Grants and Contributions:

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Title:
Revealing the Nature, Diversity, and Formation of Super-Earth Exoplanets
Agreement Number:
RGPIN
Agreement Value:
$175,000.00
Agreement Date:
Jul 12, 2017 -
Organization:
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
Location:
Quebec, CA
Reference Number:
GC-2017-Q2-05414
Agreement Type:
Grant
Report Type:
Grants and Contributions
Additional Information:

Grant or Award spanning more than one fiscal year (2017-2018 to 2022-2023).

Recipient's Legal Name:
Benneke, Björn (Université de Montréal)
Program:
Discovery Grants Program - Individual
Program Purpose:

The next five years present a truly unique opportunity in the history of planetary astrophysics. For the first time, we have the observational techniques, the theoretical models, and a sufficient number of known exoplanets orbiting nearby stars to spectroscopically characterize a wide diversity of planets—ranging from hot giant planets to temperate Earth-sized planets in the habitable zone of their host stars. My group is currently in a unique position to make the next big leaps in this rapidly growing field of exoplanet characterization because I recently developed a novel theoretical modeling technique to interpret spectroscopic observations of exoplanets (Benneke 2016) and I was awarded several unprecedented observational programs using the Hubble Space Telescope (334 hours), the Spitzer Space Telescope (217 hours), and the Keck observatories (11 nights) to obtain the necessary data for this characterization. Benefitting from this unique starting position, I will establish a research group at Université de Montréal that will be among the worldwide leading groups in the characterization of exoplanet atmospheres. Highlights of my near-term work will be:

  1. the first comprehensive spectroscopic survey of planets in the intriguing super-Earth regime with planetary masses between Earth and Neptune (PI Benneke, HST GO 13665, 199 hours),

  2. the first atmospheric characterizations of planets in the habitable zone of their host stars (PI Benneke, HST GO 14682, 125 hours),

  3. the first ultraviolet transit observation of a habitable-zone exoplanet (PI Benneke, HST GO 14454, 10 hours),

  4. the first large spectroscopic survey of Neptune to Saturn-mass exoplanets (PI Deming, HST-GO-14260, not discussed in this proposal), and finally,

  5. the first detailed comparison of close-in, highly-irradiated giant planets (“hot Jupiters”) and self-luminous giant planets at wide orbital separations (PI Benneke, 11 nights, Keck observatory).

Together these large spectroscopic surveys will enable several groundbreaking PhD and MSc theses and many high-impact undergraduate student projects in Canada. As the PI of the large HST programs, I will bring most of these extremely valuable HST observations (>$7 million USD in estimated HST operating costs) to Canada. To conquer the tremendous data analysis task, however, I will need to establish a team of graduate students at Université de Montréal similar to the 5 graduate students I am currently advising at CalTech. Unfortunately, however, none of the approved $997,000 USD from the three approved STScI grants for the HST data analysis will be available to me in Canada. Here, I request funds for a team of two doctoral students and two Master's student similar to my current team at Caltech that would enable me bring the scientific return of these tremendous programs to Canada.