Highlights in the Study of Exoplanet Atmospheres

Abstract

Exoplanets are now being discovered in profusion. However, to understand their character requires spectral models and data. These elements of remote sensing can yield temperatures, compositions, and even weather patterns, but only if significant improvements in both the parameter retrieval process and measurements are achieved. Despite heroic efforts to garner constraining data on exoplanet atmospheres and dynamics, reliable interpretation has oftimes lagged ambition. I summarize the most productive, and at times novel, methods employed to probe exoplanet atmospheres, highlight some of the most interesting results obtained, and suggest various broad theoretical topics in which further work could pay significant dividends.

arXiv commentPublished in Nature, September 18, 2014, as an Insight Review

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