Directly imaged planets are a peculiar population of self-luminous, massive, and young giant exoplanets and brown dwarf companions. JWST has now expanded this population to lower mass, colder, older, long-period giant exoplanets, allowing us to bridge the gap between giant exoplanets and our own Jupiter. Despite their similarities, the fundamental difference between brown dwarfs and giant planets is their formation channel. In this new uncharted territory, the best comparison objects are the coldest brown dwarfs, a population whose diversity we are just starting to map with unprecedented data quality with JWST. In this talk, I will describe prospects and measurements that we can make to establish more clearly their formation history.

Astro Colloquium and 'coffee & cookies' department gathering (3:30-3:45pm)

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