Research
The Exoplanet Interiors group is exploring the diversity of exoplanet interiors and their atmospheres, how their evolve in time and which planets can develop and sustain surface conditions suitable for life.
There is a hunger for knowing whether we are alone in the Universe. This curiosity drives the exoplanet community to characterize planets outside our Solar system in order to get a picture of other worlds. Astronomers have made tremendous achievements to find and characterize exoplanets using a wide variety of methods. The complexity of exoplanet interior characterization demands interdisciplinary collaboration in order for the field to reach its potential role in characterizing planets. Our goal is to build and use next generation interior models that account for deep volatile reservoirs. These reservoirs are relevant for the majority of detected exoplanets but are so far largely neglected in interior models.
We build new generation models to interpret data from transit missions (e.g., TESS, CHEOPS) and RV-follow-ups, as well as atmospheric spectral data (JWST). Our novel tools are crucial for understanding the thousands of new super-Earths and sub-Neptunes to be discovered (TESS, PLATO). This allows us to answer fundamental questions. How diverse are detected exoplanets? What do we learn from their atmospheres about their deeper interiors? How do planetary atmospheres and interiors evolve and cool over time?
As interdisciplinarity lies at the heart of this work, our research is well-integrated at the ETH Center for the Origin and Prevalence of Life. In the realm of exoplanetary science, interdisciplinary projects are innovative and challenging. We are are therefore collaborating with national and international colleagues from high pressure physics, mineralogy, astronomy, astrophysics, geostatistics and others.