Light from darkness: understanding extrasolar planets from their shadows

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

This project aims to determine the detailed properties of "sub-Saturn" planets. Theories of planet formation are heavily biased toward explaining our Solar System, which is not representative of the general population of planetary systems in our Galaxy. The vast majority of other planetary systems feature “warm sub-Saturns”: planets of ~10-100 Earth masses orbiting close to their host star. Due to a shortage of well-characterised sub-Saturns, little is known about their composition and detailed properties. This project aims to advance our understanding of planet formation via intensive, dedicated ground-based characterisation of these new planets.