Colloquium: Brittany Miles (Arizona)

Brown dwarfs are high-quality testing grounds for atmospheric models and optimizing requirements for exoplanet-focused instrumentation. Brown dwarfs have similar atmospheric physics and chemistry to gas giant exoplanets, but are much easier to observe because they do not suffer from host star obscuration. I will discuss observational projects to characterize disequilibrium chemistry in the atmospheres of the coldest known brown dwarfs. I will share the results of the JWST Early Release Science observations of VHS 1256b which cover 1 to 20 microns at medium resolution and show detections of water, methane, carbon monoxide and silicate cloud features. Lastly, I will discuss how thirty-meter class telescopes can be used beyond 5 microns to detect and characterize both Earth-like planets and gas giants.