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

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 2 exoplanets have mostly relied on space-based observations of the hydrogen Lyman-α 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^(-1) and post transit absorption, which we interpret as the escape of part of the atmosphere trailing behind the planet in comet-like form

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, and these losses can affect their physical and chemical evolution. Studies of atmospheric escape from exoplanets have mostly relied on space-based observations of the hydrogen Lyman-a line in the far ultraviolet region, which is strongly affected by interstellar absorption. Using ground-based high-resolution spectroscopy, we detected excess absorption in the helium triplet at 1083 nanometers during the transit of the Saturn-mass exoplanet WASP-69b, at a signal-to-noise ratio of 18. We measured line blueshifts of several kilometers per second and posttransit absorption, which we interpret as the escape of part of the atmosphere trailing behind the planet in comet-like form.© 2018 American Association for the Advancement of Science. All rights reserved.CARMENES is an instrument for the Centro Astronomico Hispano-Aleman de Calar Alto (CAHA, Almeria, Spain). CARMENES is funded by the German Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (MPG), the Spanish Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC), the European Union through FEDER/ERF FICTS-2011-02 funds, and the members of the CARMENES Consortium (Max-Planck-Institut fur Astronomie, Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia, Landessternwarte Konigstuhl, Institut de Ciencies de l'Espai, Insitut fur Astrophysik Gottingen, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Thuringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg, Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, Hamburger Sternwarte, Centro de Astrobiologia, and Centro Astronomico Hispano-Aleman), with additional contributions by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, the German Science Foundation through the Major Research Instrumentation Programme and Deutsche Forschungsgesellschaft (DFG) Research Unit FOR2544 >Blue Planets around Red Stars,> the Klaus Tschira Stiftung, the states of Baden-Wurttemberg and Niedersachsen, and by the Junta de Andalucia. We acknowledge funding from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) and the Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER) through grants ESP2016-80435-C2-1-R, ESP 2016-76076-R, ESP2014-54362-P, ESP 2014-54062-R, AYA2016-79425-C3-2-P, AYA2016-79425-C3-1-P, AYA2016-79425C3-2-P, AYA2014-54348-C3-1-R, and AYA2016-79425-C3-3-P. We also acknowledge funding through the DFG through grants DFG DR281/32-1, RE 1664/14-1, DFG SFB 676, and DFG SCHM 1032/57-1 and by the Deutsches Zentrum fur Luft und Raumfahrt (DLR) through grants DLR 50 OR 1710, DLR 50 OR 1307, and BMWi50OR1505, as well as the support of the Generalitat de Catalunya/CERCA program. I.A.G.S. and F.J.A.-F. acknowledge funding from the research program VICI 639.043.107 funded by the Dutch Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) and funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement 694513. G.C. acknowledges support by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant 11503088) and the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (grant BK20151051)