Measuring the albedo, inclination and radius of nontransiting terrestrial exoplanets

Abstract

The photometric signal we receive from a star hosting a planet is modulated by the variation of the planet signal with its orbital phase. Future telescopes (JWST and EChO) will have the capability to measure thermal phase curves of exoplanets including hot rocky planets in transiting and nontransiting configurations. We model the thermal emission of a synchronous rocky planet with no atmosphere and its apparent variation with the orbital phase for a given orbital inclination. We assume that the planet is detected by radial velocity. We simulate observed noisy phase curves and then apply a procedure to retrieve the radius and albedo of the planet and the inclination of the orbit