Abstract

Much to the consternation of spherical cows everywhere, planets are three-dimensional. Arguably the “most” three-dimensional planets are the type of exoplanet known as “hot Jupiters”: gas giants that orbit several stellar radii away from their hosts. These planets have hundreds of Kelvin temperature differences between their perpetual day and night sides, which drive atmospheric winds with kilometer per second speeds. Hot Jupiters provide us with the opportunity to expand our understanding of atmospheric physics into a new and extreme regime. They also are the best targets for atmospheric characterization, allowing us to test our theories. In this talk I will describe some of the complex, inherently three-dimensional physics that shapes the atmospheric structure of these planets and how my group is investigating this with numerical simulations. I will then highlight our involvement with novel atmospheric characterization measurements, both from space and the ground, which are dramatically advancing our constraints on the detailed properties of hot Jupiters. I will end by sharing my hopes (and fears) for exoplanet characterization in the era of Extremely Large Telescopes.