SE Valley Times

Astronomers are embarking on a new collaboration to explore the mystery of planet formation. Arizona State University, Michigan State University, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have joined forces to investigate this complex question using advanced technology.

The team will utilize 154 hours on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to study the atmospheres of seven exoplanets formed less than 300 million years ago. This effort is part of the KRONOS program, which also involves using high-performance computers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to develop atmospheric models that could provide insights into planetary formation and evolution.

Luis Welbanks, co-principal investigator for KRONOS and an incoming assistant professor at ASU's School of Earth and Space Exploration, stated, “We are taking some of the first steps to probe young exoplanet atmospheres — a largely unknown population. Through our strategic partnership, we will push the limits of our models and data, looking for new insights into both planetary atmospheres and their host stars.”

The JWST has been operational for three years as a joint mission between NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Canadian Space Agency. It has significantly enhanced our understanding of planets beyond our solar system. With over 6,000 known planets in our galaxy, understanding how they form remains challenging. Observing young exoplanets during their transit across host stars offers one method to gain insights.

Michael Line from ASU emphasized the importance of accurate models: “The outstanding data quality of JWST’s observations can only be explained using models that capture the complex interactions between light and matter.”

To support this research, KRONOS has secured 22 million hours of computing time through LLNL's Computing Grand Challenge Program. These resources will help develop models to understand various exoplanet atmospheres' compositions.

Adina Feinstein from MSU noted the challenges in studying these planets: “Understanding the compositions of planetary atmospheres at different ages is still a big unknown because these planets are hard to find and even harder to characterize.”

In addition to studying seven specific planets, KRONOS aims to model all 70 exoplanets observed by JWST. Peter McGill from LLNL highlighted this ambitious task: “An endeavor to uniformly model such a large sample of planets — from scorching worlds more massive than Jupiter to temperate and small Earth-mass planets — has yet to be undertaken.”

The atmospheric models developed by KRONOS will eventually be available publicly for collaborative scientific research.

Press release written by Bethany Mauger with contributions from Kim Baptista at ASU’s School of Earth and Space Exploration.