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Context. The temperate Earth-mass planet Proxima b is the closest exoplanet to Earth and represents what may be our best ever opportunity to search for life outside the Solar System. Aims. We aim at directly detecting Proxima b and characterizing its atmosphere by spatially resolving the planet and obtaining high-resolution reflected-light spectra. Methods. We propose to develop a coupling interface between the SPHERE high-contrast imager and the new ESPRESSO spectrograph, both installed at ESO VLT. The angular separation of 37 mas between Proxima b and its host star requires the use of visible wavelengths to spatially resolve the planet on a 8.2-m telescope. At an estimated planet-to-star contrast of ∼ 10 −7 in reflected light, Proxima b is extremely challenging to detect with SPHERE alone. However, the combination of a ∼10 3 -10 4 contrast enhancement from SPHERE to the high spectral resolution of ESPRESSO can reveal the planetary spectral features and disentangle them from the stellar ones. Results. We find that significant but realistic upgrades to SPHERE and ESPRESSO would enable a 5-σ detection of the planet and yield a measurement of its true mass and albedo in 20-40 nights of telescope time, assuming an Earth-like atmospheric composition. Moreover, it will be possible to probe the O 2 bands at 627, 686 and 760 nm, the water vapour band at 717 nm, and the methane band at 715 nm. In particular, a 3.6-σ detection of O 2 could be made in about 60 nights of telescope time. Those would need to be spread over 3 years considering optimal observability conditions for the planet. Conclusions. The very existence of Proxima b and the SPHERE-ESPRESSO synergy represent a unique opportunity to detect biosignatures on an exoplanet in the near future. It is also a crucial pathfinder experiment for the development of Extremely Large Telescopes and their instruments, in particular the E-ELT and its high-resolution visible/near-IR spectrograph.

Context. The detection of reflected light from an exoplanet is a difficult technical challenge at optical wavelengths. Even though this signal is expected to replicate the stellar signal, not only is it several orders of magnitude fainter, but it is also hidden among the stellar noise. Aims. We apply a variant of the cross-correlation technique to HARPS observations of 51 Peg to detect the reflected signal from planet 51 Peg b. Methods. Our method makes use of the cross-correlation function (CCF) of a binary mask with high-resolution spectra to amplify the minute planetary signal that is present in the spectra by a factor proportional to the number of spectral lines when performing the cross correlation. The resulting cross-correlation functions are then normalized by a stellar template to remove the stellar signal. Carefully selected sections of the resulting normalized CCFs are stacked to increase the planetary signal further. The recovered signal allows probing several of the planetary properties, including its real mass and albedo. Results. We detect evidence for the reflected signal from planet 51 Peg b at a significance of 3σ noise . The detection of the signal permits us to infer a real mass of 0.46 +0.06 −0.01 M Jup (assuming a stellar mass of 1.04 M Sun ) for the planet and an orbital inclination of 80 +10 −19 degrees. The analysis of the data also allows us to infer a tentative value for the (radius-dependent) geometric albedo of the planet. The results suggest that 51Peg b may be an inflated hot Jupiter with a high albedo (e.g., an albedo of 0.5 yields a radius of 1.9 ± 0.3 R Jup for a signal amplitude of 6.0 ± 0.4 × 10 −5 ). Conclusions. We confirm that the method we perfected can be used to retrieve an exoplanet's reflected signal, even with current observing facilities. The advent of next generation of instruments (e.g. VLT-ESO/ESPRESSO) and observing facilities (e.g. a new generation of ELT telescopes) will yield new opportunities for this type of technique to probe deeper into exoplanets and their atmospheres.

Context. The search for planets orbiting metal-poor stars is of utmost importance for our understanding of planet formation models. However, no dedicated searches have been conducted so far for very low mass planets orbiting such objects. Only a few cases of low-mass planets orbiting metal-poor stars are thus known. Amongst these, HD 41248 is a metal-poor, solar-type star on the orbit of which a resonant pair of super-Earth-like planets has been announced. This detection was based on 62 radial velocity measurements obtained with the HARPS spectrograph (public data). Aims. We present a new planet search program that is using the HARPS spectrograph to search for Neptunes and super-Earths that orbit a sample of metal-poor FGK dwarfs. We then present a detailed analysis of 162 additional radial velocity measurements of HD 41248, obtained within this program, with the goal of confirming the existence of the proposed planetary system. Methods. We analysed the precise radial velocities, obtained with the HARPS spectrograph, together with several stellar activity diagnostics and line profile indicators. Results. A careful analysis shows no evidence for the planetary system. One of the signals, with a period of ∼25 days, is shown to be related to the rotational period of the star, and is clearly seen in some of the activity proxies. We were unable to convincingly retrieve the remaining signal (P ∼ 18 days) in the new dataset. Conclusions. We discuss possible causes for the complex (evolving) signals observed in the data of HD 41248, proposing that they might be explained by the appearance and disappearance of active regions on the surface of a star with strong differential rotation, or by a combination of the sparse data sampling and active region evolution.

The present-day envelope of gaseous planets is a relic of how these giant planets originated and evolved. Measuring their elemental composition therefore presents a powerful opportunity to answer long-standing questions regarding planet formation. Obtaining precise observational constraints on the elemental inventory of giant exoplanets has, however, remained challenging owing to the limited simultaneous wavelength coverage of current space-based instruments. Here, we present thermal emission observations of the nontransiting hot Jupiter τ Boo b using the new wide wavelength coverage (0.95–2.50 μm) and high spectral resolution (R = 70,000) CFHT/SPIRou spectrograph. By combining a total of 20 hr of SPIRou data obtained over five nights in a full atmospheric retrieval framework designed for high-resolution data, we constrain the abundances of all the major oxygen- and carbon-bearing molecules and recover a noninverted temperature structure using a new free-shape, nonparametric temperature–pressure profile retrieval approach. We find a volume mixing ratio of log(CO) = − 2.46 − 0.29 + 0.25 and a highly depleted water abundance of less than 0.0072 times the expected value for a solar composition envelope. Combined with upper limits on the abundances of CH4, CO2, HCN, TiO, and C2H2, this results in a gas-phase C/H ratio of 5.85 − 2.82 + 4.44 × solar, consistent with the value of Jupiter, and an envelope C/O ratio robustly greater than 0.60, even when taking into account the oxygen that may be sequestered out of the gas phase. Combined, the inferred supersolar C/H, O/H, and C/O ratios on τ Boo b support a formation scenario beyond the water snowline in a disk enriched in CO owing to pebble drift.

Aims. We report on ESPRESSO high-resolution transmission spectroscopic observations of two primary transits of the highly irradiated, ultra-hot Jupiter-sized planet, WASP-76b. We investigated the presence of several key atomic and molecular features of interest that may reveal the atmospheric properties of the planet. Methods. We extracted two transmission spectra of WASP-76b with R ≈ 140 000 using a procedure that allowed us to process the full ESPRESSO wavelength range (3800–7880 Å) simultaneously. We observed that at a high signal-to-noise ratio, the continuum of ESPRESSO spectra shows ‘wiggles’, which are likely caused by an interference pattern outside the spectrograph. To search for the planetary features, we visually analysed the extracted transmission spectra and cross-correlated the observations against theoretical spectra of different atomic and molecular species. Results. The following atomic features are detected: Li I, Na I, Mg I, Ca II, Mn I, K I, and Fe I. All are detected with a confidence level between 9.2 σ (Na I) and 2.8 σ (Mg I). We did not detect the following species: Ti I, Cr I, Ni I, TiO, VO, and ZrO. We impose the following 1 σ upper limits on their detectability: 60, 77, 122, 6, 8, and 8 ppm, respectively. Conclusions. We report the detection of Li I on WASP-76b for the first time. In addition, we confirm the presence of Na I and Fe I as previously reported in the literature. We show that the procedure employed in this work can detect features down to the level of ~0.1% in the transmission spectrum and ~10 ppm by means of a cross-correlation method. We discuss the presence of neutral and singly ionised features in the atmosphere of WASP-76b.

At optical wavelengths, an exoplanet's signature is essentially reflected light from the host star -several orders of magnitude fainter. Since it is superimposed on the star spectrum its detection has been a difficult observational challenge. However, the development of a new generation of instruments like ESPRESSO and next generation telescopes like the E-ELT put us in a privileged position to detect these planets' reflected light as we will have access to extremely high signal-to-noise ratio spectra. With this work, we propose an alternative approach for the direct detection of the reflected light of an exoplanet. We simulated observations with ESPRESSO@VLT and HIRES@E-ELT of several star+planet systems, encompassing 10h of the most favourable orbital phases. To the simulated spectra we applied the Cross Correlation Function to operate in a much higher signal-to-noise ratio domain than when compared with the spectra. The use of the Cross-Correlation Function permitted us to recover the simulated the planet signals at a level above 3 σ noise significance on several prototypical (e.g., Neptune type planet with a 2 days orbit with the VLT at 4.4 σ noise significance) and real planetary systems (e.g., 55 Cnc e with the E-ELT at 4.9 σ noise significance). Even by using a more pessimistic approach to the noise level estimation, where systematics in the spectra increase the noise 2-3 times, the detection of the reflected light from large close-orbit planets is possible. We have also shown that this kind of study is currently within reach of current instruments and telescopes (e.g., 51 Peg b with the VLT at 5.2 σ noise significance), although at the limit of their capabilities.

We present the first exoplanet atmospheric detection made as part of the SPIRou Legacy Survey, a Large Observing Program of 300 nights exploiting the capabilities of SPIRou, the new near-infrared high-resolution (R ∼ 70,000) spectropolarimeter installed on the Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope (3.6 m). We observed two transits of HD 189733b, an extensively studied hot Jupiter that is known to show prominent water vapor absorption in its transmission spectrum. When combining the two transits, we successfully detect the planet’s water vapor absorption at 5.9σ using a cross-correlation t-test, or with a ΔBIC > 10 using a log-likelihood calculation. Using a Bayesian retrieval framework assuming parameterized temperature–pressure (T-P) profile atmospheric models, we constrain the planet atmospheric parameters, in the region probed by our transmission spectrum, to the following values: log 10 VMR [ H 2 O ] = − 4.4 − 0.4 + 0.4 , and P cloud ≳ 0.2 bar (gray clouds), both of which are consistent with previous studies of this planet. Our retrieved water volume-mixing ratio is slightly subsolar; although, combining it with the previously retrieved super-solar CO abundances from other studies would imply a super-solar C/O ratio. We furthermore measure a net blueshift of the planet signal of − 4.62 − 0.44 + 0.46 km s−1, which is somewhat larger than many previous measurements and unlikely to result solely from winds in the planet's atmosphere, although it could possibly be explained by a transit signal dominated by the trailing limb of the planet. This large blueshift is observed in all of the different detection/retrieval methods that were performed and in each of the two transits independently.