Detection of a transit of the super-Earth 55 Cancri e with warm <i>Spitzer</i>

Demory, Brice-Olivier; Gillon, M.; Deming, Drake; Valencia, Diana; Seager, Sara; Benneke, Bjoern; Lovis, C.; Cubillos, Patricio; Harrington, J.; Stevenson, Kevin B.; Mayor, M.; Pepe, F.; Queloz, D.; Ségransan, D.; Udry, S.

doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201117178

Cited by 191 publications

(192 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…composed of an Iron core (30% by mass) overlaid by a silicate mantle and crust. Previous studies which used a larger radius of the planet required a thick water envelope (Demory et al 2011;Winn et al 2011) or a carbon-rich interior ), neither of which are now required but cannot be ruled out either. However, under the assumption of an Earth-like interior, which is also the case for Io, the outgassed products could comprise of gaseous CO2 and sulfur compounds (Moses et al 2002;Schaefer & Fegley 2005) along with particulate matter composed of silicates (Spencer et al 1997;McEwen et al 1998).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Data were obtained as part of the programs IDs 60027, 80231 and 90208. Two transits were observed in 2011 (PID 60027) (Demory et al 2011;, four occultations in 2012 (PID 80231) , as well as four transits and four other occultations in 2013 (PID 90208). The corresponding data can be accessed using the Spitzer Heritage Archive 1 .…”

Section: Observationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We show the retained aperture size as well as the corresponding RMS and β factor for each dataset in Table 1. For all datasets we discard the photometry corresponding to the first 30 minutes as it usually exhibits a strong time-dependent ramp (Demory et al 2011). This procedure is common practice for warm Spitzer data (e.g.…”

Section: Data Reductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Variability in the super-Earth 55 Cnc e

Demory

Gillon

Madhusudhan

et al. 2015

Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc.

155

147

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Considerable progress has been made in recent years in observations of atmospheric signatures of giant exoplanets, but processes in rocky exoplanets remain largely unknown due to major challenges in observing small planets. Numerous efforts to observe spectra of superEarths, exoplanets with masses of 1-10 Earth masses, have thus far revealed only featureless spectra. In this paper we report a 4-σ detection of variability in the dayside thermal emission from the transiting super-Earth 55 Cancri e. Dedicated space-based monitoring of the planet in the mid-infrared over eight eclipses revealed the thermal emission from its dayside atmosphere varying by a factor 3.7 between 2012 and 2013. The amplitude and trend of the variability are not explained by potential influence of star spots or by local thermal or compositional changes in the atmosphere over the short span of the observations. The possibility of large scale surface activity due to strong tidal interactions possibly similar to Io, or the presence of circumstellar/circumplanetary material appear plausible and motivate future long-term monitoring of the planet.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Observationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Variability in the super-Earth 55 Cnc e

Demory

Gillon

Madhusudhan

et al. 2015

Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc.

155

147

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“…Both the small Roche lobe and the high equilibrium temperature favor a strong atmospheric escape and the lost atmospheric mass could be readily replenished by evaporation of the planet's surface or oceans (Yelle et al 2008;Schaefer & Fegley 2009;Ehrenreich 2010). The evaporated gas should be readily dissociated in the hightemperature halo.…”

Section: Potential Atmospheric Studies Of 55 Cnc Ementioning

confidence: 99%

Improved precision on the radius of the nearby super-Earth 55 Cnc e

Gillon

Demory

Benneke

et al. 2012

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We report on new transit photometry for the super-Earth 55 Cnc e obtained with Warm Spitzer/IRAC at 4.5 μm. An individual analysis of these new data leads to a planet radius of 2.21 +0.15 −0.16 R ⊕ , which agrees well with the values previously derived from the MOST and Spitzer transit discovery data. A global analysis of both Spitzer transit time-series improves the precision on the radius of the planet at 4.5 μm to 2.20 ± 0.12 R ⊕ . We also performed an independent analysis of the MOST data, paying particular attention to the influence of the systematic effects of instrumental origin on the derived parameters and errors by including them in a global model instead of performing a preliminary detrending-filtering processing. We deduce an optical planet radius of 2.04 ± 0.15 R ⊕ from this reanalysis of MOST data, which is consistent with the previous MOST result and with our Spitzer infrared radius. Assuming the achromaticity of the transit depth, we performed a global analysis combining Spitzer and MOST data that results in a planet radius of 2.17 ± 0.10 R ⊕ (13 820 ± 620 km). These results point to 55 Cnc e having a gaseous envelope overlying a rocky nucleus, in agreement with previous works. A plausible composition for the envelope is water which would be in super-critical form given the equilibrium temperature of the planet.

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“…The ability to generate a substantial inclination offset from the orbital plane of the original planetary system offers an explanation for the tension between the astrometric measurement of 55 Canc d's inclination by McArthur et al (2004) and the transitting nature of 55 Canc e (Winn et al 2011;Demory et al 2011). One observation potentially in conflict with this scenario is the statistically marginal detection of an extended H atmosphere of 55 Canc b by Ehrenreich et al (2012).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the potentially dramatic history of the super-Earth ρ 55 Cancri e

Hansen

Zink

2015

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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We demonstrate that tidal evolution of the inner planet ('e') of the system orbiting the star ρ 55 Cancri could have led to passage through two secular resonances with other planets in the system. The consequence of this evolution is excitation of both the planetary eccentricity and inclination relative to the original orbital plane. The large mass ratio between the innermost planet and the others means that these excitations can be of substantial amplitude and can have dramatic consequences for the system organisation. Such evolution can potentially explain the large observed mutual inclination between the innermost and outermost planets in the system, and implies that tidal heating could have substantially modified the structure of planet e, and possibly reduced its mass by Roche lobe overflow. Similar inner secular resonances may be found in many multiple planet systems and suggest that many of the innermost planets in these systems could have suffered similar evolutions.

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Detection of a transit of the super-Earth 55 Cancri e with warm Spitzer

Cited by 191 publications

References 52 publications

Variability in the super-Earth 55 Cnc e

Variability in the super-Earth 55 Cnc e

Improved precision on the radius of the nearby super-Earth 55 Cnc e

On the potentially dramatic history of the super-Earth ρ 55 Cancri e

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