Madhusudhan Nikku, Agúndez Marcelino, Moses Julianne I, Hu Yongyun
Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HA, UK.
Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Madrid, CSIC, C/Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz 3, 28049 Cantoblanco, Spain,
Space Sci Rev. 2016 Dec;205(1):285-348. doi: 10.1007/s11214-016-0254-3. Epub 2016 May 12.
Characterizing the atmospheres of extrasolar planets is the new frontier in exoplanetary science. The last two decades of exoplanet discoveries have revealed that exoplanets are very common and extremely diverse in their orbital and bulk properties. We now enter a new era as we begin to investigate the chemical diversity of exoplanets, their atmospheric and interior processes, and their formation conditions. Recent developments in the field have led to unprecedented advancements in our understanding of atmospheric chemistry of exoplanets and the implications for their formation conditions. We review these developments in the present work. We review in detail the theory of atmospheric chemistry in all classes of exoplanets discovered to date, from highly irradiated gas giants, ice giants, and super-Earths, to directly imaged giant planets at large orbital separations. We then review the observational detections of chemical species in exoplanetary atmospheres of these various types using different methods, including transit spectroscopy, Doppler spectroscopy, and direct imaging. In addition to chemical detections, we discuss the advances in determining chemical abundances in these atmospheres and how such abundances are being used to constrain exoplanetary formation conditions and migration mechanisms. Finally, we review recent theoretical work on the atmospheres of habitable exoplanets, followed by a discussion of future outlook of the field.
表征系外行星的大气层是系外行星科学的新前沿。过去二十年对系外行星的发现揭示了系外行星非常普遍,并且在轨道和整体性质方面极其多样。随着我们开始研究系外行星的化学多样性、它们的大气和内部过程以及它们的形成条件,我们现在进入了一个新时代。该领域的最新进展使我们对系外行星大气化学及其形成条件的影响有了前所未有的认识。我们在当前工作中回顾这些进展。我们详细回顾了迄今为止发现的所有类型系外行星的大气化学理论,从高度受辐照的气态巨行星、冰巨行星和超级地球,到在大轨道间距处直接成像的巨行星。然后我们回顾了使用不同方法对这些不同类型系外行星大气中化学物种的观测探测,包括凌星光谱法、多普勒光谱法和直接成像。除了化学探测,我们还讨论了在确定这些大气中化学丰度方面的进展,以及这些丰度如何被用于限制系外行星的形成条件和迁移机制。最后,我们回顾了关于宜居系外行星大气的近期理论工作,随后讨论了该领域的未来展望。