Monday, 28th July at 2.00pm at the JAC
Steve Miller
Atmospheric Physics Laboratory
University College London
"Do extrasolar planets go bang?
The role of H3+ in Planetary Atmospheres"
ABSTRACT: Over the past few years measurements of the atmospheres
of a few of the planets orbiting nearby stars - exoplanets - have
become available. For giant exoplanets that orbit their parent star
very closely at 0.05AU, for example - there is evidence of very
extended atmospheres. But we know giant planets in our own Solar
System, which orbit at several AU from the Sun, have relatively thin
stable atmospheres. So what controls the change?
A small molecular ion first discovered in Jupiter's atmosphere twenty
years ago turns out to hold the key. And the H3+ ion carries out a
number of other roles in planetary atmospheres. Find out more ...
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