Exploring Alien Atmospheres

Talk by Dr Hannah Wakeford of the University of Bristol. Hannah currently co-hosts Exocast: The Exoplanet Podcast which is definitely worth listening to.

The study of exoplanets, planets that orbit stars other than the Sun, is at the forefront of the public imagination in space and an exciting field of research. The question “how do stars and planetary systems form and evolve?” is one of the biggest in Astronomy, and is at the root of one of the most important questions in science today: “How did we get here?”. To resolve these questions we need to observe, interpret, and understand the nature of planets beyond our Solar System. I will take us on a journey through the atmospheres of alien planets to discover the truly wild nature of planets in the universe.

From her website Stellar Planet: Hannah is a lecturer in Astrophysics in the School of Physics at the University of Bristol, UK. Hannah leads a group investigating the atmospheres of transiting exoplanets using space-based telescopes.

Hannah is the co-lead of the Space Telescopes Advanced Research Group for the Atmospheres of Transiting Exoplanets (STARGATE), a collaboration which spans institutes across the UK and USA. Her work focuses on characterising the atmospheres of exoplanets through observations with the Hubble Space Telescope, and working towards a better understanding of how exoplanets can be explored further with Webb. Hannah has also developed theoretical models for exotic clouds in exoplanet atmosphere and uses them to interpret observations and make prediction for future studies.