Project description
Advancing our understanding of exoplanets
Since the discovery of the first exoplanet orbiting a Sun-like star in 1995, thousands more have been found. The study of exoplanets is a rapidly evolving field and an active area of research. The N-GINE project, funded by the European Research Council, aims to advance our understanding of giant planets within and beyond the solar system, as well as their origins. The project seeks to incorporate new knowledge gained from recent data gathered from the Cassini and Juno missions into exoplanet studies. These missions have revealed that the interiors of Jupiter and Saturn are more complex than previously believed. N-GINE aims to bridge the knowledge gap by developing new models for the interior and atmosphere of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and giant exoplanets.
Objective
The prevalence of metals in exoplanet atmospheres is considered an important tracer of the formation of gas giants. However, the current theoretical framework is founded on the critical assumption that such planets are composed of a core surrounded by a homogeneous and well-mixed envelope. Recent data from Cassini and Juno show differently, resulting in a paradigm shift in the interiors of Jupiter and Saturn. Jupiter's envelope is now shown to be non-homogeneous, leading to new pathways for studying the interactions between giant planet interiors with their atmospheric constituents. This new knowledge desperately needs to be incorporated in exoplanet studies. This is the aim of N-GINE.
We are in a unique time for this study. We have extraordinary data to study the giants in the solar system, and the JWST will provide exceptional data on exoplanets’ atmospheres. Now is the time to gather the stunning amount of exoplanet data and the detailed insights supplied by our solar system and get integrated knowledge coming from all giant planets.
I have unique expertise in these fields to fill this gap and lead a team of 3 PhD students and 2 postdocs to work at the frontier of exoplanets and solar system science. We will provide the community with the first open-source retrieval tool for exoplanet interiors based on my state-of-the-art models for Jupiter, use JWST to compile the first database on refractory species in exoplanet atmospheres (indicating the solids accreted during formation), study atmosphere-interior interactions with self-consistent atmospheric radiative transfer and interior models, and go beyond the state-of-the-art with new interior models for Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune with non-homogenous interiors and using Neural Networks. The impact of the new interior models developed in N-GINE will also affect atmospheric chemical and retrieval calculations, revolutionizing the way of interpreting observations in exoplanets and learning about their origins.
Fields of science
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencesdatabases
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesastronomyplanetary sciencesplanetsexoplanetology
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesastronomyplanetary sciencesplanetsgiant planetsgas giants
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencesartificial intelligencecomputational intelligence
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Funding Scheme
ERC - Support for frontier research (ERC)Host institution
3526 KV Utrecht
Netherlands