Oral title: Detection of detailed exo-atmospheric signatures with transmission spectroscopy

Oral abstract: Transmission spectroscopy, which entails the detection of minute wavelength-dependent variations of the 
inferred planetary radius due to an optically thick atmosphere, provides us with a unique opportunity of detecting and 
characterising atmospheres of exoplanets. This is essential to understanding the formation of these alien worlds, the 
evolutionary paths that they embark on and most importantly provide a path to detection of biomarkers in possibly 
habitable exoplanets.
Ground-based observatories (VLT and Gemini for instance) have played a vital role, and will continue to do so, in 
complementing results from space-bound telescopes (HST, JWST).
I will present recent results from ESO's FORS2 instrument at UT1 of the VLT (e.g. Nikolov+ 2016, Sedaghati+ 
2015,2016,2017a,2017b), specifically concentrating on the most recent and significant result (Sedaghati+ 2017b), that 
being the first detection of a metal oxide in an atmosphere of an exoplanet.  This result is particularly important in 
detection of biomarkers in exoplanetary atmospheres, as those species would have absorbing bands with similar 
characteristics to hose of TiO detected in the atmosphere of WASP-19b (Sedaghati+ 2017b). 

References:
Nikolov N. et al., 2016, ApJ, 832(2), 191
Sedaghati E. et al., 2017b, Nature, 549, 238–241.
Sedaghati E. et al., 2017a, MNRAS, 468, 3, 3123.
Sedaghati E. et al., 2016, A&A, 596, A47
Sedaghati E. et al., 2015, A&A, 576, L11