Revealing the Nature, Diversity, and Formation of Super-Earth Exoplanets

未来五年是行星天体物理学史上独一无二的机会。我们第一次拥有了观测技术、理论模型和足够数量的已知系外行星，这些系外行星围绕着附近的恒星运行，可以从光谱上描述各种各样的行星——从炽热的巨行星到位于其主恒星宜居带的温带地球大小的行星。我的团队目前处于一个独特的位置，可以在这个快速发展的系外行星表征领域取得下一个重大飞跃，因为我最近开发了一种新的理论建模技术来解释系外行星的光谱观测（Benneke 2016），我获得了几个前所未有的观测项目，使用哈勃太空望远镜（334小时），斯皮策太空望远镜（217小时），以及凯克天文台（11个晚上）来获得这一特征的必要数据。得益于这一独特的起始位置，我将在蒙特里萨大学建立一个研究小组，该小组将成为研究系外行星大气特征的全球领先小组之一。我近期工作的重点将是：

The next five years present a truly unique opportunity in the history of planetary astrophysics. For the first time, we have the observational techniques, the theoretical models, and a sufficient number of known exoplanets orbiting nearby stars to spectroscopically characterize a wide diversity of planets—ranging from hot giant planets to temperate Earth-sized planets in the habitable zone of their host stars. My group is currently in a unique position to make the next big leaps in this rapidly growing field of exoplanet characterization because I recently developed a novel theoretical modeling technique to interpret spectroscopic observations of exoplanets (Benneke 2016) and I was awarded several unprecedented observational programs using the Hubble Space Telescope (334 hours), the Spitzer Space Telescope (217 hours), and the Keck observatories (11 nights) to obtain the necessary data for this characterization. Benefitting from this unique starting position, I will establish a research group at Université de Montréal that will be among the worldwide leading groups in the characterization of exoplanet atmospheres. Highlights of my near-term work will be: