The First Search for Exoplanet Weather
Authors/Creators
- 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
Files
coolstars_jv.pdf
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Additional details
References
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