event
Tuesday 05 Mar 2019: [Journal Club] Atmosphere and Evolutionary Models for Brown Dwarf and Giant Exoplanets
Mark Phillips - University of Exeter
4th Floor Interaction Area 11:15-11:45
The study of brown dwarfs and giant exoplanets is rapidly evolving as ever-improving instrumentation becomes sensitive to cooler objects. Accurate and reliable atmosphere and evolutionary models are important for placing mass and age constraints on newly discovered objects, and understanding the rich chemistry and physics taking place in their atmospheres. We have been developing a grid of atmosphere models with our state-of-the-art 1D atmosphere code ATMO. ATMO includes the latest opacities for important molecular absorbers such as H2O, CH4 and NH3, and takes into account the condensation of H2O and NH3 which are important for the coolest atmospheres. These model improvements allow us to follow the evolution of Jupiter mass objects down to the coolest temperatures (Teff=200K). I will present comparisons of these new models to previous model grids and to observations in colour-magnitude diagrams. I will also outline the methods used in our model to efficiently and accurately handle the large molecular opacity data required to model brown dwarfs and giant exoplanets.
