Thousands of transiting exoplanets have been discovered, but spectral analysis of their atmospheres has so far been dominated by a small number of exoplanets and data spanning relatively narrow ...wavelength ranges (such as 1.1-1.7 micrometres). Recent studies show that some hot-Jupiter exoplanets have much weaker water absorption features in their near-infrared spectra than predicted. The low amplitude of water signatures could be explained by very low water abundances, which may be a sign that water was depleted in the protoplanetary disk at the planet's formation location, but it is unclear whether this level of depletion can actually occur. Alternatively, these weak signals could be the result of obscuration by clouds or hazes, as found in some optical spectra. Here we report results from a comparative study of ten hot Jupiters covering the wavelength range 0.3-5 micrometres, which allows us to resolve both the optical scattering and infrared molecular absorption spectroscopically. Our results reveal a diverse group of hot Jupiters that exhibit a continuum from clear to cloudy atmospheres. We find that the difference between the planetary radius measured at optical and infrared wavelengths is an effective metric for distinguishing different atmosphere types. The difference correlates with the spectral strength of water, so that strong water absorption lines are seen in clear-atmosphere planets and the weakest features are associated with clouds and hazes. This result strongly suggests that primordial water depletion during formation is unlikely and that clouds and hazes are the cause of weaker spectral signatures.
ABSTRACT We present the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) optical transmission spectroscopy of the cool Saturn-mass exoplanet WASP-39b from 0.29-1.025 m, along ...with complementary transit observations from Spitzer IRAC at 3.6 and 4.5 m. The low density and large atmospheric pressure scale height of WASP-39b make it particularly amenable to atmospheric characterization using this technique. We detect a Rayleigh scattering slope as well as sodium and potassium absorption features; this is the first exoplanet in which both alkali features are clearly detected with the extended wings predicted by cloud-free atmosphere models. The full transmission spectrum is well matched by a clear H2-dominated atmosphere, or one containing a weak contribution from haze, in good agreement with the preliminary reduction of these data presented in Sing et al. WASP-39b is predicted to have a pressure-temperature profile comparable to that of HD 189733b and WASP-6b, making it one of the coolest transiting gas giants observed in our HST STIS survey. Despite this similarity, WASP-39b appears to be largely cloud-free, while the transmission spectra of HD 189733b and WASP-6b both indicate the presence of high altitude clouds or hazes. These observations further emphasize the surprising diversity of cloudy and cloud-free gas giant planets in short-period orbits and the corresponding challenges associated with developing predictive cloud models for these atmospheres.
We report the first ensemble results from the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer survey of molecular hydrogen in lines of sight with AV>~1 mag. We have developed techniques for fitting computed ...profiles to the low-J lines of H2, and thus determining column densities for J=0 and J=1, which contain >~99% of the total H2. From these column densities and ancillary data we have derived the total H2 column densities, hydrogen molecular fractions, and kinetic temperatures for 23 lines of sight. This is the first significant sample of molecular hydrogen column densities of ~1021 cm-2, measured through UV absorption bands. We have also compiled a set of extinction data for these lines of sight, which sample a wide range of environments. We have searched for correlations of our H2-related quantities with previously published column densities of other molecules and extinction parameters. We find strong correlations between H2 and molecules such as CH, CN, and CO, in general agreement with predictions of chemical models. We also find the expected correlations between hydrogen molecular fraction and various density indicators such as kinetic temperature, CN abundance, the steepness of the far-UV extinction rise, and the width of the 2175 Å bump. Despite the relatively large molecular fractions, we do not see the values greater than 0.8 expected in translucent clouds. With the exception of a few lines of sight, we see little evidence for the presence of individual translucent clouds in our sample. We conclude that most of the lines of sight are actually composed of two or more diffuse clouds similar to those found toward targets like ζ Oph. We suggest a modification in terminology to distinguish between a ``translucent line of sight'' and a ``translucent cloud.''
Exoplanets orbiting close to their parent stars may lose some fraction of their atmospheres because of the extreme irradiation. Atmospheric mass loss primarily affects low-mass exoplanets, leading to ...the suggestion that hot rocky planets might have begun as Neptune-like, but subsequently lost all of their atmospheres; however, no confident measurements have hitherto been available. The signature of this loss could be observed in the ultraviolet spectrum, when the planet and its escaping atmosphere transit the star, giving rise to deeper and longer transit signatures than in the optical spectrum. Here we report that in the ultraviolet the Neptune-mass exoplanet GJ 436b (also known as Gliese 436b) has transit depths of 56.3 ± 3.5% (1σ), far beyond the 0.69% optical transit depth. The ultraviolet transits repeatedly start about two hours before, and end more than three hours after the approximately one hour optical transit, which is substantially different from one previous claim (based on an inaccurate ephemeris). We infer from this that the planet is surrounded and trailed by a large exospheric cloud composed mainly of hydrogen atoms. We estimate a mass-loss rate in the range of about 10(8)-10(9) grams per second, which is far too small to deplete the atmosphere of a Neptune-like planet in the lifetime of the parent star, but would have been much greater in the past.
Among the hot Jupiters known to date that transit their parent stars, the two best candidates to be observed with transmission spectroscopy in the mid-infrared (MIR) are HD 189733b and HD 209458b, ...due to their combined characteristics of planetary density, orbital parameters, and parent star distance and brightness. Here we simulate transmission spectra of these two planets during their primary transit in the MIR, and we present sensitivity studies of the spectra to the changes of atmospheric thermal properties, molecular abundances, and C/O ratios. Our model predicts that the dominant species absorbing in the MIR on hot Jupiters are water vapor and carbon monoxide, and their relative abundances are determined by the C/O ratio. Since the temperature profile plays a secondary role in the transmission spectra of hot Jupiters compared to molecular abundances, future primary transit observations in the MIR of those objects might offer insight on extrasolar giant planet atmospheric chemistry. We find here that the absorption features caused by water vapor and carbon monoxide in a cloud-free atmosphere are deep enough to be observable by the present and future generation of space-based observatories, such as Spitzer Space Telescope and James Webb Space Telescope. We discuss our results in light of the capabilities of these telescopes.
Water is predicted to be among the most abundant (if not the most abundant) molecular species after hydrogen in the atmospheres of close-in extrasolar giant planets ('hot Jupiters'). Several attempts ...have been made to detect water on such planets, but have either failed to find compelling evidence for it or led to claims that should be taken with caution. Here we report an analysis of recent observations of the hot Jupiter HD 189733b (ref. 6) taken during the transit, when the planet passed in front of its parent star. We find that absorption by water vapour is the most likely cause of the wavelength-dependent variations in the effective radius of the planet at the infrared wavelengths 3.6 m, 5.8 m (both ref. 7) and 8 m (ref. 8). The larger effective radius observed at visible wavelengths may arise from either stellar variability or the presence of clouds/hazes. We explain the report of a non-detection of water on HD 189733b (ref. 4) as being a consequence of the nearly isothermal vertical profile of the planet's atmosphere.
Abstract
The star
$$\beta$$
β
Pictoris harbors a young planetary system of about 20 million years old, which is characterized by the presence of a gaseous and dusty debris disk, at least two massive ...planets and many minor bodies. For more than thirty years, exocomets transiting the star have been detected using spectroscopy, probing the gaseous part of the cometary comas and tails. The detection of the dusty component of the tails can be performed through photometric observations of the transits. Since 2018, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite has observed
$$\beta$$
β
Pic for a total of 156 days. Here we report an analysis of the TESS photometric data set with the identification of a total of 30 transits of exocomets. Our statistical analysis shows that the number of transiting exocomet events (
N
) as a function of the absorption depth (
AD
) in the light curve follows a power law in the form
$$dN(AD) \propto AD^{-\alpha }$$
d
N
(
A
D
)
∝
A
D
-
α
, where
$$\alpha =2.3\pm 0.4$$
α
=
2.3
±
0.4
. This distribution of absorption depth leads to a differential comet size distribution proportional to
$$R^{-\gamma }$$
R
-
γ
, where
$$\gamma =3.6 \pm 0.8$$
γ
=
3.6
±
0.8
, showing a striking similarity to the size distribution of comets in the Solar system and the distribution of a collisionally relaxed population (
$$\gamma _{{\text{D}}}= 3.5$$
γ
D
=
3.5
).
Water, methane, and carbon monoxide are expected to be among the most abundant molecules besides molecular hydrogen in the hot atmosphere of close-in extrasolar giant planets. Atmospheric models for ...these planets predict that the strongest spectrophotometric features of those molecules are located at wavelengths ranging from 1 to 10 μm making this region of particular interest. Consequently, transit observations in the mid-infrared (mid-IR) allow the atmospheric content of transiting planets to be determined. We present new primary transit observations of the hot-Jupiter HD 189733b, obtained simultaneously at 4.5 and 8 μm with the Infrared Array Camera onboard the Spitzer Space Telescope. Together with a new refined analysis of previous observations at 3.6 and 5.8 μm using the same instrument, we are able to derive the system parameters, including planet-to-star radius ratio, impact parameter, scale of the system, and central time of the transit from fits of the transit light curves at these four wavelengths. We measure the four planet-to-star radius ratios, to be (Rp /R sstarf)3.6 μm = 0.1545 ± 0.0003, (Rp /R sstarf)4.5 μm = 0.1557 ± 0.0003, (Rp /R sstarf)5.8 μm = 0.1547 ± 0.0005, and (Rp /R sstarf)8 μm = 0.1544 ± 0.0004. The high accuracy of the planet radii measurement allows the search for atmospheric molecular absorbers. Contrary to a previous analysis of the same data set, our study is robust against systematics and reveals that water vapor absorption at 5.8 μm is not detected in this photometric data set. Furthermore, in the band centered around 4.5 μm we find a hint of excess absorption with an apparent planetary radius ΔRp /R * = 0.00128 ± 0.00056 larger (2.3σ) than the one measured simultaneously at 8 μm. This value is 4σ above what would be expected for an atmosphere where water vapor is the only absorbing species in the near-IR. This shows that an additional species absorbing around 4.5 μm could be present in the atmosphere. Carbon monoxide (CO) being a strong absorber at this wavelength is a possible candidate and this may suggest a large CO/H2O ratio between 5 and 60.
The young planetary system β Pictoris is surrounded by a debris disk of dust and gas. The gas source of this disk could be exocomets (or “falling and evaporating bodies”, FEBs), which produce ...refractory elements (Mg, Ca, Fe) through sublimation of dust grains at several tens of stellar radii. Nearly 1700 high resolution spectra of β Pictoris were obtained between 2003 and 2017 using the HARPS spectrograph. In Paper I, we showed that a high signal to noise ratio allows the detection of many weak Fe I lines in more than ten excited levels, and we derived the physical characteristics of the iron gas in the disk. The measured temperature of the gas (~1300 K) suggests that it is produced by evaporation of grains at about 0.3 au (38
R
⋆
) from the star. Here, we describe the yearly variations of the column densities of all Fe I components (from both ground and excited levels). The drop in the Fe I ground level column density after 2011 coincides with a drop in Fe I excited levels column density, as well as in the Ca II doublet and a ground level Ca I line at the same epoch. All drops are compatible with photoionisation-recombination equilibrium and β Pic like relative abundances, in a medium at 1300 K and at 0.3 au from β Pictoris. Interestingly, this warm medium does not correlate with the numerous exocomets in the circumstellar environnement of this young star.
We report total abundances and related parameters for the full sample of the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer survey of molecular hydrogen in 38 translucent lines of sight. New results are ...presented for the 'second half' of the survey involving 15 lines of sight to supplement data for the first 23 lines of sight already published. We assess the correlations between molecular hydrogen and various extinction parameters in the full sample, which covers a broader range of conditions than the initial sample. In particular, we are now able to confirm that many, but not all, lines of sight with shallow far-UV extinction curves and large values of the total-to-selective extinction ratio, RV = AV /E(B - V)-characteristic of larger than average dust grains-are associated with particularly low hydrogen molecular fractions (). In the lines of sight with large RV , there is in fact a wide range in molecular fractions, despite the expectation that the larger grains should lead to less H2 formation. However, we see specific evidence that the molecular fractions in this sub-sample are inversely related to the estimated strength of the UV radiation field and thus the latter factor is more important in this regime. We have provided an update to previous values of the gas-to-dust ratio, N(Htot)/E(B - V), based on direct measurements of N(H2) and N(H I). Although our value is nearly identical to that found with Copernicus data, it extends the relationship by a factor of 2 in reddening. Finally, as the new lines of sight generally show low-to-moderate molecular fractions, we still find little evidence for single monolithic 'translucent clouds' with .
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