ABSTRACT
Planets between the size of Earth and Neptune, also known as sub-Neptunes, pose a conundrum. They are absent in the solar system, but more than half of all Sun-like stars in the Galaxy host a sub-Neptune interior to 1 au. Although the number of sub-Neptunes atmospheres probed so far has been very low, a major breakthrough in exo-atmospheres science is happening right now thanks to the increased sensitivity and wavelength coverage of JWST observations. At the same time, during the past decade the study of exoplanet atmospheres at high-spectral resolution, via transmission/emission spectroscopy and cross-correlation techniques for atomic/molecular mapping, has become a powerful and consolidated methodology. The current limitation is the signal to noise ratio that one can obtain during a planetary transit, which is in turn limited by telescope size. This limitation will be overcome by instruments such as ANDES, an optical and near-infrared high-resolution spectrograph for the European Extremely Large Telescope. ANDES main science case is the study of small, rocky exoplanet atmospheres, including the potential for biomarker detections, and the ability to reach this science case is driving its instrumental design. ANDES will be a powerful transformational instrument for exoplanet science. It will enable the study of giant planet atmospheres, allowing not only an exquisite determination of atmospheric composition, but also the study of isotopic compositions, dynamics and weather patterns, mapping the planetary atmospheres and probing atmospheric formation and evolution models. ANDES will be operational at the same time as NASA's JWST and ESA's ARIEL missions, providing enormous synergies in the characterization of planetary atmospheres at high and low spectral resolution. I will review here the current and future paths that the observations of sub-Neptune, and later earth-size planets, will require.BIO
I am a staff researcher at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, working on the discovery and characterization of new extrasolar planets. My particular expertise lies in the characterization of planetary atmospheres, and the preparation for future missions and instruments capable of detecting the atmospheric composition of rocky exoplanets, including the search of possible biomarkers. I also have an interest in instrument development, and Earth climate studies.
Host: Xuesong Wang
