- Kopparapu, Ravi;
- Hebrard, Eric;
- Belikov, Rus;
- Batalha, Natalie M;
- Mulders, Gijs D;
- Stark, Chris;
- Teal, Dillon;
- Domagal-Goldman, Shawn;
- Gelino, Dawn;
- Mandell, Avi;
- Roberge, Aki;
- Rinehart, Stephen;
- Kane, Stephen R;
- Hasegawa, Yasuhiro;
- Henning, Wade;
- Hicks, Brian;
- Adibekyan, Vardan;
- Schwieterman, Edward W;
- Kohler, Erika;
- Teske, Johanna;
- Hinkel, Natalie;
- Nixon, Conor;
- France, Kevin;
- Danchi, William;
- Haqq-Misra, Jacob;
- Wolf, Eric T;
- Guzewich, Scott D;
- Charnay, Benjamin;
- Arney, Giada;
- Hartnett, Hilairy E;
- Lopez, Eric D;
- Minniti, Dante;
- Renaud, Joe;
- Airapetian, Vladimir;
- Dong, Chuanfei;
- Genio, Anthony D Del;
- Trainer, Melissa;
- Rau, Gioia;
- Jensen, Adam;
- Way, Michael;
- Lisse, Carey M;
- Lyra, Wladimir;
- Marchis, Franck;
- Jontof-Hutter, Daniel;
- Young, Patrick;
- Pierrehumbert, Ray;
- Harman, Chester E;
- Fortney, Jonathan;
- Moore, Bill;
- Beckwith, Steven;
- Shock, Everett;
- Desch, Steve;
- Mandt, Kathleen E;
- Izenberg, Noam;
- Ford, Eric B;
- Curry, Shannon;
- Scharf, Caleb;
- Anbar, Ariel
This whitepaper discusses the diversity of exoplanets that could be detected
by future observations, so that comparative exoplanetology can be performed in
the upcoming era of large space-based flagship missions. The primary focus will
be on characterizing Earth-like worlds around Sun-like stars. However, we will
also be able to characterize companion planets in the system simultaneously.
This will not only provide a contextual picture with regards to our Solar
system, but also presents a unique opportunity to observe size dependent
planetary atmospheres at different orbital distances. We propose a preliminary
scheme based on chemical behavior of gases and condensates in a planet's
atmosphere that classifies them with respect to planetary radius and incident
stellar flux.