IAU Focus Meeting: New Insights into the Atmospheres of Stars, their Planets and Moons

Rationale

Almost all information reaching us from stars and planets passes through their atmospheres, the thin layer of gas or plasma that surrounds them. The transmitted spectrum can tell us about bulk properties, such as density, temperature, composition, and magnetic field, as well as  micro-properties, such as clouds, chemistry, turbulence, aurorae and evidence of habitability. Over the last decade, new spectral windows provided by ALMA and JWST and advances in computing power have driven revolutions in observing sensitivity, model complexity, and physical understanding. They have opened new windows to explore diverse physics and environments, and placed increasing demands on requirements for atomic and molecular data. This Focus Meeting will highlight recent progress in three key areas: extreme processes in stellar atmospheres, the atmospheres of sub-stellar objects and novel methods for their exploration. It aims to encourage the many young astronomers currently working in these emerging fields.

Key Themes

— extreme processes in stellar atmospheres:  supergranulation, dust formation, strong magnetic fields, critical rotation, maser emission, extreme chemistry

— substellar atmospheres:  brown dwarfs, exoplanets, exomoons, rocky planets, solar-system planets and minor planets, signs of water and life, exoclimates, extreme hot Jupiters  

— computational methods:  radiative transfer, atomic and molecular data, opacity, magnetic fields, convection.

Format and contributions

This focus meeting will form part of General Assembly XXXI of the International Astronomical Union. It will consist of six 90-minute formal sessions and four 30-minute poster sessions. These will be held over 2 days during the IAU General Assembly in 2027. Each formal session will consist of up to 2 invited talks and at least 4 contributed talks. There will be an opportunity for poster-presenters to give flash presentations. The proceedings of the meeting will be published by the IAU.