Context. High-resolution spectroscopy (R ≥ 20 000) at near-infrared wavelengths can be used to investigate the composition, structure, and circulation patterns of exoplanet atmospheres. However, up to now it has been the exclusive dominion of the biggest telescope facilities on the ground, due to the large amount of photons necessary to measure a signal in high-dispersion spectra. Aims. Here we show that spectrographs with a novel design – in particular a large spectral range – can open exoplanet characterisation to smaller telescope facilities too. We aim to demonstrate the concept on a series of spectra of the exoplanet HD 189 733 b taken at the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo with the near-infrared spectrograph GIANO during two transits of the planet. Methods. In contrast to absorption in the Earth’s atmosphere (telluric absorption), the planet transmission spectrum shifts in radial velocity during transit due to the changing orbital motion of the planet. This allows us to remove the telluric spectrum while preserving the signal of the exoplanet. The latter is then extracted by cross-correlating the residual spectra with template models of the planet atmosphere computed through line-by-line radiative transfer calculations, and containing molecular absorption lines from water and methane. Results. By combining the signal of many thousands of planet molecular lines, we confirm the presence of water vapour in the atmosphere of HD 189 733 b at the 5.5σ level. This signal was measured only in the first of the two observing nights. By injecting and retrieving artificial signals, we show that the non-detection on the second night is likely due to an inferior quality of the data. The measured strength of the planet transmission spectrum is fully consistent with past CRIRES observations at the VLT, excluding a strong variability in the depth of molecular absorption lines.
209458b formed far from its present location and subsequently migrated inwards 11,13 . Other hot Jupiters may also show a richer chemistry than has been previously found, which would bring into question the frequently made assumption that they have solar-like and oxygen-rich compositions.We observed four transits of HD 209458b, the archetype of transiting hot Jupiters, with the near-infrared echelle spectrograph GIANO-B 14 , mounted at the 3.6-m Telescopio Nazionale Galileo located in La Palma, Spain. The transits happened on
This paper presents the atmospheric characterization of three large, gaseous planets: WASP-127 b, WASP-79 b, and WASP-62 b. We analyzed spectroscopic data obtained with the G141 grism (1.088-1.68 μm) of the Wide Field Camera 3 on board the Hubble Space Telescope using the Iraclis pipeline and the TauREx3 retrieval code, both of which are publicly available. For WASP-127 b, which is the least dense planet discovered so far and is located in the shortperiod Neptune desert, our retrieval results found strong water absorption corresponding to an abundance of log(H 2 O)=−2.71-+ 1.05 0.78 and absorption compatible with an iron hydride abundance of log(FeH)=-+ 5.25 1.10 0.88 , with an extended cloudy atmosphere. We also detected water vapor in the atmospheres of WASP-79 b and WASP-62 b, with best-fit models indicating the presence of iron hydride, too. We used the Atmospheric Detectability Index as well as Bayesian log evidence to quantify the strength of the detection and compared our results to the hot Jupiter population study by Tsiaras et al. While all the planets studied here are suitable targets for characterization with upcoming facilities such as the James Webb Space Telescope and Ariel, WASP-127 b is of particular interest due to its low density, and a thorough atmospheric study would develop our understanding of planet formation and migration. Unified Astronomy Thesaurus concepts: Exoplanet astronomy (486); Exoplanet atmospheres (487); Astronomy data analysis (1858); Hubble Space Telescope (761)
We analyze the transmission and emission spectra of the ultra-hot Jupiter WASP-76 b, observed with the G141 grism of the Hubble Space Telescope's (HST) Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). We reduce and fit the raw data for each observation using the open-source software Iraclis before performing a fully Bayesian retrieval using the publicly available analysis suite TauREx 3. Previous studies of the WFC3 transmission spectra of WASP-76 b found hints of titanium oxide (TiO) and vanadium oxide (VO) or non-gray clouds. Accounting for a fainter stellar companion to WASP-76, we reanalyze this data and show that removing the effects of this background star changes the slope of the spectrum, resulting in these visible absorbers no longer being detected, eliminating the need for a non-gray cloud model to adequately fit the data but maintaining the strong water feature previously seen. However, our analysis of the emission spectrum suggests the presence of TiO and an atmospheric thermal inversion, along with a significant amount of water. Given the brightness of the host star and the size of the atmospheric features, WASP-76 b is an excellent target for further characterization with HST, or with future facilities, to better understand the nature of its atmosphere, to confirm the presence of TiO and to search for other optical absorbers.
Context. The study of exoplanetary atmospheres is key to understanding the differences between their physical, chemical, and dynamical processes. Until now, the bulk of atmospheric characterization analyses have been conducted on transiting planets. On a number of sufficiently bright targets, high-resolution spectroscopy (HRS) has also been successfully tested for nontransiting planets mainly by using spectrographs mounted on 8 and 10 m class ground-based telescopes. Aims. The aim of this analysis is to study the dayside of the nontransiting planet HD 102195b using the GIANO spectrograph mounted at the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG), and thereby demonstrate the feasibility of atmospheric characterization measurements. In particular, we wish to demonstrate the possibility of molecular detection with the HRS technique for nontransiting planets using 4 m class telescopes. Methods. Our data-analysis technique exploits the fact that the Doppler-shifted planetary signal changes on the order of many kilometers per second during the observations, in contrast with the telluric absorption which is stationary in wavelength. This allows us to effectively remove the contamination from telluric lines in the GIANO spectra while preserving the features of the planetary spectrum. The emission signal from the atmosphere of HD 102195b is then extracted by cross-correlating the residual GIANO spectra with models of the planetary atmosphere. Results. We detect molecular absorption from water vapor at the 4.4σ level of statistical significance. We also find convincing evidence for the presence of methane, which is detected at the 4.1σ level. This is the first detection of methane obtained with the HRS technique. The two molecules are detected with a combined significance of 5.3σ, at a semi-amplitude of the planet radial velocity KP = 128 ± 6 km s−1. We estimate a true planet mass of MP = 0.46 ± 0.03 MJ and constrain the orbital inclination in the range 72.5° < i < 84.79° (1σ). Our analysis indicates a noninverted atmosphere for HD 102195b. This is expected given the relatively low temperature of the planet, inefficient to keep TiO/VO in gas phase. Moreover, a comparison with theoretical model expectations corroborates our detection of methane, and a cursory confrontation with chemical model predictions published in the literature suggests that the detected methane and water signatures could be consistent with a low C/O ratio for HD 102195b. Finally, as HD 102195 is one to three magnitudes fainter in the K-band than the nontransiting systems studied until now with 8 m telescopes, our study opens up the possibility for atmospheric characterization of a larger sample of exoplanets.
We present a study on the spatially scanned spectroscopic observations of the transit of GJ 1132 b, a warm (∼500 K) super-Earth (1.13 R ⊕ ) that was obtained with the G141 grism (1.125-1.650 μm) of the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) on board the Hubble Space Telescope. We used the publicly available Iraclis pipeline to extract the planetary transmission spectra from the five visits and produced a precise transmission spectrum. We analyzed the spectrum using the TauREx3 atmospheric retrieval code, with which we show that the measurements do not contain molecular signatures in the investigated wavelength range and are best fit with a flat-line model. Our results suggest that the planet does not have a clear primordial, hydrogen-dominated atmosphere. Instead, GJ 1132 b could have a cloudy hydrogen-dominated atmosphere, have a very enriched secondary atmosphere, be airless, or have a tenuous atmosphere that has not been detected. Due to the narrow wavelength coverage of WFC3, these scenarios cannot be distinguished yet, but the James Webb Space Telescope may be capable of detecting atmospheric features, although several observations may be required to provide useful constraints.Unified Astronomy Thesaurus concepts: Exoplanet atmospheres (487); Astronomy data analysis (1858); Hubble Space Telescope (761); Exoplanets (498)
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