Context. Protoplanetary disks are the birth environments of planetary systems. Therefore, the study of young, circumstellar environments is essential in understanding the processes taking place in planet formation and the evolution of planetary …
With the Spectro-Polarimetric High- contrast Exoplanet REsearch (SPHERE) instrument at ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) we can study the linear polarisation of directly detected planets and brown dwarfs, to learn about their atmospheres and immediate …
Context. The effects of a planet sculpting the disk from which it formed are most likely to be found in disks that are in transition between being classical protoplanetary and debris disks. Recent direct imaging of transition disks has revealed …
Context. The atmospheric and surface characterization of rocky planets is a key goal of exoplanet science. Unfortunately, the measurements required for this are generally out of reach of present-day instrumentation. However, the planet Mercury in our …