Worlds Beyond Our Solar System: Tracing the Origins, Atmospheres, and Interiors of Exoplanets

The discovery of planets beyond our Solar System — exoplanets — has revolutionized our understanding of planet formation and the potential for life elsewhere in the universe. These distant worlds show remarkable diversity in mass, size, temperature, orbital architecture, and chemical composition. From scorching hot Jupiters to temperate, Earth-sized rocky planets, exoplanets challenge traditional models and demand new frameworks for understanding planetary systems. In this talk, I will explore the physical and chemical processes that govern the formation of exoplanets, highlighting why many of them differ so dramatically from those in our own Solar System. I will also discuss the tools and techniques used to probe their atmospheres and interiors — combining data from both space- and ground-based observatories with advanced atmospheric and structural models. These approaches help us uncover the building blocks, thermal structures, and potential habitability of these new worlds. Additionally, I will present some of our recent efforts to constrain exoplanetary atmospheres using data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), and offer a glimpse into the exciting future of this rapidly evolving field. I will highlight the transformative potential of upcoming facilities such as the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), ARIEL, and NASA’s proposed 2040 flagship mission, the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO). These missions promise to mark the beginning of a new era of precision exoplanet science—bringing us closer than ever to answering one of humanity’s oldest questions: Are we alone? Or will we discover an Earth 2.0 orbiting a Sun-like star?