Emily Rauscher (U Arizona)

Untwisting the Atmospheric Twirls of Hot Jupiters

Hot Jupiters are the biggest, brightest exoplanets; the first to be discovered and the best-characterized. With no equal in our solar system, these planets have forced us to extend our understanding of planetary sciences into uncharted territory. In particular, hot Jupiters exist in an entirely new regime of atmospheric circulation. There are now multiple three-dimensional numerical codes being used to model hot Jupiter atmospheric dynamics, with some level of agreement, but still many questions remain. In this talk I will discuss how everything from measurements of anomalously large planetary radii to Doppler-shifted absorption lines can inform and constrain our models of these exotic worlds.