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The environment in which stars and planets form is highly dynamic. Stars commonly form in binary or multiple systems within a vast cloud of molecular gas. Stellar systems are always on the move due to the initial turbulence and rotation of the gas that they formed from. Most young stars host protoplanetary discs, made up of gas and dust and from which planets form.

Precisely characterising exoplanet masses and radii can help to resolve a compositional confusion for small exoplanets and improve our understanding of the origin of these exoplanets and their evolution.

Most potentially habitable rocky planets are expected to be in tidally locked orbits around small, cool stars. Just as the Moon always shows the same face to the Earth, these planets always have the same hemisphere facing their star.

Using a 3-D coupled climate-chemistry model (CCM), we investigate the emergence of lightning and its chemical impact on the atmospheres of tidally-locked Earth-like exoplanets (nominally Proxima Centauri b). In a tidally-locked orbit, one side of the planet faces the star at all times, leading to dayside-nightside distinctions in the planetary environment.

Wind currents in the Earth’s equatorial stratosphere change direction every 26-28 months. Abundances of ozone, methane, water vapour, and other trace atmospheric gasses oscillate on the same timescale. This phenomenon is known as the “quasi-biennial oscillation” (QBO) and also occurs on other solar system planets (Jupiter and Saturn), though with different periods.

First evidence for the presence of chromium hydride (CrH) in the atmosphere of a hot Jupiter, or a Jupiter-size planet orbiting close to its host star.

In work led by James Cadman, we investigate how a protoplanetary disc’s susceptibility to gravitational instability and fragmentation depends on the mass of its host star, finding that discs become increasingly prone to the effects of self-gravity with increasing stellar mass.

We explore atmospheric ozone dynamics on a tidally-locked M dwarf planet, nominally Proxima Centauri b, irradiated by a quiescent version of its host star.

Comet C/2019 Q4 (Borisov) was discovered on 30 August 2019 while cruising on an orbit with an eccentricity in excess of three. It is of unambiguous interstellar origin and was officially renamed 2I/Borisov on 24 September 2019.

In this work we've been able to characterise the intermediate-mass long-period exoplanets in the PH-2 and Kepler-103 systems.

For the first time, evidence of an impact taking place between planets outside our Solar System has been found.

We use precise radial velocity measurements to estimate the masses of the super-Earths around GJ 9827. We find that two of these bracket the super-Earth radius gap and indicate that irradiation from the central star may have influenced the evolution of the inner planets in this system.

Understanding the origin of very close-in, rocky exoplanets can help us to constrain the frequency of Earth-like exoplanets on orbits where liquid water may exist on their surface.

Spiral waves detected in a disc around a very young star may be indicative of a gravitational instability.

In a recent paper we searched for evidence of weather patterns in the atmospheres of three free-floating ‘exoplanet analogues’ using the Spitzer Space Telescope.

Fragment-fragment interactions can play a key role in sculpting the population of planets formed via direct collapse in gravitationally unstable protostellar discs

Researchers at the Centre for Exoplanet Science investigated the effects of viewing geometry on the observed properties of brown dwarfs.

Investigating the properties of giant planets that form via direct gravitational collapse.

Comparing observed exoplanet populations with synthetic populations so as to determine the likely formation mechanism of the known exoplanets.

Life could exist in the atmospheres of brown dwarfs and gas giants, research suggests.