WAA November Meeting

Friday, November 8 at 7:30 pm
David Pecker Conference Room, Willcox Hall, Pace University, Pleasantville, NY

LIVE and via Zoom (link on WAA home page)

Evaporating Exoplanet Atmospheres

W. Garrett Levine
Department of Astronomy, Yale University

Among the most surprising discoveries in the exoplanet era is the number of short-period planets with orbits smaller than that of Mercury. Because these planets are so close to their host stars, theoretical models hypothesize that their atmospheres are at-risk of evaporating due to intense stellar ultraviolet and X-Ray irradiation. Some of those predictions have recently been confirmed with data from telescopes including Hubble and JWST. This talk will describe how this new branch of research places longstanding results from solar system geoscience in an exoplanet context and will conclude with a discussion of how amateur astronomers are supporting these ongoing observational campaigns.

The speaker will be with us at Pace, so WAA members and guests are encouraged to come to the meeting.!

Free & open to the public.