Virtuele laboratoria voor exoplaneten en planeetvormende schijven (CHAMELEON)

The first detection of an exoplanet marked a new epoch in our hopes to detect extraterrestrial life. These detections have opened new parameter spaces and demonstrate that physical and chemical conditions exists in (A) planet forming disks that are vastly different from what we know in the solar system and in (B) (exo)planets that are vastly different from those that characterized planet Earth when life originated in an anoxic soup, and yet could allow for life-bearing chemistry to occur. In this MC-ITN, we focus on the development of Virtual Laboratories which will be the crucial tool to analyze in detail current and future disk and exoplanet observations, and for filling the gaps of incomplete observational data. Our Virtual Laboratories will use advanced numerical and statistical methods that comprise input from astrophysics, computational chemistry, laboratory and theoretical physics, geosciences, mathematics, and computer sciences. Virtual laboratories play a key role in simulating yet unexplored physico-chemical environments. Our 3 major objectives are: -- Scientific: Retrieve and predict the chemical composition of planet-forming disks and exoplanet atmospheres. -- Technological: Knowledge transfer between planet and disk community by the exchange of state-of-the-art codes. Apply and develop models of different complexity as link between big observational and numerical modelling data. Explore models as Virtual Laboratories for parameter spaces that cannot be reached by observations nor by (laboratory) experiments. -- Educational: Train complex modelling and big-data interpretation. Use fascination for exoplanets and their birthplaces to promote science in the society and in the local and wider communities due to dedicated art & education and art & science projects.