Doppler measurements from the high-resolution CORALIE spectrometer of the stars HD 75289 and HD 130322 reveal 2 new extra-solar giant planets. They are the second and third planetary candidates discovered with CORALIE in less than 1 year, since its installation on the 1.2-m Euler Swiss telescope at La Silla. The minimum mass of the planet around HD 75289 (m2 sin i = 0.42 MJup) is the lightest f...

The angle between the spin axis of the host star and the orbit of its planets (i.e., the stellar obliquity) is precious information about the formation and evolution of exoplanetary systems. Measurements of the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect revealed that many stars that host a hot-Jupiter have high obliquities, suggesting that hot-Jupiter formation involves excitation of orbital inclinations. In t...

Remote observing of exoplanetary atmospheres is now possible, offering us access to circulation regimes unlike any of the familiar Solar System cases. Atmospheric circulation models are being developed to study these new regimes but model validations and intercomparisons are needed to establish their consistency and accuracy. To this end, we present a simple Earth-like validation of the IGCM ps...

Among various techniques to search for extrasolar planets, microlensing has some unique characteristics. Contrary to all other methods which favour nearby objects, microlensing is sensitive to planets around stars at distances of several kpc. These stars act as gravitational lenses leading to a brightening of observed luminous source stars. The lens stars that are tested for the presence of pla...

Current hypotheses of the formation of Jupiter and evolution of its atmosphere invoke large quantities of water, so that O/H = 1–3 × any of the other heavy elements, C, N, S, Ar, Kr, and Xe, that are 3±1 × solar, ratioed to H. However, no quantitative results on O/H in the deep well-mixed atmosphere are available. Since water was presumably the original carrier of heavy elements to Jupiter, det...

Galileo was the first artificial satellite to orbit Jupiter. During its late orbital mission the spacecraft made two passages through the giant planet’s gossamer ring system. The impact-ionization dust detector on board successfully recorded dust impacts during both ring passages and provided the first in-situ measurements from a dusty planetary ring. During the first passage – on 5 November 20...

We present evolutionary sequences for Jupiter and Saturn, based on new nongray model atmospheres, which take into account the evolution of the solar luminosity and partitioning of dense components to deeper layers. The results are used to set limits on the extent to which possible interior phase separation of hydrogen and helium may have progressed in the two planets. When combined with static ...

Pitch-angle diffusion coefficients of electrons have been calculated for resonant interaction with electrostatic electron-cyclotron harmonic (ECH) waves using quasi linear diffusion theory. Calculations have been performed for the planets Earth and Jupiter at three radial distances for each planet. Electron precipitation fluxes have also been calculated and compared with observed fluxes. At Ear...

Aerosols are ubiquitous in planetary atmospheres in the Solar System. However, radiative forcing on Jupiter has traditionally been attributed to solar heating and infrared cooling of gaseous constituents only, while the significance of aerosol radiative effects has been a long-standing controversy. Here we show, based on observations from the NASA spacecraft Voyager and Cassini, that gases alon...

Of the 900+ confirmed exoplanets discovered since 1995 for which we have constraints on their mass (i.e. not including Kepler candidates), 75% have masses larger than Saturn (0.3 MJ), 53% are more massive than Jupiter and 67% are within 1 AU of their host stars. When Kepler candidates are included, Neptune-sized giant planets could form the majority of the planetary population. And yet the term...