Understanding Exoplanet Atmospheres is Next Big Science
Understanding the composition of exoplanetary atmospheres is the next wave of study, as scientists work to analyze temperatures, clouds, and rainfall using better spectrographic instruments.
When I first came back to space science, I attended a meetup at NASA Ames Research Center to learn about the Kepler space telescope and its mission. Finding exoplanets was going to be a big deal in the upcoming years, and I was excited to be a small part of it. Now we’re at over 4000 discovered exoplanets and counting, to the point where exoplanet discovery announcements have to come with some sort of bonus reason as to why they’re important or interesting. Because “woo, look, another exoplanet” just doesn’t make headlines anymore.
So what’s next for the worlds of exoplanet science? One increasingly studied aspect is the atmospheres of those exoplanets. We’re getting to the point where we have instruments sensitive enough to gather data about atmospheric composition. Last week, we reported on finding various carbon isotopes in the atmosphere of a distant world. This isn’t a new science, though. In 2001, Hubble’s spectrographs found less sodium in a planet’s atmosphere than expected. Which led to researchers…
