Studying the Atmospheres of Exoplanets with the ARIEL space mission

Abstract

The number of detected exoplanets is approaching 4 000 and the list will be extended to tens of thousands in the next years by dedicated space missions and ground instrumentation. Characterisation of the planetary physical conditions is now required to understand the true nature of these alien worlds along with their formation history. ARIEL is an ESA-led mission due to fly in 2028. ARIEL will perform transit spectroscopy of hundreds of exoplantes, from the visible to the mid-IR portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. Projects are available to students wishing to take this exciting research path.

Possible projects involve: Simulation of mission performance; Optimisation of science payload design; Development of data analysis techniques.

No previous knowledge of the field is required. Projects are available to graduate students in physics, astronomy and space engineering.