Exoplanet atmospheres with GIANO II. Detection of molecular absorption in the dayside spectrum of HD 102195b

The study of exoplanetary atmospheres is key to understand the differences between their physical, chemical and dynamical processes. Up to now, the bulk of atmospheric characterization analysis has been conducted on transiting planets. On some sufficiently bright targets, high-resolution spectroscopy (HRS) has also been successfully tested for non-transiting planets. We study the dayside of the non-transiting planet HD 102195b using the GIANO spectrograph mounted at TNG, demonstrating the feasibility of atmospheric characterization measurements and molecular detection for non-transiting planets with the HRS technique using 4-m class telescopes. The Doppler-shifted planetary signal changes on the order of many km/s during the observations, in contrast with the telluric absorption which is stationary in wavelength, allowing us to remove the contamination from telluric lines while preserving the features of the planetary spectrum. The emission signal from HD 102195b's atmosphere is then extracted by cross-correlating the residual spectra with atmospheric models. We detect molecular absorption from water vapor at 4.4$\sigma$ level. We also find convincing evidence for the presence of methane, which is detected at the 4.1$\sigma$ level. The two molecules are detected with a combined significance of 5.3$\sigma$, at a semi-amplitude of the planet radial velocity $K_P=128\pm 6$ km/s. We estimate a planet true mass of $M_P=0.46\pm 0.03~M_J$ and orbital inclination between 72.5 and 84.79$^{\circ}$ (1$\sigma$). Our analysis indicates a non-inverted atmosphere for HD 102195b, as expected given the relatively low temperature of the planet, inefficient to keep TiO/VO in gas phase. Moreover, a comparison with theoretical expectations and chemical model predictions corroborates our methane detection and suggests that the detected $CH_4$ and $H_2O$ signatures could be consistent with a low C/O ratio.Comment: 12 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in A&

Exoplanet atmospheres with GIANO. I. Water in the transmission spectrum of HD 189733b

High-resolution spectroscopy (R $\ge$ 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. 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 189733 b taken at the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo with the near-infrared spectrograph GIANO during two transits of the planet. 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. By combining the signal of many thousands of planet molecular lines, we confirm the presence of water vapour in the atmosphere of HD 189733 b at the 5.5-$\sigma$ 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.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures. Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics. v2 includes language editin

DREAM: III.A helium survey in exoplanets on the edge of the hot Neptune desert with GIANO-B@TNG

The population of close-in exoplanets features a desert of hot Neptunes whose origin is uncertain. These planets may have lost their atmosphere, eroding into mini-Neptunes and super-Earths. Direct observations of evaporating atmospheres are essential to derive mass-loss estimates and constrain this scenario. The metastable 1083.3nm HeI triplet represents a powerful diagnostic of atmospheric evaporation since it traces the hot gas in extended exoplanet atmospheres, is observable from the ground, and is weakly affected by interstellar medium absorption. We conducted a uniform HeI transmission spectroscopy survey, focusing on 9 planets located at the edges of the Neptunian desert, aiming to gain insights into the role of photo-evaporation in its formation. We observed one transit per planet using the high-resolution, near-infrared spectrograph GIANO-B on the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo. We focused our analysis on the HeI triplet by computing high-resolution transmission spectra. We then employed the p-winds model to interpret the observed transmission spectra. We found no sign of planetary absorption in the HeI triplet in any of the investigated targets. We thus provided 3sigma upper-limit estimations on the thermosphere absorption, temperature, and mass loss, and combined them with past measurements to search for correlations with parameters thought to be drivers in the formation of the HeI triplet. Our results strengthen the importance of performing homogeneous surveys and analyses to bring clarification in the HeI detection and hence in the Neptunian desert origin. Our findings corroborate the literature expectations that the HeI absorption signal correlates with the stellar mass and the received XUV flux. However, these trends seem to disappear in terms of mass-loss rates; further studies are essential to shed light on this aspect and to understand better the photo-evaporation process.Comment: 23 pages, 13 figures, accepted for publication in A&A, after language editin

Two images of Nantes as a ‘Green Model’ of Urban Planning and Governance: The ‘Collaborative City’ Versus the ‘Slow City’

This article examines how the city of Nantes, European Green Capital in 2013, came to promote plans for a new international airport at Notre-Dame-des-Landes. Deploying poststructuralist discourse theory, it analyses how the highly politicised struggle against the airport reveals the limits of the Nantes model of urban sustainability and collaboration, giving rise to a counter model, which we provisionally characterise as the ‘slow city’. While the struggle against the airport can be understood as a rural social movement, we show how its ideals and logics have been progressively displaced to Nantes itself, disclosing new images and possibilities of urban governance

Contextual effects of immigrant presence on populist radical right support: testing the ‘halo effect’ on Front National voting in France

This paper examines the relationship between immigration and populist radical right (PRR) support, based on an analysis of the contextual effects of immigrant presence on Front National vote in France in 2017. Using a unique set of survey data geolocalising respondents at the subcommunal level, it finds evidence for the existence of a curvilinear “halo effect,” with substantial increases in the probability of PRR vote in areas surrounding communities with significantly higher-than-average immigrant populations, and independent of other socio-economic context, as well as individual socio-demographic characteristics. Most importantly, a path analysis confirms the presence of individual attitudinal mediators of this halo effect on PRR vote, thus testing the foundation of the halo, namely that the contextual effects of immigrant presence act on attitudes which drive PRR support. These findings provide a significant step forward in understanding the mechanisms linking subjective experience of immigration with voting for the populist radical right

The GAPS programme at TNG XXII. The GIARPS view of the extended helium atmosphere of HD189733 b accounting for stellar activity

Exoplanets orbiting very close to their host star are strongly irradiated. This can lead the upper atmospheric layers to expand and evaporate into space. The metastable helium (HeI) triplet at 1083.3nm has recently been shown to be a powerful diagnostic to probe extended and escaping exoplanetary atmosphere. We perform high-resolution transmission spectroscopy of the transiting hot Jupiter HD189733b with the GIARPS (GIANO-B + HARPS-N) observing mode of the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo, taking advantage of the simultaneous optical+near infrared spectral coverage to detect HeI in the planet's extended atmosphere and to gauge the impact of stellar magnetic activity on the planetary absorption signal. Observations were performed during five transit events of HD189733b. By comparison of the in- and out-of-transit GIANO-B observations we compute high-resolution transmission spectra, on which we perform equivalent width measurements and light-curves analyses to gauge the excess in-transit absorption in the HeI triplet. We detect an absorption signal during all five transits. The mean in-transit absorption depth amounts to 0.75+/-0.03%. We detect night-to-night variations in the HeI absorption signal likely due to the transit events occurring in presence of stellar surface inhomogeneities. We evaluate the impact of stellar-activity pseudo-signals on the true planetary absorption using a comparative analysis of the HeI and the H$\alpha$ lines. We interpret the time-series of the HeI absorption lines in the three nights not affected by stellar contamination -exhibiting a mean in-transit absorption depth of 0.77+/-0.04%- using a 3-d atmospheric code. Our simulations suggest that the helium layers only fill part of the Roche lobe. Observations can be explained with a thermosphere heated to $\sim$12000 K, expanding up to $\sim$1.2 planetary radii, and losing $\sim$1 g/s of metastable helium.Comment: 17 pages, 17 figures, accepted for publication in A&

The GAPS programme at TNG. XLV. HI Balmer lines transmission spectroscopy and NLTE atmospheric modelling of the ultra-hot Jupiter KELT-20b/MASCARA-2b

We aim at extracting the transmission spectrum of the HI Balmer lines of the ultra-hot Jupiter (UHJ) KELT-20b/MASCARA-2b from observations and to further compare the results with what obtained through forward modelling accounting for non-local thermodynamic equilibrium (NLTE) effects. We extract the line profiles from six transits obtained with the HARPS-N high-resolution spectrograph attached to the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo telescope. We compute the temperature-pressure (TP) profile employing the helios code in the lower atmosphere and the Cloudy NLTE code in the middle and upper atmosphere. We further use Cloudy to compute the theoretical planetary transmission spectrum in LTE and NLTE for comparison with observations. We detected the Halpha (0.79+/-0.03%; 1.25 Rp), Hbeta (0.52+/-0.03%; 1.17 Rp), and Hgamma (0.39+/-0.06%; 1.13 Rp) lines, while we detected the Hdelta line at almost 4 sigma (0.27+/-0.07%; 1.09 Rp). The models predict an isothermal temperature of about2200 K at pressures >10^-2 bar and of about 7700 K at pressures <10^-8 bar, with a roughly linear temperature rise in between. In the middle and upper atmosphere, the NLTE TP profile is up to about 3000 K hotter than in LTE. The synthetic transmission spectrum derived from the NLTE TP profile is in good agreement with the observed HI Balmer line profiles, validating our obtained atmospheric structure. Instead, the synthetic transmission spectrum derived from the LTE TP profile leads to significantly weaker absorption compared to the observations. Metals appear to be the primary agents leading to the temperature inversion in UHJs and the impact of NLTE effects on them increases the magnitude of the inversion. We find that the impact of NLTE effects on the TP profile of KELT-20b/MASCARA-2b is larger than for the hotter UHJ KELT-9b, and thus NLTE effects might be relevant also for planets cooler than KELT-20b/MASCARA-2b.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysic

Mechanically Activated Fyn Utilizes mTORC2 to Regulate RhoA and Adipogenesis in Mesenchymal Stem Cells

Mechanical strain provides an anti-adipogenic, pro-osteogenic stimulus to mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) through generating intracellular signals and via cytoskeletal restructuring. Recently, mTORC2 has been shown to be a novel mechanical target critical for the anti-adipogenic signal leading to preservation of β-catenin. As mechanical activation of mTORC2 requires focal adhesions (FAs), we asked whether proximal signaling involved Src and FAK, which are early responders to integrin-FA engagement. Application of mechanical strain to marrow-derived MSCs was unable to activate mTORC2 when Src family kinases were inhibited. Fyn, but not Src, was specifically required for mechanical activation of mTORC2 and was recruited to FAs after strain. Activation of mTORC2 was further diminished following FAK inhibition, and as FAK phosphorylation (Tyr-397) required Fyn activity, provided evidence of Fyn/FAK cooperativity. Inhibition of Fyn also prevented mechanical activation of RhoA as well as mechanically induced actin stress fiber formation. We thus asked whether RhoA activation by strain was dependent on mTORC2 downstream of Fyn. Inhibition of mTORC2 or its downstream substrate, Akt, both prevented mechanical RhoA activation, indicating that Fyn/FAK affects cytoskeletal structure via mTORC2. We then sought to ascertain whether this Fyn-initiated signal pathway modulated MSC lineage decisions. siRNA knockdown of Fyn, but not Src, led to rapid attainment of adipogenic phenotype with significant increases in adipocyte protein 2, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma, adiponectin, and perilipin. As such, Fyn expression in mdMSCs contributes to basal cytoskeletal architecture and, when associated with FAs, functions as a proximal mechanical effector for environmental signals that influence MSC lineage allocation

ARES. III. Unveiling the Two Faces of KELT-7 b with HST WFC3*

We present the analysis of the hot-Jupiter KELT-7 b using transmission and emission spectroscopy from the Hubble Space Telescope, both taken with the Wide Field Camera 3. Our study uncovers a rich transmission spectrum that is consistent with a cloud-free atmosphere and suggests the presence of H_{2}O and H^{−}. In contrast, the extracted emission spectrum does not contain strong absorption features and, although it is not consistent with a simple blackbody, it can be explained by a varying temperature–pressure profile, collision induced absorption, and H^{-}. KELT-7 b had also been studied with other space-based instruments and we explore the effects of introducing these additional data sets. Further observations with Hubble, or the next generation of space-based telescopes, are needed to allow for the optical opacity source in transmission to be confirmed and for molecular features to be disentangled in emission

The GAPS Programme at TNG XXXVIII. Five molecules in the atmosphere of the warm giant planet WASP-69b detected at high spectral resolution

The field of exo-atmospheric characterisation is progressing at an extraordinary pace. Atmospheric observations are now available for tens of exoplanets, mainly hot and warm inflated gas giants, and new molecular species continue to be detected revealing a richer atmospheric composition than previously expected. Thanks to its warm equilibrium temperature (963$\pm$18~K) and low-density (0.219$\pm$0.031~g cm$^{-3}$), the close-in gas giant WASP-69b represents a golden target for atmospheric characterization. With the aim of searching for molecules in the atmosphere of WASP-69b and investigating its properties, we performed high-resolution transmission spectroscopy with the GIANO-B near-infrared spectrograph at the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo. We observed three transit events of WASP-69b. During a transit, the planetary lines are Doppler-shifted due to the large change in the planet's radial velocity, allowing us to separate the planetary signal from the quasi-stationary telluric and stellar spectrum. Considering the three nights together, we report the detection of CH$_4$, NH$_3$, CO, C$_2$H$_2$, and H$_2$O, at more than $3.3\sigma$ level. We did not identify the presence of HCN and CO$_2$ with confidence level higher than 3$\sigma$. This is the first time that five molecules are simultaneously detected in the atmosphere of a warm giant planet. These results suggest that the atmosphere of WASP-69b is possibly carbon-rich and characterised by the presence of disequilibrium chemistry.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures. Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysic