Skip to main content
Go to the home page of the European Commission (opens in new window)
English English
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS

Exoplanets Molecular Atmospheric Composition

Project description

Exploring the compositional diversity of exoplanets

The discovery of exoplanets has been one of the most significant developments in modern astronomy. In 2019, the total number of exolanets discovered reached 4 000, encompassing an impressive range of diversity. Understanding the causes of exoplanet variety is a major goal of next-generation space missions. The EU-funded ExoMAC project plans to develop new methods to measure the absolute abundances of all the main carbon- and oxygen-bearing molecules of individual planets. Detailed analysis will provide the first empirical constraints on the possible formation and evolutionary paths of exoplanets. Another goal is to develop a convolutional neural network for classifying potential exoplanets orbiting host stars relatively close to Earth. More than 10 000 transiting exoplanets are expected to be found and analysed for their composition.

Objective

"The search for and characterization of exoplanets are among the most active and rapidly advancing fields in modern astrophysics. To date, more than 4000 exoplanets have been detected, spanning wide ranges in physical, orbital and stellar parameters, and with a great variety of system architectures. Understanding the causes of exoplanet diversity and variety is a stated goal of the next-generation of ESA/NASA missions. In this context, I propose to develop the project ""Exoplanets Molecular Atmospheric Composition"" (ExoMAC), together with the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC) under the supervision of Dr. Enric Pallé. The project consists of the following Scientific Objectives: SO1: The complete and consistent (C&C) analyses of individual planets for measuring the absolute abundances of all the main carbon and oxygen-bearing molecules, metallicity down to less than 0.5 dex and precise C/O down to 0.1 dex in a handful of exoplanet atmospheres. The C&C analyses will provide the first empirical constraints on the possible formation and evolutionary paths of exoplanets; SO2: The development of a convolutional neural network (CNN) for the automated classification of newly-released TESS light-curves for the discovery and classification of new exoplanet populations. This CNN will lead to the discovery of more than 10000 transiting exoplanets, among which to select the prime targets for spectroscopic characterization with current and next-generation facilities. The C&C analyses propose a novel approach to leverage the information obtained with multiple instruments and observing techniques through a bayesian framework. We will adopt an updated version of the TauREx code to enable consistent retrievals, coupled with deep convolutional generative adversarial networks to speed up the likelihood sampling."

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.

You need to log in or register to use this function

Keywords

Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)

Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)

See all projects funded under this funding scheme

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2019

See all projects funded under this call

Coordinator

INSTITUTO DE ASTROFISICA DE CANARIAS
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 160 932,48
Address
CALLE VIA LACTEA
38205 SAN CRISTOBAL DE LA LAGUNA
Spain

See on map

Region
Canarias Canarias Tenerife
Activity type
Research Organisations
Links
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 160 932,48
My booklet 0 0