Abstract

Invited Talk - Plenary

Thursday, 12 September 2024, 09:00   (Aula 1&2 / virtual plenum)

The atmospheres of discs and planets

Barbara Ercolano
LMU München

The gaseous atmospheres of extrasolar planets and those of their birth environments, the protoplanetary discs, hold the key to understanding the observed diversity of these distant worlds and might provide important insights on fundamental questions, including habitability. In this talk I will review the results of recent efforts to connect the protoplanetary disc evolution, driven by their central star, to the formation of planets. Special attention will be given to outflows and what can be/ has been learnt from them. Some of the unanswered questions, rely on the understanding of the chemical composition of atmospheric gas, particularly with regards to important species like polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, that control the thermodynamics in the far ultra-violet regime and play an important role in the coupling of the atmospheric gas to magnetic fields. The same molecules may play a very important role in the evolution of planetary atmospheres. Current and future efforts to constrain their abundances in discs and planets will also be reviewed.