131 research outputs found
The Temperature and Distribution of Organic Molecules in the Inner Regions of T Tauri Disks
"High-resolution NIR spectroscopic observations of warm molecular gas emission from young circumstellar disks allow us to constrain the temperature and composition of material in the inner planet-forming region. By combining advanced data reduction algorithms with accurate modeling of the terrestrial atmospheric spectrum and a novel double-differencing data analysis technique, we have achieved very high-contrast measurements (S/N approx. 500-1000) of molecular emission at 3 microns. In disks around low-mass stars, we have achieved the first detections of emission from HCN and C2H2 at near-infrared wavelengths from several bright T Tauri stars using the CRIRES spectrograph on the Very Large Telescope and NIRSPEC spectrograph on the Keck Telescope. We spectrally resolve the line shape, showing that the emission has both a Keplerian and non-Keplerian component as observed previously for CO emission. We used a simplified single-temperature local thermal equilibrium (LTE) slab model with a Gaussian line profile to make line identifications and determine a best-fit temperature and initial abundance ratios, and we then compared these values with constraints derived from a detailed disk radiative transfer model assuming LTE excitation but utilizing a realistic temperature and density structure. Abundance ratios from both sets of models are consistent with each other and consistent with expected values from theoretical chemical models, and analysis of the line shapes suggests that the molecular emission originates from within a narrow region in the inner disk (R < 1 AU).
Survival of Terrestrial Planets in the Presence of Giant Planet Migration
The presence of ``Hot Jupiters'', Jovian mass planets with very short orbital
periods orbiting nearby main sequence stars, has been proposed to be primarily
due to the orbital migration of planets formed in orbits initially much further
from the parent star. The migration of giant planets would have profound
effects on the evolution of inner terrestrial planets in these systems, and
previous analyses have assumed that no terrestrial planets survive after
migration has occurred. We present numerical simulations showing that a
significant fraction of terrestrial planets could survive the migration
process, eventually returning to circular orbits relatively close to their
original positions. A fraction of the final orbits are in the Habitable Zone,
suggesting that planetary systems with close-in giant planets are viable
targets for searches for Earth-like habitable planets around other stars.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, emulateapj. ApJL in press, referee comments
changes and edited for lengt
Spitzer Secondary Eclipses of Qatar-1b
Previous secondary eclipse observations of the hot Jupiter Qatar-1b in the Ks
band suggest that it may have an unusually high day side temperature,
indicative of minimal heat redistribution. There have also been indications
that the orbit may be slightly eccentric, possibly forced by another planet in
the system. We investigate the day side temperature and orbital eccentricity
using secondary eclipse observations with Spitzer. We observed the secondary
eclipse with Spitzer/IRAC in subarray mode, in both 3.6 and 4.5 micron
wavelengths. We used pixel-level decorrelation to correct for Spitzer's
intra-pixel sensitivity variations and thereby obtain accurate eclipse depths
and central phases. Our 3.6 micron eclipse depth is 0.149 +/- 0.051% and the
4.5 micron depth is 0.273 +/- 0.049%. Fitting a blackbody planet to our data
and two recent Ks band eclipse depths indicates a brightness temperature of
1506 +/- 71K. Comparison to model atmospheres for the planet indicates that its
degree of longitudinal heat redistribution is intermediate between fully
uniform and day side only. The day side temperature of the planet is unlikely
to be as high (1885K) as indicated by the ground-based eclipses in the Ks band,
unless the planet's emergent spectrum deviates strongly from model atmosphere
predictions. The average central phase for our Spitzer eclipses is 0.4984 +/-
0.0017, yielding e cos(omega) = -0.0028 +/- 0.0027. Our results are consistent
with a circular orbit, and we constrain e cos(omega) much more strongly than
has been possible with previous observations
Exoplanet Transit Spectroscopy Using WFC3: WASP-12 b, WASP-17 b, and WASP-19 b
We report analysis of transit spectroscopy of the extrasolar planets WASP-12
b, WASP-17 b, and WASP-19 b using the Wide Field Camera 3 on the HST. We
analyze the data for a single transit for each planet using a strategy similar
in certain aspects to the techniques used by Berta et al. (2012), but we extend
their methodology to allow us to correct for channel- or wavelength-dependent
instrumental effects by utilizing the band-integrated time series and
measurements of the drift of the spectrum on the detector over time. We achieve
almost photon-limited results for individual spectral bins, but the
uncertainties in the transit depth for the the band-integrated data are
exacerbated by the uneven sampling of the light curve imposed by the orbital
phasing of HST's observations. Our final transit spectra for all three objects
are consistent with the presence of a broad absorption feature at 1.4 microns
potentially due to water. However, the amplitude of the absorption is less than
that expected based on previous observations with Spitzer, possibly due to
hazes absorbing in the NIR or non-solar compositions. The degeneracy of models
with different compositions and temperature structures combined with the low
amplitude of any features in the data preclude our ability to place unambiguous
constraints on the atmospheric composition without additional observations with
WFC3 to improve the S/N and/or a comprehensive multi-wavelength analysis.Comment: 20 pages, 21 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ. Figure and
table positioning is preliminary and subject to change prior to final
publicatio
Water Delivery and Giant Impacts in the 'Grand Tack' Scenario
A new model for terrestrial planet formation (Hansen 2009, Walsh et al. 2011)
has explored accretion in a truncated protoplanetary disk, and found that such
a configuration is able to reproduce the distribution of mass among the planets
in the Solar System, especially the Earth/Mars mass ratio, which earlier
simulations have generally not been able to match. Walsh et al. tested a
possible mechanism to truncate the disk--a two-stage, inward-then-outward
migration of Jupiter and Saturn, as found in numerous hydrodynamical
simulations of giant planet formation. In addition to truncating the disk and
producing a more realistic Earth/Mars mass ratio, the migration of the giant
planets also populates the asteroid belt with two distinct populations of
bodies--the inner belt is filled by bodies originating inside of 3 AU, and the
outer belt is filled with bodies originating from between and beyond the giant
planets (which are hereafter referred to as `primitive' bodies).
We find here that the planets will accrete on order 1-2% of their total mass
from primitive planetesimals scattered onto planet-crossing orbits during the
formation of the planets. For an assumed value of 10% for the water mass
fraction of the primitive planetesimals, this model delivers a total amount of
water comparable to that estimated to be on the Earth today. While the radial
distribution of the planetary masses and the dynamical excitation of their
orbits are a good match to the observed system, we find that the last giant
impact is typically earlier than 20 Myr, and a substantial amount of mass is
accreted after that event. However, 5 of the 27 planets larger than half an
Earth mass formed in all simulations do experience large late impacts and
subsequent accretion consistent with the dating of the Moon-forming impact and
the estimated amount of mass accreted by Earth following that event
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