We present here the first application of Stellar and Exoplanetary Atmospheres Bayesian Analysis Simultaneous Spectroscopy (SEA BASS) on real data sets. SEA BASS is a scheme that enables the ...simultaneous derivation of four-coefficient stellar limb-darkening profiles, transit depths, and orbital parameters from exoplanetary transits at multiple wavelengths. It relies on the wavelength independence of the system geometry and on the reduced limb-darkening effect in the infrared. This approach has been introduced by Morello et al. (without the SEA BASS acronym), who discuss several tests on synthetic data sets. Here, we (1) improve on the original algorithm using multiple Spitzer/InfraRed Array Camera passbands and a more effective set of geometric parameters, (2) demonstrate its ability with Hubble Space Telescope/Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph data sets by (3) measuring the HD 209458 stellar limb-darkening profile over multiple passbands in the 290-570 nm range with sufficient precision to rule out some theoretical models that have been adopted previously in the literature, and (4) simultaneously extracting the transmission spectrum of the exoplanet atmosphere. The higher photometric precision of the next-generation instruments, such as those on board the James Webb Space Telescope, will enable modeling the star-planet systems with unprecedented detail, and increase the importance of SEA BASS for avoiding the potential biases introduced by inaccurate stellar limb-darkening models.
ABSTRACT The study of the atmospheres of transiting exoplanets requires a photometric precision, and repeatability, of one part in ∼104. This is beyond the original calibration plans of current ...observatories, hence the necessity to disentangle the instrumental systematics from the astrophysical signals in raw data sets. Most methods used in the literature are based on an approximate instrument model. The choice of parameters of the model and their functional forms can sometimes be subjective, causing controversies in the literature. Recently, Morello et al. (2014, 2015) have developed a non-parametric detrending method that gave coherent and repeatable results when applied to Spitzer/IRAC data sets that were debated in the literature. Said method is based on independent component analysis (ICA) of individual pixel time-series, hereafter "pixel-ICA". The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the limits and advantages of pixel-ICA on a series of simulated data sets with different instrument properties, and a range of jitter timescales and shapes, non-stationarity, sudden change points, etc. The performances of pixel-ICA are compared against the ones of other methods, in particular polynomial centroid division, and pixel-level decorrelation method. We find that in simulated cases pixel-ICA performs as well or better than other methods, and it also guarantees a higher degree of objectivity, because of its purely statistical foundation with no prior information on the instrument systematics. The results of this paper, together with previous analyses of Spitzer/IRAC data sets, suggest that photometric precision and repeatability of one part in 104 can be achieved with current infrared space instruments.
A Population Study of Gaseous Exoplanets Tsiaras, A.; Waldmann, I. P.; Zingales, T. ...
The Astronomical journal,
04/2018, Letnik:
155, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
We present here the analysis of 30 gaseous extrasolar planets, with temperatures between 600 and 2400 K and radii between 0.35 and 1.9 RJup. The quality of the HST/WFC3 spatially scanned data ...combined with our specialized analysis tools allow us to study the largest and most self-consistent sample of exoplanetary transmission spectra to date and examine the collective behavior of warm and hot gaseous planets rather than isolated case studies. We define a new metric, the Atmospheric Detectability Index (ADI) to evaluate the statistical significance of an atmospheric detection and find statistically significant atmospheres in around 16 planets out of the 30 analyzed. For most of the Jupiters in our sample, we find the detectability of their atmospheres to be dependent on the planetary radius but not on the planetary mass. This indicates that planetary gravity plays a secondary role in the state of gaseous planetary atmospheres. We detect the presence of water vapour in all of the statistically detectable atmospheres, and we cannot rule out its presence in the atmospheres of the others. In addition, TiO and/or VO signatures are detected with 4 confidence in WASP-76 b, and they are most likely present in WASP-121 b. We find no correlation between expected signal-to-noise and atmospheric detectability for most targets. This has important implications for future large-scale surveys.
Characterization of the atmospheres of transiting exoplanets relies on accurate measurements of the extent of the optically thick area of the planet at multiple wavelengths with a precision parts per ...million (ppm). Next-generation instruments onboard the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) are expected to achieve ∼10 ppm precision for several tens of targets. A similar precision can be obtained in modeling only if other astrophysical effects, including the stellar limb-darkening, are properly accounted for. In this paper, we explore the limits on precision due to the mathematical formulas currently adopted to approximate the stellar limb-darkening, and due to the use of limb-darkening coefficients obtained either from stellar-atmosphere models or empirically. We recommend the use of a two-coefficient limb-darkening law, named "power-2," which outperforms other two-coefficient laws adopted in the exoplanet literature in most cases, and particularly for cool stars. Empirical limb-darkening based on two-coefficient formulas can be significantly biased, even if the light-curve residuals are nearly photon-noise limited. We demonstrate an optimal strategy to fitting for the four-coefficient limb-darkening in the visible, using prior information on the exoplanet orbital parameters to break some of the degeneracies that otherwise would prevent the convergence of the fit. Infrared observations taken with the JWST will provide accurate measurements of the exoplanet orbital parameters with unprecedented precision, which can be used as priors to improve the stellar limb-darkening characterization, and therefore the inferred exoplanet parameters, from observations in the visible, such as those taken with Kepler/K2, the JWST, and other past and future instruments.
ABSTRACT We report the analysis of two new spectroscopic observations in the near-infrared of the super-Earth 55 Cancri e, obtained with the WFC3 camera on board the Hubble Space Telescope. 55 Cancri ...e orbits so close to its parent star that temperatures much higher than 2000 K are expected on its surface. Given the brightness of 55 Cancri, the observations were obtained in scanning mode, adopting a very long scanning length and a very high scanning speed. We use our specialized pipeline to take into account systematics introduced by these observational parameters when coupled with the geometrical distortions of the instrument. We measure the transit depth per wavelength channel with an average relative uncertainty of 22 ppm per visit and find modulations that depart from a straight line model with a 6 confidence level. These results suggest that 55 Cancri e is surrounded by an atmosphere, which is probably hydrogen-rich. Our fully Bayesian spectral retrieval code, -REx, has identified HCN to be the most likely molecular candidate able to explain the features at 1.42 and 1.54 m. While additional spectroscopic observations in a broader wavelength range in the infrared will be needed to confirm the HCN detection, we discuss here the implications of such a result. Our chemical model, developed with combustion specialists, indicates that relatively high mixing ratios of HCN may be caused by a high C/O ratio. This result suggests this super-Earth is a carbon-rich environment even more exotic than previously thought.
ABSTRACT The Wide Field Camera 3 on the Hubble Space Telescope is currently one of the most widely used instruments for observing exoplanetary atmospheres, especially with the use of the spatial ...scanning technique. An increasing number of exoplanets have been studied using this technique as it enables the observation of bright targets without saturating the sensitive detectors. In this work, we present a new pipeline for analyzing the data obtained with the spatial scanning technique, starting from the raw data provided by the instrument. In addition to commonly used correction techniques, we take into account the geometric distortions of the instrument, the impact of which may become important when they are combined with the scanning process. Our approach can improve the photometric precision for existing data and also extend the limits of the spatial scanning technique, as it allows the analysis of even longer spatial scans. As an application of our method and pipeline, we present the results from a reanalysis of the spatially scanned transit spectrum of HD 209458 b. We calculate the transit depth per wavelength channel with an average relative uncertainty of 40 ppm. We interpret the final spectrum with -REx, our fully Bayesian spectral retrieval code, which confirms the presence of water vapor and clouds in the atmosphere of HD 209458 b. The narrow wavelength range limits our ability to disentangle the degeneracies between the fitted atmospheric parameters. Additional data over a broader spectral range are needed to address this issue.
We present here the first release of the open-source python package ExoTETHyS (stable: https://zenodo.org/badge/latestdoi/169268509, development version: ...https://github.com/ucl-exoplanets/ExoTETHyS/), which aims to provide a stand-alone set of tools for modeling spectrophotometric observations of transiting exoplanets. In particular, we describe: (1) a new calculator of stellar limb-darkening coefficients that outperforms the existing software by one order of magnitude in terms of light-curve model accuracy, i.e., down to <10 parts per million, and (2) an exact transit light-curve generator based on the entire stellar intensity profile rather than limb-darkening coefficients. New tools will be added in later releases to model various effects in exoplanetary transits and eclipsing binaries. ExoTETHyS is a reference package for high-precision exoplanet atmospheric spectroscopy with the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope and Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey missions.
ABSTRACT
This paper is part of an effort to correct the transmission spectra of a transiting planet orbiting an active star. In Paper I (Cracchiolo, Micela & Peres 2020), we have demonstrated a ...methodology to minimize the potential bias induced by unocculted star spots on the transmission spectrum, assuming a spot model parametrized by filling factor and temperature. In this work, we introduce the limb-darkening effect, therefore the position of the spot in the stellar disc and the impact parameter of the transiting planet now play a key role. The method is tested on simulations of planetary transits of three representative kinds of planetary systems, at ARIEL resolution. We find that a realistic treatment of the limb darkening is required to reliably estimate both the spots parameters and the transmission spectrum of the transiting planet. Furthermore, we show that the influence of the spots on the retrieval of the planetary transmission spectrum is significant for spots close to the centre of the star, covering a fraction greater than 0.05 and with a temperature contrast greater than $500\, {\rm K}$, and that for these cases our method can confidently extract the transmission spectrum and the impact parameter of the transiting planet for both cases of occulted and not occulted spots, provided that we have an accurate characterization of the stellar parameters and a reliable simulator of the instrument performances.
We present here a reanalysis of the Spitzer Space Telescope phase curves of the hot Jupiter WASP43 b, using the wavelet pixel-independent component analysis, a blind signal-source separation method. ...The data analyzed were recorded with the Infrared Array Camera and consisted of two visits at 3.6 m, and one visit at 4.5 m, each visit covering one transit and two eclipse events. To test the robustness of our technique we repeated the analysis on smaller portions of the phase curves, and by employing different instrument ramp models. Our reanalysis presents significant updates of the planetary parameters compared to those reported in the original phase curve study of WASP43 b. In particular, we found (1) higher nightside temperatures, (2) smaller hotspot offsets, (3) a greater consistency (∼1 ) between the two 3.6 m visits, and (4) a greater similarity with the predictions of the atmospheric circulation models. Our parameter results are consistent within 1 with those reported by a recent reanalysis of the same data sets. For each visit we studied the variation of the retrieved transit parameters as a function of various sets of stellar limb-darkening coefficients, finding significant degeneracy between the limb-darkening models and the analysis output. Furthermore, we performed the analysis of the single transit and eclipse events, and we examined the differences between these results with the ones obtained with the whole phase curve. Finally we provide a formula useful to optimize the trade-off between precision and duration of observations of transiting exoplanets.
We report here the analysis of the near-infrared transit spectrum of the hot Jupiter HAT-P-32b, which was recorded with the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) on board the Hubble Space Telescope. HAT-P-32b ...is one of the most inflated exoplanets discovered, making it an excellent candidate for transit spectroscopic measurements. To obtain the transit spectrum, we have adopted different analysis methods, both parametric and non-parametric (Independent Component Analysis, ICA), and compared the results. The final spectra are all consistent within 0.5 . The uncertainties obtained with ICA are larger than those obtained with the parametric method by a factor of ∼1.6-1.8. This difference is the trade-off for higher objectivity due to the lack of any assumption about the instrument systematics compared to the parametric approach. The ICA error bars are therefore worst-case estimates. To interpret the spectrum of HAT-P-32b we used -REx, our fully Bayesian spectral retrieval code. As for other hot Jupiters, the results are consistent with the presence of water vapor ( ), clouds (top pressure between 5.16 and 1.73 bar). Spectroscopic data over a broader wavelength range are needed to de-correlate the mixing ratio of water vapor from clouds and identify other possible molecular species in the atmosphere of HAT-P-32b.
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