6 research outputs found
Ground-based detection of an extended helium atmosphere in the Saturn-mass exoplanet WASP-69b
Hot gas giant exoplanets can lose part of their atmosphere due to strong
stellar irradiation, affecting their physical and chemical evolution. Studies
of atmospheric escape from exoplanets have mostly relied on space-based
observations of the hydrogen Lyman-{\alpha} line in the far ultraviolet which
is strongly affected by interstellar absorption. Using ground-based
high-resolution spectroscopy we detect excess absorption in the helium triplet
at 1083 nm during the transit of the Saturn-mass exoplanet WASP-69b, at a
signal-to-noise ratio of 18. We measure line blue shifts of several km/s and
post transit absorption, which we interpret as the escape of part of the
atmosphere trailing behind the planet in comet-like form.
[Additional notes by authors: Furthermore, we provide upper limits for helium
signals in the atmospheres of the exoplanets HD 209458b, KELT-9b, and GJ 436b.
We investigate the host stars of all planets with detected helium signals and
those of the three planets we derive upper limits for. In each case we
calculate the X-ray and extreme ultraviolet flux received by these planets. We
find that helium is detected in the atmospheres of planets (orbiting the more
active stars and) receiving the larger amount of irradiation from their host
stars.]Comment: Submitted to Science on 14 March 2018; Accepted by Science on 16
November 2018; Published by Science on 6 December 2018. This is the author's
version of the work. It is posted here by permission of the AAAS for personal
use. The definitive version was published in Science, on 6 December 2018 -
Report: pages 21 (preprint), 4 figures - Supplementary materials: 22 pages,
10 figures, 3 table
The Transit Ingress and the Tilted Orbit of the Extraordinarily Eccentric Exoplanet HD 80606b
We present the results of a transcontinental campaign to observe the 2009
June 5 transit of the exoplanet HD 80606b. We report the first detection of the
transit ingress, revealing the transit duration to be 11.64 +/- 0.25 hr and
allowing more robust determinations of the system parameters. Keck spectra
obtained at midtransit exhibit an anomalous blueshift, giving definitive
evidence that the stellar spin axis and planetary orbital axis are misaligned.
The Keck data show that the projected spin-orbit angle is between 32-87 deg
with 68.3% confidence and between 14-142 deg with 99.73% confidence. Thus the
orbit of this planet is not only highly eccentric (e=0.93), but is also tilted
away from the equatorial plane of its parent star. A large tilt had been
predicted, based on the idea that the planet's eccentric orbit was caused by
the Kozai mechanism. Independently of the theory, it is noteworthy that all 3
exoplanetary systems with known spin-orbit misalignments have massive planets
on eccentric orbits, suggesting that those systems migrate differently than
lower-mass planets on circular orbits.Comment: ApJ, in press [13 pg
Ground-breaking Exoplanet Science with the ANDES spectrograph at the ELT
In the past decade the study of exoplanet atmospheres at high-spectral
resolution, via transmission/emission spectroscopy and cross-correlation
techniques for atomic/molecular mapping, has become a powerful and consolidated
methodology. The current limitation is the signal-to-noise ratio during a
planetary transit. This limitation will be overcome by ANDES, an optical and
near-infrared high-resolution spectrograph for the ELT. ANDES will be a
powerful transformational instrument for exoplanet science. It will enable the
study of giant planet atmospheres, allowing not only an exquisite determination
of atmospheric composition, but also the study of isotopic compositions,
dynamics and weather patterns, mapping the planetary atmospheres and probing
atmospheric formation and evolution models. The unprecedented angular
resolution of ANDES, will also allow us to explore the initial conditions in
which planets form in proto-planetary disks. The main science case of ANDES,
however, is the study of small, rocky exoplanet atmospheres, including the
potential for biomarker detections, and the ability to reach this science case
is driving its instrumental design. Here we discuss our simulations and the
observing strategies to achieve this specific science goal. Since ANDES will be
operational at the same time as NASA's JWST and ESA's ARIEL missions, it will
provide enormous synergies in the characterization of planetary atmospheres at
high and low spectral resolution. Moreover, ANDES will be able to probe for the
first time the atmospheres of several giant and small planets in reflected
light. In particular, we show how ANDES will be able to unlock the reflected
light atmospheric signal of a golden sample of nearby non-transiting habitable
zone earth-sized planets within a few tenths of nights, a scientific objective
that no other currently approved astronomical facility will be able to reach.Comment: 66 pages (103 with references) 20 figures. Submitted to Experimental
Astronom