Examining the emission and transmission spectra of WASP-79b with retrieval 

Abstract

<p>Retrieval tools provide a way of determining an exoplanet atmosphere's temperature structure and composition with an observed planetary spectrum, working backwards to determine the chemistry and temperature by iteratively comparing synthetic spectra that have been constructed via a forward model to the observed spectra and determining a best-fit result (Barstow and Heng, 2020). This talk will be presenting the emission and reanalysed transmission spectrum and retrieval analysis of WASP-79b, an inflated hot Jupiter first detected by Smalley et al. (2012). Previous transmission spectra of WASP-79b has been analysed in Sozten et al. (2020), Skaf et al. (2020), and Rathcke et al. (2021); all studies agreeing on detections of H2O with various confidence levels, with the latter finding moderate evidence of an H- bound-free opacity compared to iron hydride abundance found by the other studies. Using the publicly available \verb+Iraclis+ data analysis pipeline and the Bayesian atmospheric retrieval framework TauREx 3, we will be adding to the global picture of this planet by examining the Hubble Space Telescope emission spectra as captured by the Wide Field Camera 3 G141 grism (PI: David Sing, proposal ID: 14767). </p>