Munazza Alam

"Munazza Alam is an Assistant Astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute. Her research focuses on characterizing the atmospheres of exoplanets. Munazza uses HST, JWST, and large ground-based telescopes to measure the compositions of Jupiters to super-Earths to understand their origins and evolution."
- Andrew Vanderburg

Characterizing the atmospheres of Jupiters to super-earths
Time-series transit observations of exoplanet atmospheres can provide insights into the formation and evolution of exoplanetary systems. In this talk, I will share the results of three surveys aimed at characterizing the atmospheres of highly irradiated planets ranging from rocky planets to hot Jupiters: 1) the JWST Cycle 1 Compositions Of Mini-Planet Atmospheres for Statistical Study (COMPASS) program which aims to understand population-level atmospheric trends for 1-3 R_earth planets using JWST/NIRSpec G395H (3-5 microns);  2) the Keck Young Planets (KYP) program, which searched for excess helium absorption at 1.083 microns with Keck II/NIRSPEC in three <500 Myr mini-Neptunes; and 3) the HUSTLE (Hubble Ultraviolet-Optical Survey of Transiting Legacy Exoplanets) program, an HST treasury program to probe transitions in atmospheric chemistry and structure across a range of equilibrium temperatures using WFC3/UVIS G280 (0.2-0.8 microns). From the results of these programs, we are beginning to place constraints on the prevalence and retention of primordial H/He envelopes in Jovian to sub-Jovian worlds.