Directly imaged planets are a peculiar population of self-luminous, massive, and young giant exoplanets and brown dwarf companions. JWST has now expanded this population to lower mass, colder, older, long-period giant exoplanets, allowing us to bridge the gap between giant exoplanets and our own Jupiter. Despite their similarities, the fundamental difference between brown dwarfs and giant planets is their formation channel. In this new uncharted territory, the best comparison objects are the coldest brown dwarfs, a population whose diversity we are just starting to map with unprecedented data quality with JWST. In this talk, I will describe prospects and measurements that we can make to establish more clearly their formation history.

Speaker: Daniella Bardalez Gagliuffi (Amherst College)

All 2024 Spring Colloquium talks are held on Wednesdays at 3:00 PM. This colloquium is hosted by STScI and will be held as an in-person and virtual event.

You may join in person at STScI’s John N. Bahcall Auditorium or virtually on STScI's Live Science Events Facebook page.

Please direct questions or comments to contact above. The 2024 Spring Colloquium Committee members are: Joel Green (STScI), Matilde Mingozzi (STScI), Nashwan Sabti (JHU), Kevin Schlaufman (JHU), Ethan Vishniac (JHU), John Wu (STScI).