Titre du projet : TITANIA: TIme variabliTy As a New window on exoplanet clImAtes

Résumé du projet :
Over 4000 exoplanets, i.e., planets orbiting stars other than the Sun, are known to exist. Many of these worlds are fundamentally different from the planets in our Solar system, and the most striking examples are planets known as "hot Jupiters”. Similar to Jupiter in our Solar system, these are massive planets consisting mainly of the light gases hydrogen and helium, but while Jupiter orbits at five times the earth-sun distance, these planets orbit very close-in, at less than a tenth of the earth-sun distance. Being so close-in, these planets receive very high levels of stellar radiation, which heats them up to temperatures routinely exceeding 1000 degrees C. The TITANIA group will focus on studying these extreme objects, on uncovering how the global atmospheric dynamics on these planets operate, and how the atmospheres react to energetic stellar phenomena. To do so, my team will combine a variety of observational indicators, consisting of data obtained by the CHEOPS space mission and observations taken with the world’s most advanced ground-based telescopes. These data contain a series of observational indicators that allow access to different parts of the planet, ranging from its day to its night side, and also probing at different altitude levels. They will allow us to map out a range of properties, such as the planetary composition, its aerosol content, the planetary wind speeds, and paint an increasingly complete picture of the atmospheric dynamics of hot Jupiters. Finally, the extent of the available data, together with accompanying observations of the host stars, allow us to probe for changes in the dominant planetary wind structures possible links to stellar activity.