Chair of Theoretical Astrophysics of Extrasolar Planets

Research Groups

Team meetings (including visitors), seminars & Master projects

• Team Meetings: Wednesdays from 09:00 to 10:30 (observatory lecture hall)
  • Detailed schedule, program and lineup of visitors/speakers
• Geosciences of Exoplanets for Astrophysicists Seminar: Wednesdays from 14:00 to 15:30 (observatory 1OG seminar room and sometimes in Geosciences Department building)
  • Description, schedule and program
• Bayesian Inference and Artificial Intelligence Seminar: Thursday from 09:15 to 11:00
  • Description, schedule and program
• Master Projects Offered in Chair
  • List of project titles, supervisors and abstracts

News from the Munich Exoplanet Chair

Recent Publications

• Understanding the surfaces of rocky exoplanets requires accurately interpreting how they reflect and emit light. In this study, we highlight an important optical phenomenon known as the opposition surge, a brightening effect that occurs when a planet’s surface is viewed at certain angles, due to how light interacts with fine surface grains. While well documented for the Moon and asteroids, this effect has been largely overlooked in exoplanet research. Leonardos Gkouvelis present a new formulation to simulate this brightening in a way that more reliably captures the underlying physics. With current observational capabilities now able to study rocky exoplanets in greater detail, accounting for this effect is essential. Our work lays the groundwork for more accurate tools to reveal the true nature of distant rocky worlds.
  
  • An Analytical Model of Wavelength-dependent Opposition Surge in Emittance and Reflectance Spectroscopy of Airless Rocky Exoplanets

• A study co-authored by David Cont has revealed the presence of a fast circumplanetary wind in the atmosphere of the hot Jupiter WASP-127b. Using high-resolution near-infrared transmission spectroscopy with VLT/CRIRES+ and applying the cross-correlation technique and Bayesian inference, the analysis provides detailed insights into the global circulation patterns of a distant world.
  • CRIRES+ transmission spectroscopy of WASP-127 b
  • ESO press release and LMU press release

• The exact dynamics and thermal history of gas as it flow from the natal protoplanetary disk to the growing giant planet is an open problem. In this work I show that intense heating of the gas as it flows deep into the planet's gravitational well causes a (potentially) observable shift in its chemical state. This find may help to motivate future observation programs designed to search for young planets and their circumplanetary material.
  • Gas dynamics around a Jupiter mass planet: II. Chemical evolution of circumplanetary material

• A study led by David Cont on TOI-2109b, an ultra-hot Jupiter in an unexplored thermal regime, has recently been accepted for publication in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. The study focuses on characterizing the planet’s thermochemical and dynamical properties in its day- and nightside hemispheres. The analysis combines high-resolution spectroscopy from VLT/CRIRES+ and CAHA/CARMENES via cross-correlation and atmospheric retrieval techniques.
  • Retrieving day- and nightside atmospheric properties of the ultra-hot Jupiter TOI-2109b

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Visit PLATO @ OHB

The exoplanet team recently visited OHB in Oberpfaffenhofen near Munich, to experience the PLATO satellite that was in town for final integration and testing. PLATO is a future ESA mission with the goal of finding true Earth analogs with transit photometry. We were lucky enough to see the instalation of one of the 24 'normal' science cameras of the satellite. It was an interesting opportunity to exchange knowledge between the aerospace industry and the scientific end-users at LMU and ESO. Staff Scientist Louise Nielsen gave a talk on the science we plan to do with PLATO after its launch in 2026, high-lighting the challenge of stellar activity and the potential of discovering the first planet that truely resembles our own Earth.