Space Sciences/Astrophysics Seminar with Rafael Luque on Towards a holistic understanding of sub-Neptunes

The nature and origin of sub-Neptune-sized planets is arguably the hottest debate in the field of exoplanets nowadays. While absent in the Solar System, they are the most common planet type in the Galaxy. Multiple models (gas dwarfs, water worlds, Hycean planets) appear to explain current observational evidence from mass-radius measurements and demographic analyses. JWST promises to break those degeneracies, but the first results are just getting published. In this talk, I will give an overview of the questions surrounding the origin of the "Radius gap", recent discoveries of benchmark sub-Neptune systems, new developments on the modelling of the internal structure of these planets, and how the ERC-funded project "THIRSTEE" aims to answer the questions surrounding this ubiquitous but mysterious population.

Luque is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Chicago, where he conducts research about exoplanets. He observes all types of stars using a variety of telescopes in order to discover new planets across the Galaxy, both from space (JWST, TESS, or Kepler) or from the darkest sites on Earth (Canary Islands, Hawaii, or Chile). His favourites are the cool red stars (M dwarfs) which are the most numerous in the Milky Way and which give astronomers the best chance to study terrestrial planets, like Earth, and their atmospheres.

Sponsored by the McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences.