Abstract Details
| Name: Jonathan Tennyson Affiliation: University College London, London, UK Conference ID: tennyson Title : MOLECULAR LINE LISTS FOR THE OPACITY OF EXOPLANET AND OTHER HOT ATMOSPHERES Authors and Co-Authors : - Abstract Type : Abstract Category : Special Lecture Abstract : Fundamental molecular data play a key role for spectral characterization of astrophysical objects cool enough to form molecules in their atmospheres (cool stars, extrosolar planets and planetary discs) as well as in a broad range terrestrial applications. However, at elevated temperatures, the laboratory data for a number of key species is absent, inaccurate or incomplete. The ExoMol project provides comprehensive line lists with the aim of providing data for all molecules likely to be observable in exoplanet atmospheres in the foreseeable future [1]. This is a huge undertaking which involves providing in excess of a hundred of billion spectral lines for a large variety of molecular species [2]. The physics of molecular absorptions is complex and varies between different classes of absorbers, which are therefore divided into following topics (a) diatomic, (b) triatomics, (c) tetratomics, (d) methane and (e) larger molecules. Special techniques are being developed to treat each case. The line lists for a number of key atmospheric species currently available from ExoMol (www.exomol.com) including H2O, NH3, CaH, MgH, BeH, SiO, HCN/HNC, KCl, NaCl, CH4, PN, PH3, H2CO, AlO, NaH, ScH, HNO3, SO2, SO3, H2S and NO. I will present examples of molecular spectra computed using the ExoMol line lists. I will also discuss the progress in and prospects of characterising exoplanets using molecular spectroscopy. The ExoMol project was supported by the ERC under Advanced Investigator Project 267219. References [1] J. Tennyson and S.N. Yurchenko, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc., 425, 21 (2012). [2] J. Tennyson and the ExoMol Team, J. Molec. Spectrosc. 372, 73 (2016).\ |