Preview
Publication Date
2019
Abstract
Since the first exoplanet was discovered decades ago, there has been a rapid evolution of the study of planets found beyond our solar system. A considerable amount of data has been collected on the nearly 3,838 confirmed exoplanets found to date. Recent findings regarding transmission spectroscopy, a method measuring a planet’s upper atmosphere to determine its composition, have been published on a limited number of exoplanets. The aim of our work is to gather existing data on atmospheric planetary composition and search for potential trends in relation to the exoplanets’ orbital and physical properties. Due to their short periods and thicker atmospheres, hot Jupiter type planets have been our first target population. Out of 78 cases with periods shorter than 3 Earth days and radius larger than 1 Rj (Jupiter radius), we found previously-published data on the atmospheres of 15 hot Jupiters. Only 8 cases had an overlapping wavelength range that allowed comparisons: 4800 - 9000 Angstroms, and within that range only one exoplanet shows absorption in their atmospheric data. We report our findings on this set, which will be publicly available on the Habitable Zone Gallery, and our future work plans for expanding the dataset.
Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) Scholarship
1
Recognition
NSF Grant Award Number: 1826490