ATMOSPHERIC CHARACTERIZATION OF FIVE HOT JUPITERS WITH THE WIDE FIELD CAMERA 3 ON THEHUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE

Abstract

We probe the structure and composition of the atmospheres of 5 hot Jupiter exoplanets using the Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) instrument. We use the G141 grism (1.1-1.7 µm) to study and CoRoT-1b in transit, TrES-3b in secondary eclipse, and WASP-4b in both. This wavelength region includes a predicted absorption feature from water at 1.4 µm, which we expect to be nondegenerate with the other molecules that are likely to be abundant for hydrocarbon-poor (e.g. solar composition) hot Jupiter atmospheres. We divide our wavelength regions into 10 bins. For each bin we produce a spectrophotometric light curve spanning the time of transit and/or eclipse. We correct these light curves for instrumental systematics without reference to an instrument model. For our transmission spectra, our mean 1 − σ precision per bin corresponds to variations of 2.1, 2.8, and 3.0 atmospheric scale heights for TrES-2b, TrES-4b, and CoRoT-1b, respectively. We find featureless spectra for these three planets. We are unable to extract a robust transmission spectrum for WASP-4b. For our dayside emission spectra, our mean 1 − σ precision per bin corresponds to a planet-to-star flux ratio of 1.5 × 10 −4 and 2.1 × 10 −4 for WASP-4b and TrES-3b, respectively. We combine these estimates with previous broadband measurements and conclude that for both planets isothermal atmospheres are disfavored. We find no signs of features due to water. We confirm 1 Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA

Ground-based near-UV observations of 15 transiting exoplanets: constraints on their atmospheres and no evidence for asymmetrical transits

“…Follow-up transit observations have confirmed and refined the planetary parameters of this system Colón et al 2010;Croll et al 2010;Gilliland et al 2010;Mislis et al 2010;O'Donovan et al 2010;Scuderi et al 2010;Southworth 2011;Kipping & Bakos 2011;Kipping & Spiegel 2011;Christiansen et al 2011;Barclay et al 2012;Schröter, Schmitt & Müller 2012;Esteves et al 2013;Ranjan et al 2014). In addition, Rossiter-McLaughlin effect measurements of the system found that TrES-2b is aligned with its host star's equator (−9 • ± 12 • ) and orbits in a prograde orbit (Winn et al 2008a).…”

“…Several follow-up primary transit photometry studies of the system find no signs of a changing period (Bean 2009;Gillon et al 2009;Csizmadia et al 2010;Rauer et al 2010;Southworth 2011;Sada et al 2012;Ranjan et al 2014). CoRoT-1b's atmosphere may have a temperature inversion (Alonso et al 2009;Gillon et al 2009;Rogers et al 2009;Snellen, de Mooij & Albrecht 2009;Zhao et al 2012) or an isothermal profile (Deming et al 2011).…”

“…Primary transit follow-up studies have refined these planetary parameters and searched for transit timing variations (Torres et al 2008;Sozzetti et al 2009Sozzetti et al , 2015Southworth 2010;Chan et al 2011;Sada et al 2012;Ranjan et al 2014). TrES-4b was found to be aligned (6.…”

Observing transiting planets with JWST

“…Unfortunately, the currently available ground-based data for this A10, page 14 of 23 (2015), Turner et al (2016). Black squares denote the HST WFC3 data by Ranjan et al (2014). Synthetic spectra for the homogeneously cloudy models with X max = 3 × 10 −4 Z Pl are shown as teal and red solid lines for the DHS and Mie opacity, respectively.…”

The GAPS programme with HARPS-N at TNG

“…Measurements of the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect (Narita et al 2010, N10 hereafter) revealed close spin-orbit alignment of the TrES-4 system. Atmospheric characterization measurements have been obtained by Knutson et al (2009), who detected a temperature inversion in the TrES-4b broadband infrared emission spectrum with Spitzer/IRAC during secondary eclipse, and by Ranjan et al (2014), who presented a featureless transmission spectrum of TrES-4b using HST/WFC3 during primary transit. Constraints from the secondary eclipse measurements and A&A 575, L15 (2015) expanded radial-velocity (RV) datasets , K14 thereafter) indicate a probable circular orbit for TrES-4b.…”