Exoplanets; Planetary Formation and Evolution

Understanding how planets form and evolve and how life emerged on Earth are among the most fundamental questions in planetary science and astronomy. We are living in an exciting era where, in addition to the planets in our Solar System, we can study and characterize over thousand exoplanets orbiting other stars. Exoplanet studies at the LPL cover a broad range of topics including the characterization and dispersal of protoplanetary disks around young stars, dynamics and stability of planetary systems, direct imaging and transit observations of exoplanets, study of exoplanet atmospheres including observable effects of their magnetic fields, dynamics of planetary atmospheres, and exoplanet climate models.