Resolving Planet Formation and Evolution Through the Lens of Jupiters

Understanding what formation and evolutionary processes produce the extraordinary diversity of planetary systems that we see today is one of the driving questions in the field. Of all the new planets that have been discovered, gas giants are the easiest ones for us to find – they are bigger, brighter, and more massive than any other kind of planet. This means that they are ideal targets for characterization techniques that can uniquely tell us about the planet formation process, and they are so massive that they dominate the dynamics of their systems, shaping the lives of other planets. Gas giants are the movers and shakers of planetary systems, and the prime place to start to understand the physics of planet formation.

In this talk I will describe my work using multiple observational techniques to explore the formation and evolution of gas giants. I will discuss how targeting directly imaged planets with high-resolution spectroscopy enables measurements of new planetary properties like rotation rates and obliquities. These provide fundamental insights into the physics of gas giant formation, such as the evolution of planetary angular momentum. I will describe how radial velocity searches for Jupiter analogs in systems with known inner planets reveal the impact gas giants have on the inner architectures of planetary systems, and are a key step in the search for life on other worlds. Finally, I will highlight ongoing programs aiming to expand observational probes of planet formation and evolution by targeting two frontiers of exploration: gas giant interior structure and magnetism.