ITC Colloquium
Date and Time
Location
ITC Colloquium– James Owen
Thursday, November 14, 2024
11 AM
Phillips and streamed: https://youtube.com/live/MpB1T99AaoQ
"Does exoplanet atmospheric composition actually trace formation"
"When, where and how planets acquire their mass is poorly understood, and many planet formation theories have failed when tested against the exoplanet population. One hope has been that by measuring an exoplanet atmosphere's composition, one could compare these results against models for the composition of protoplanetary discs, learning where in the disc they acquired their mass, and the relative fraction of solids to gas the planet accreted. However, models of the disc's composition are equally uncertain, meaning its impossible to do this for single planets. I will show that by comparing carefully selected populations of planets, which have dynamical evidence for different formation and migration pathways one can test the hypothesis that atmospheric composition actually traces formation. I will conclude by showing the first results from the JWST BOWIE-ALIGN survey, which aimed to compare the atmospheric composition of different hot Jupiter populations, testing whether atmospheric composition actually traces formation. "