: Review paper for Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences (26 pages), accepted for publication

Subjects: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP); Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR)

Cite as: arXiv:1812.03793 [astro-ph.EP] (or arXiv:1812.03793v1 [astro-ph.EP] for this version)

Submission history

From: Christiane Helling 

[v1] Mon, 10 Dec 2018 13:45:44 UTC (3,012 KB)

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https://arxiv.org/abs/1812.03793

Astrobiology