91福利

Radial velocity and transit surveys have revealed a large and diverse population of exoplanets in our Galaxy. To truly understand them we need to obtain spectra of their atmospheres in order to probe their compositions and determine the dominant physical processes. Transiting planets allow such measurements via transmission spectroscopy, which has been a very active field of research over the last decade. However, both space- and ground-based observations present significant challenges, as none of the commonly-used instruments were designed with the required level of precision and stability in mind. I will discuss the observations and data analysis required to extract transmission spectra from exoplanet light curves, in particular the challenge of obtaining robust information in the presence of systematics. I will present results of a campaign to obtain the first complete UV to NIR transmission spectra of a hot Jupiter, and recent efforts to obtain ground-based transmission spectra using differential spectrophotometry.