GeminiFocus 2013 Year in Review | Page 11

ets), or appeared as secondary atmospheres created from outgassing or collisions with other bodies after the planets formed. Over the last few years, our group has started exploring exoplanet atmospheres by making differential spectroscopic observations of exoplanets passing in front of their host suns (see details on this technique starting on page 11). These ground-based transit observations yield spectra (and thus clues to the composition of exoplanet atmospheres) with precisions that rival those taken with space telescopes. Using GMOS to Probe WASP-12b: A Hot Exoplanet Prototype One exoplanet that has long fascinated us is WASP-12b. This hot, Jupiter-sized planet orbits its Sun-like (G0) parent star every 26 hours. Recent work has suggested that this highly-irradiated exoplanet could have a carbo