AAAR 36th Annual Conference October 16 - October 20, 2017 Raleigh Convention Center Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
Abstract View
A Study of Exoplanet Aerosols by Earth Means
ALEXANDRIA JOHNSON, Tajana Safran, Amy Bauer, Daniel Cziczo, MIT
Abstract Number: 421 Working Group: Extraterrestrial Aerosols: from Mars to Titan and Beyond
Abstract Some exoplanet atmospheres lack strong spectral features, which may suggest the presence of a high, optically thick cloud layer and poses great challenges for atmospheric characterization. There is hope however – the study of extraterrestrial atmospheres with terrestrial based techniques has proven useful for understanding the cloud-laden atmospheres of our solar system. Here we build on this by leveraging lab-based, terrestrial cloud particle instrumentation to better understand the microphysical and radiative properties of exoplanet clouds.
The work to be presented focuses on the scattering properties of single particles, believed representative of those suspended in exoplanet atmospheres, levitated in an Electrodynamic Balance. I will discuss how we leverage terrestrial based cloud microphysics for exoplanet applications, the instruments used in this work, our investigation of ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3) scattering across temperature dependent crystalline phase changes, and the steps we are taking toward the collection of scattering phase functions and polarization of scattered light for exoplanet cloud analogs.
Through this and future studies we hope to better understand how particles representative of those in exoplanet atmospheres interact with incoming radiation from their host stars and what information may still obtainable via remote observations when no spectral features are observed.