Planetary Science Seminar spring-2018

The field of exoplanet atmospheres has advanced steadily over the past ~15 years due to the interplay of observations and modeling. Although typically hampered by telescope instrumentation that was never designed to study exoplanet spectra, the broad outlines of the atmospheres of Jupiter-class, Neptune-class, and sub-Neptune-class planets are starting to come into focus. I will touch on some recent highlights in the modeling of hot Jupiters as a class and the well-studied prototype warm Neptune GJ 436b. I'll close with a look towards JWST, and also theoretical expectations for rocky planets in late 2030's by potential NASA telescopes like LUVOIR/HabEx and the Origins Space Telescope (OST).