Astrophysics Webinar

More than 6,000 exoplanets have been discovered so far. These planets are astonishingly diverse, from hot Jupiters on close-in orbits to sub-Neptunes, the most common class of planets. This population, together with telescopes like JWST, now gives us a chance to understand how planets form, how they evolve, and what makes them habitable.

In this talk, I will show how we are uncovering the least understood yet most important physical processes that shape exoplanets and brown dwarfs. We do this by developing state-of-the-art theoretical models and leveraging ultra-precise observations. I will highlight how we constrained the strength of atmospheric dynamics for the first time in these objects, which was uncertain by 6 to 8 orders of magnitude. I will also present evidence that the dividing lines between planets, brown dwarfs, and stars are not universal. Instead, they are strongly shaped by their companion stars. I will then highlight our discovery of the first direct evidence for a cloud cycle in a distant world, an analog of Earth’s water cycle.

I will close with a forward-looking roadmap for exoplanet science built on three pillars: leading an observational atmospheric census of diverse exoplanets, translating these surveys to quantitative constraints on major unknowns by developing next-generation physics-driven models, and charting a path to characterizing Earth 2.0. I will outline how this research program will help define the exoplanet science case for India’s next-generation flagship missions, including ExoWorlds, NLOT, INSIST, and TMT. Together, these efforts will position our community to lead the search for Earth 2.0.