Date of Award

Summer 8-27-2025

Level of Access Assigned by Author

Open-Access Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Physics

First Committee Advisor

Neil Comins

Second Committee Member

David Batuski

Third Committee Member

James McClymer

Abstract

The characterization of exoplanets is a computationally demanding undertaking. We show how confirmed exoplanets can be investigated using atmospheric models and spectra from the Python package petitRADTRANS (pRT). We find that the four Earth-like exoplanets in this study (K2-72 e, Kepler-1649 b, Kepler-1649 c, and TOI-700 e) are seemingly hot worlds with surface temperatures ranging from 600 - 800 K. We also investigate possible compositions of each atmosphere and find from our models that they appear to be hydrogen-dominated, with trace amounts of He, H2O, CH4, H2S, PH3, and NH3. The transmission spectra plots show inflated transit radius values, and from this, we estimate atmospheric depths of the exoplanets to range from 441 - 4428 km. We see that optically active chemical species contributing significantly to the transmission spectra in the infrared wavelength are H2O, H2S, and NH3. The results in this study are intended to be used as a baseline argument for potential further observations.

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