Björn Benneke

TL;DR: A measurement of the transmission spectrum of GJ 1214b at near-infrared wavelengths is reported, sufficiently precise to detect absorption features from a high mean-molecular-mass atmosphere and rule out cloud-free atmospheric models with compositions dominated by water, methane, carbon monoxide, nitrogen or carbon dioxide.

TL;DR: Observations of GJ 436b’s atmosphere obtained during transit indicate that the planet's transmission spectrum is featureless, ruling out cloud-free, hydrogen-dominated atmosphere models with an extremely high significance of 48σ.

TL;DR: Observations of the transmission spectrum of the exoplanet HAT-P-11b from the optical wavelength range to the infrared indicate that the planetary atmosphere is predominantly clear down to an altitude corresponding to about 1 millibar, and sufficiently rich in hydrogen to have a large scale height.

TL;DR: In this article, a chain of models, linking the formation of a planet to its observable present-day spectrum, is presented, including the planet's formation and migration, its long-term thermodynamic evolution, a variety of disk chemistry models, a non-gray atmospheric model, and a radiometric model to obtain simulated spectroscopic observations with James Webb Space Telescope and ARIEL.

TL;DR: A longitudinal thermal brightness map of the nearby transiting super-Earth 55 Cancri e is reported revealing highly asymmetric dayside thermal emission and a strong day–night temperature contrast, consistent with either an optically thick atmosphere with heat recirculation confined to the planetary dayside, or a planet devoid of atmosphere with low-viscosity magma flows at the surface.