151 research outputs found
Reconstructing the photometric light curves of Earth as a planet along its history
By utilizing satellite-based estimations of the distribution of clouds, we
have studied the Earth's large-scale cloudiness behavior according to latitude
and surface types (ice, water, vegetation and desert). These empirical
relationships are used here to reconstruct the possible cloud distribution of
historical epochs of the Earth's history such as the Late Cretaceous (90 Ma
ago), the Late Triassic (230 Ma ago), the Mississippian (340 Ma ago), and the
Late Cambrian (500 Ma ago), when the landmass distributions were different from
today's. With this information, we have been able to simulate the
globally-integrated photometric variability of the planet at these epochs. We
find that our simple model reproduces well the observed cloud distribution and
albedo variability of the modern Earth. Moreover, the model suggests that the
photometric variability of the Earth was probably much larger in past epochs.
This enhanced photometric variability could improve the chances for the
difficult determination of the rotational period and the identification of
continental landmasses for a distant planets.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures. Accepted in ApJ. Latest version for publicatio
Confirmation of an exoplanet using the transit color signature: Kepler-418b, a blended giant planet in a multiplanet system
We announce confirmation of Kepler-418b, one of two proposed planets in this
system. This is the first confirmation of an exoplanet based primarily on the
transit color signature technique. We used the Kepler public data archive
combined with multicolor photometry from the Gran Telescopio de Canarias and
radial velocity follow-up using FIES at the Nordic Optical Telescope for
confirmation. We report a confident detection of a transit color signature that
can only be explained by a compact occulting body, entirely ruling out a
contaminating eclipsing binary, a hierarchical triple, or a grazing eclipsing
binary. Those findings are corroborated by our radial velocity measurements,
which put an upper limit of ~1 Mjup on the mass of Kepler-418b. We also report
that the host star is significantly blended, confirming the ~10% light
contamination suspected from the crowding metric in the Kepler light curve
measured by the Kepler team. We report detection of an unresolved light source
that contributes an additional ~40% to the target star, which would not have
been detected without multicolor photometric analysis. The resulting
planet-star radius ratio is 0.110 +/- 0.0025, more than 25% more than the 0.087
measured by Kepler, leading to a radius of 1.20 +/- 0.16 Rjup instead of the
0.94 Rjup measured by the Kepler team. This is the first confirmation of an
exoplanet candidate based primarily on the transit color signature,
demonstrating that this technique is viable from ground for giant planets. It
is particularly useful for planets with long periods such as Kepler-418b, which
tend to have long transit durations. Additionally, multicolor photometric
analysis of transits can reveal unknown stellar neighbors and binary companions
that do not affect the classification of the transiting object but can have a
very significant effect on the perceived planetary radius.Comment: accepted by Astronomy & Astrophysic
Earthshine observations of an inhabited planet
Earthshine is sunlight that has been reflected from the dayside Earth onto
the dark side of the Moon and back again to Earth. In recent times, there has
been renewed interest in ground-based visible and near-infrared measurements of
earthshine as a proxy for exoplanet observations. Observations of earthshine
allow us to explore and characterize the globally integrated photometric,
spectral and polarimetric features of the Earth, and to extract precise
information on the distinctive characteristics of our planet, and life in
particular. They also allow us to quantify how this feature changes with time
and orbital configuration. Here we present a brief review of the main
earthshine observations and results.Comment: To appear in the proceedings of the Les Houches Winter School
"Physics and Astrophysics of Planetary Systems",(EDP Sciences: EAS
Publications Series
Continuous intraocular pressure monitoring in patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome using a contact lens sensor
Purpose To analyse nocturnal intraocular pressure (IOP) fluctuations in patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) using a contact lens sensor (CLS) and to identify associations between the OSAS parameters determined by polysomnographic study (PSG) and IOP changes. Method Prospective, observational study. Twenty participants suspected of having OSAS were recruited. During PSG study, IOP was monitored using a CLS placed in the eye of the patient. The patients were classified according to the apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) in two categories, severe (>30) or mild/moderate (<30) OSAS. We evaluated several parameters determined by the IOP curves, including nocturnal elevations (acrophase) and plateau times in acrophase (PTs) defined by mathematical and visual methods. Results The IOP curves exhibited a nocturnal acrophase followed by PTs of varying extents at which the IOP remained higher than daytime measurement with small variations. We found significant differences in the length of the PTs in patients with severe OSAS compared to those with mild/moderate disease (P = 0.032/P = 0.028). We found a positive correlation between PTs and OSAS severity measured by the total number of apneic events (r = 0.681/ 0.751 P = 0.004/0.001) and AHI (r = 0.674/0.710, P = 0.004/0.002). Respiratory-related arousal and oxygen saturation also were associated significantly with the IOP PT length. Conclusions Periods of nocturnal IOP elevation lasted longer in severe OSAS patients than those with mild/moderate OSAS and correlate with the severity of the disease. The length of the nocturnal PT is also associated to respiratory parameters altered in patients with OSAS
The transmission spectrum of Earth through lunar eclipse observations
Of the 342 planets discovered so far orbiting other stars, 58 "transit" the
stellar disk, meaning that they can be detected by a periodic decrease in the
starlight flux. The light from the star passes through the atmosphere of the
planet, and in a few cases the basic atmospheric composition of the planet can
be estimated. As we get closer to finding analogues of Earth, an important
consideration toward the characterization of exoplanetary atmospheres is what
the transmission spectrum of our planet looks like. Here we report the optical
and near-infrared transmission spectrum of the Earth, obtained during a lunar
eclipse. Some biologically relevant atmospheric features that are weak in the
reflected spectrum (such as ozone, molecular oxygen, water, carbon dioxide and
methane) are much stronger in the transmission spectrum, and indeed stronger
than predicted by modelling. We also find the fingerprints of the Earth's
ionosphere and of the major atmospheric constituent, diatomic nitrogen (N2),
which are missing in the reflected spectrum.Comment: Published in Nature, 11 July 2009. This file also contains the
on-line materia
Aerosols and Water Ice in Jupiter's Stratosphere from UV-NIR Ground-based Observations
Jupiter's atmosphere has been sounded in transmission from the UV to the IR, as if it were a transiting exoplanet, by observing Ganymede while passing through Jupiter's shadow. The spectra show strong extinction due to the presence of aerosols and haze in Jupiter's atmosphere and strong absorption features of methane. Here, we report a new detailed analysis of these observations, with special emphasis on the retrievals of the vertical distribution of the aerosols and their sizes, and the properties and distribution of the stratospheric water ice. Our analysis suggests the presence of aerosols near the equator in the altitude range of 100 hPa up to at least 0.01 hPa, with a layer of small particles (mean radius of 0.1 μm) in the upper part (above 0.1 hPa), an intermediate layer of aerosols with a radius of 0.3 μm, extending between ∼10 and 0.01 hPa, and a layer with larger sizes of ∼0.6 μm at approximately 100-1 hPa. The corresponding loads for each layer are ∼2 × 10 g cm, ∼3.4 × 10 g cm, and ∼1.5 × 10 g cm, respectively, with a total load of ∼2.0 × 10 g cm. The lower and middle layers agree well with previous measurements; but the finer particles of 0.1 μm above 0.01 hPa have not been reported before. The spectra also show two broad features near 1.5 and 2.0 μm, which we attribute to a layer of very small (∼10 nm) HO crystalline ice in Jupiter's lower stratosphere (∼0.5 hPa). While these spectral signatures seem to be unequivocally attributable to crystalline water ice, they require a large amount of water ice to explain the strong absorption features.© 2018. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.We are very grateful to Rafael Escribano, Victor Herrero, Anni Maattanen, Beatriz Mate, Agustin Sanchez-Lavega, and Miguel Angel Satorre for very valuable discussions on the water ice topic. The IAA team was supported by the Spanish MICINN under projects ESP2014-54362-P, ESP2017-87143-R, and EC FEDER funds. This work is also partly financed by the Spanish Ministry of Economics and Competitiveness through grant ESP2013-48391-C4-2-R. M.G.C. is also supported by the MINECO under its >Ramon y Cajal> subprogram
Identifying the rotation rate and the presence of dynamic weather on extrasolar Earth-like planets from photometric observations
With the recent discoveries of hundreds of extrasolar planets, the search for
planets like Earth and life in the universe, is quickly gaining momentum. In
the future, large space observatories could directly detect the light scattered
from rocky planets, but they would not be able to spatially resolve a planet's
surface. Using reflectance models and real cloud data from satellite
observations, here we show that, despite Earth's dynamic weather patterns, the
light scattered by the Earth to a hypothetical distant observer as a function
of time contains sufficient information to accurately measure Earth's rotation
period. This is because ocean currents and continents result in relatively
stable averaged global cloud patterns. The accuracy of these measurements will
vary with the viewing geometry and other observational constraints. If the
rotation period can be measured with accuracy, data spanning several months
could be coherently combined to obtain spectroscopic information about
individual regions of the planetary surface. Moreover, deviations from a
periodic signal can be used to infer the presence of relatively short-live
structures in its atmosphere (i.e., clouds). This could provide a useful
technique for recognizing exoplanets that have active weather systems, changing
on a timescale comparable to their rotation. Such variability is likely to be
related to the atmospheric temperature and pressure being near a phase
transition and could support the possibility of liquid water on the planet's
surface
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