What’s the weather like on alien planets?

Guest Speaker

Thursday, 7th November 2024 (19:45 - 22:00)

Venue: Meeting Room

After identifying more than five thousand exoplanets outside our solar system, scientists have exposed a striking diversity of alien worlds, from those covered in oceans of molten lava to others where it is perpetually night and giant scorching gas giants. But these dots in the sky are not just distant: even at hundreds of light-years' distance, we are now able to study the atmospheres of these exotic planets in remarkable detail using telescopes such as the James Webb Space Telescope.

Catch up with Dr. Piette as she shares the most recent results in this cutting-edge research during what promises to be a very interesting talk. Learn about the extraordinary weather patterns on these distant worlds and the extremes that make each so unique and interesting in its own right.

Be sure to join us and take this opportunity to travel outside our solar system and learn about alien weather—mysteries waiting to be unveiled!

Speaker: Anjali Piette

Dr Anjali A.A. Piette MSci, PhD, FRAS Anjali pursued her undergraduate studies in Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge, ultimately specialising in Astrophysics. She continued her studies at the Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, obtaining her PhD in 2021. During her PhD, Anjali studied the atmospheres of exoplanets across the mass range, from isolated brown dwarfs to hot Jupiters, mini-Neptunes and rocky planets. Following this, she took up a Carnegie Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Carnegie Institution for Science, Earth and Planets Laboratory in Washington, DC, before moving to the University of Birmingham as an Assistant Professor in 2024.

Anjali continues to study exoplanets across the diverse parameter space they cover, including lava worlds and giant exoplanets orbiting the smallest stars. She uses a combination of forward and inverse modelling methods to study the complex interplay of processes in exoplanet atmospheres and interpret telescope observations, for example with the James Webb Space Telescope.