Published July 1, 2016 | Version v1
Poster Open

The First Search for Exoplanet Weather

  • 1. University of Edinburgh
  • 2. Bucknell University
  • 3. MPIA Heidelberg
  • 4. Universitat Heidelberg
  • 5. IfA Hawaii
  • 6. IAC

Description

Periodic variability due to rotation and patchy cloud cover has been detected in L and T brown dwarfs, with higher variability amplitudes observed at the L/T transition. Directly imaged planets occupy the same temperature regime as L and T type brown dwarfs and are predicted to exhibit similar variability.  We are currently conducting the first survey of weather patterns on free-floating young planetary mass objects and young low mass brown dwarfs with NTT SofI. We aim to discover and characterise variability in these objects and to constrain the fraction that show periodic variability due to rotationally modulated patchy cloud cover. A comparison of our survey with surveys of field brown dwarfs will provide insight into the effects of surface gravity on cloud structure. Here I will present some preliminary results from this survey.

Notes

Poster #137

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Additional details

References

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