PHYS/ASTR Colloquium: "Eccentric Hot Jupiters as Dynamic Laboratories" - Dr. James Sikora (Postdoc, Lowell Observatory)

San Francisco State University

Physics & Astronomy Colloquium Series

Monday, March 11, 2024

Thornton Hall 411, 3:30 PM

Speaker: Dr. James Sikora (Postdoc, Lowell Observatory)
Host: Prof. John Brewer

Title: Eccentric Hot Jupiters as Dynamic Laboratories

Abstract: 

The known population of hot Jupiters are highly diverse with atmospheres that differ in remarkable ways from Jupiter itself. One of the key factors driving this diversity is the amount of radiation these planets receive from their host stars. Indeed, recent population studies of hot and ultra-hot Jupiters have revealed how incident flux correlates with the appearance or absence of certain spectral features thereby providing important insights into the overall structure and chemistry within these planetary atmospheres. One complementary approach to understanding these trends involves observing hot Jupiters with high eccentricities due to the fact that their atmospheres can undergo dramatic temperature changes during a single orbit. In this talk, I will discuss what can be gained from roasting a planet and how we are currently able to observe such events using JWST and high-resolution spectroscopic instruments such as EXPRES.