Atmospheric Characterization of Extremely Inflated Exoplanets: The Curious Case of KELT 11b

In recent years, a population of extremely inflated sub-Saturn-mass exoplanets orbiting bright stars has emerged from the thousands of exoplanets known. These exoplanets are phenomenal targets for atmospheric characterization due to their bright host stars and large atmospheric scale heights. Subsequently, they are being studied intensively to measure the abundances of water and other metals in their atmospheres in order to place constraints on the location of their origin within a disk. Such inflated sub-Saturn-mass planets bridge the divide between super-Earths and Jupiters, so constraints on their atmospheric composition and metallicities are particularly important for informing planet formation models.