Synthesis of spectra of exoplanetary atmospheres externally irradiated by X/UV radiation. The study: “Signatures of X-ray dominated chemistry in the spectra of exoplanetary atmospheres” of D. Locci (INAF – OAPA) appeared on PSJ

One of the lessons we have learned after two decades of exoplanetary science, primarily from the diversity of exoplanets discovered to date, is that various properties of exoplanets depend on the characteristics and evolution of their parent stars. Specifically, stellar X-ray and UV radiation can impact the chemical and physical properties of planetary atmospheres. While UV radiation is primarily absorbed

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The properties of the exoplanets sculpted by the forming environment. The study: “Exploring the link between star and planet formation with Ariel” of D. Turrini (INAF-IAPS) appeared on Experimental Astronomy

To date (October 2021, data from https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/), astronomer discovered enough exoplanets (in excess of 4500) to allow not only analysis of individual planets, but also detailed studies of the whole exoplanets population. These studies are necessary to fully understand the process of planets formation, the evolution of planets, the chemical composition and physical properties of planets atmospheres, and how the forming

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Photospheric spots and planetary transits. The study: “Correcting the effect of stellar spots on ARIEL transmission spectra” of G. Cracchiolo (UNIPA, INAF-OAPA) appeared on MNRAS

A “transit” occurs when we observe a planet moving across the disc of its star. Thus, during the transit the planet obscures a small portion of its star, slightly reducing its luminosity. While in the Solar System the only planets we can observe transiting in front of the Sun are Mercury and Venus, transits is still the most efficient method

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Artificial Intelligence applied to astrophysics. The paper “ExoGAN: Retrieving Exoplanetary Atmospheres Using Deep Convolutional Generative Adversarial Networks” of T. Zingales (UCL, INAF – OAPA) published on AJ

In the last few years, many space missions and ground-based surveys, discovered more than 4000 exoplanets, especially using the transit and radial velocity methods. These two methods combined, give us a first estimation of the bulk density of the planets. In order to have a deeper understanding on the planetary characteristics and history, we also need to study their atmospheres.

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ARIEL selected as next M4 mission by the ESA Space Programme Committee

In the last years the number of known exoplanets has grown quickly thanks to missions such as Kepler and CoRoT and instruments such as HARPS-N, mounted on the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo, which are designed to identify exoplanets with the method of transits or radial velocity. We have understood now that the presence of exoplanets is a common features in stars

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