| 1. |
- Powell, Diana, et al.
(författare)
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Sulfur dioxide in the mid-infrared transmission spectrum of WASP-39b
- 2024
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Ingår i: Nature. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 626:8001, s. 979-983
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The recent inference of sulfur dioxide (SO2) in the atmosphere of the hot (approximately 1,100 K), Saturn-mass exoplanet WASP-39b from near-infrared JWST observations1–3 suggests that photochemistry is a key process in high-temperature exoplanet atmospheres4. This is because of the low (<1 ppb) abundance of SO2 under thermochemical equilibrium compared with that produced from the photochemistry of H2O and H2S (1–10 ppm)4–9. However, the SO2 inference was made from a single, small molecular feature in the transmission spectrum of WASP-39b at 4.05 μm and, therefore, the detection of other SO2 absorption bands at different wavelengths is needed to better constrain the SO2 abundance. Here we report the detection of SO2 spectral features at 7.7 and 8.5 μm in the 5–12-μm transmission spectrum of WASP-39b measured by the JWST Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) Low Resolution Spectrometer (LRS)10. Our observations suggest an abundance of SO2 of 0.5–25 ppm (1σ range), consistent with previous findings4. As well as SO2, we find broad water-vapour absorption features, as well as an unexplained decrease in the transit depth at wavelengths longer than 10 μm. Fitting the spectrum with a grid of atmospheric forward models, we derive an atmospheric heavy-element content (metallicity) for WASP-39b of approximately 7.1–8.0 times solar and demonstrate that photochemistry shapes the spectra of WASP-39b across a broad wavelength range.
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| 2. |
- Bell, Taylor, et al.
(författare)
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Nightside clouds and disequilibrium chemistry on the hot Jupiter WASP-43b
- 2024
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Ingår i: Nature Astronomy. - 2397-3366. ; In Press
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Hot Jupiters are among the best-studied exoplanets, but it is still poorly understood how their chemical composition and cloud properties vary with longitude. Theoretical models predict that clouds may condense on the nightside and that molecular abundances can be driven out of equilibrium by zonal winds. Here we report a phase-resolved emission spectrum of the hot Jupiter WASP-43b measured from 5 μm to 12 μm with the JWST’s Mid-Infrared Instrument. The spectra reveal a large day–night temperature contrast (with average brightness temperatures of 1,524 ± 35 K and 863 ± 23 K, respectively) and evidence for water absorption at all orbital phases. Comparisons with three-dimensional atmospheric models show that both the phase-curve shape and emission spectra strongly suggest the presence of nightside clouds that become optically thick to thermal emission at pressures greater than ~100 mbar. The dayside is consistent with a cloudless atmosphere above the mid-infrared photosphere. Contrary to expectations from equilibrium chemistry but consistent with disequilibrium kinetics models, methane is not detected on the nightside (2σ upper limit of 1–6 ppm, depending on model assumptions). Our results provide strong evidence that the atmosphere of WASP-43b is shaped by disequilibrium processes and provide new insights into the properties of the planet’s nightside clouds. However, the remaining discrepancies between our observations and our predictive atmospheric models emphasize the importance of further exploring the effects of clouds and disequilibrium chemistry in numerical models.
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| 3. |
- Luque, R., et al.
(författare)
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A planetary system with two transiting mini-Neptunes near the radius valley transition around the bright M dwarf TOI-776
- 2021
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Ingår i: Astronomy and Astrophysics. - : EDP Sciences. - 0004-6361 .- 1432-0746. ; 645
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We report the discovery and characterization of two transiting planets around the bright M1 V star LP 961-53 (TOI-776, J = 8.5 mag, M = 0.54 ± 0.03 M⊙) detected during Sector 10 observations of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). Combining the TESS photometry with HARPS radial velocities, as well as ground-based follow-up transit observations from the MEarth and LCOGT telescopes, for the inner planet, TOI-776 b, we measured a period of Pb = 8.25 d, a radius of Rb = 1.85 ± 0.13 R⊙, and a mass of Mb = 4.0 ± 0.9 M⊙; and for the outer planet, TOI-776 c, a period of Pc = 15.66 d, a radius of Rc = 2.02 ± 0.14 R⊙, and a mass of Mc = 5.3 ± 1.8 M⊙. The Doppler data shows one additional signal, with a period of ~34 d, associated with the rotational period of the star. The analysis of fifteen years of ground-based photometric monitoring data and the inspection of different spectral line indicators confirm this assumption. The bulk densities of TOI-776 b and c allow for a wide range of possible interior and atmospheric compositions. However, both planets have retained a significant atmosphere, with slightly different envelope mass fractions. Thanks to their location near the radius gap for M dwarfs, we can start to explore the mechanism(s) responsible for the radius valley emergence around low-mass stars as compared to solar-like stars. While a larger sample of well-characterized planets in this parameter space is still needed to draw firm conclusions, we tentatively estimate that the stellar mass below which thermally-driven mass loss is no longer the main formation pathway for sculpting the radius valley is between 0.63 and 0.54 M⊙. Due to the brightness of the star, the TOI-776 system is also an excellent target for the James Webb Space Telescope, providing a remarkable laboratory in which to break the degeneracy in planetary interior models and to test formation and evolution theories of small planets around low-mass stars.
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| 4. |
- Esparza-Borges, E., et al.
(författare)
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Detection of Carbon Monoxide in the Atmosphere of WASP-39b Applying Standard Cross-correlation Techniques to JWST NIRSpec G395H Data
- 2023
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Ingår i: Astrophysical Journal Letters. - 2041-8213 .- 2041-8205. ; 955:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Carbon monoxide was recently reported in the atmosphere of the hot Jupiter WASP-39b using the NIRSpec PRISM transit observation of this planet, collected as part of the JWST Transiting Exoplanet Community Early Release Science Program. This detection, however, could not be confidently confirmed in the initial analysis of the higher-resolution observations with NIRSpec G395H disperser. Here we confirm the detection of CO in the atmosphere of WASP-39b using the NIRSpec G395H data and cross-correlation techniques. We do this by searching for the CO signal in the unbinned transmission spectrum of the planet between 4.6 and 5.0 μm, where the contribution of CO is expected to be higher than that of other anticipated molecules in the planet’s atmosphere. Our search results in a detection of CO with a cross-correlation function (CCF) significance of 6.6σ when using a template with only 12C16O lines. The CCF significance of the CO signal increases to 7.5σ when including in the template lines from additional CO isotopologues, with the largest contribution being from 13C16O. Our results highlight how cross-correlation techniques can be a powerful tool for unveiling the chemical composition of exoplanetary atmospheres from medium-resolution transmission spectra, including the detection of isotopologues.
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| 5. |
- Quanz, S. P., et al.
(författare)
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Large Interferometer For Exoplanets (LIFE) I. Improved exoplanet detection yield estimates for a large mid-infrared space-interferometer mission
- 2022
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Ingår i: Astronomy and Astrophysics. - : EDP Sciences. - 0004-6361 .- 1432-0746. ; 664
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Context. One of the long-term goals of exoplanet science is the atmospheric characterization of dozens of small exoplanets in order to understand their diversity and search for habitable worlds and potential biosignatures. Achieving this goal requires a space mission of sufficient scale that can spatially separate the signals from exoplanets and their host stars and thus directly scrutinize the exoplanets and their atmospheres.Aims. We seek to quantify the exoplanet detection performance of a space-based mid-infrared (MIR) nulling interferometer that measures the thermal emission of exoplanets. We study the impact of various parameters and compare the performance with that of large single-aperture mission concepts that detect exoplanets in reflected light.Methods. We have developed an instrument simulator that considers all major astrophysical noise sources and coupled it with Monte Carlo simulations of a synthetic exoplanet population around main-sequence stars within 20 pc of the Sun. This allows us to quantify the number (and types) of exoplanets that our mission concept could detect. Considering single visits only, we discuss two different scenarios for distributing 2.5 yr of an initial search phase among the stellar targets. Different apertures sizes and wavelength ranges are investigated.Results. An interferometer consisting of four 2 m apertures working in the 4–18.5 μ.m wavelength range with a total instrument throughput of 5% could detect up to ≈550 exoplanets with radii between 0.5 and 6 R⊕ with an integrated S/N ≥ 7. At least ≈160 of the detected exoplanets have radii ≤1.5 R⊕. Depending on the observing scenario, ≈25–45 rocky exoplanets (objects with radii between 0.5 and 1.5 R⊕) orbiting within the empirical habitable zone (eHZ) of their host stars are among the detections. With four 3.5 m apertures, the total number of detections can increase to up to ≈770, including ≈60–80 rocky eHZ planets. With four times 1 m apertures, the maximum detection yield is ≈315 exoplanets, including ≤20 rocky eHZ planets. The vast majority of small, temperate exoplanets are detected around M dwarfs. The impact of changing the wavelength range to 3–20 μm or 6–17 μm on the detection yield is negligible.Conclusions. A large space-based MIR nulling interferometer will be able to directly detect hundreds of small, nearby exoplanets, tens of which would be habitable world candidates. This shows that such a mission can compete with large single-aperture reflected light missions. Further increasing the number of habitable world candidates, in particular around solar-type stars, appears possible via the implementation of a multi-visit strategy during the search phase. The high median S/N of most of the detected planets will allow for first estimates of their radii and effective temperatures and will help prioritize the targets for a second mission phase to obtain high-S/N thermal emission spectra, leveraging the superior diagnostic power of the MIR regime compared to shorter wavelengths.
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| 6. |
- Chaturvedi, P., et al.
(författare)
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TOI-1468: A system of two transiting planets, a super-Earth and a mini-Neptune, on opposite sides of the radius valley
- 2022
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Ingår i: Astronomy and Astrophysics. - : EDP Sciences. - 0004-6361 .- 1432-0746. ; 666
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We report the discovery and characterization of two small transiting planets orbiting the bright M3.0V star TOI-1468 (LSPM J0106+1913), whose transit signals were detected in the photometric time series in three sectors of the TESS mission. We confirm the planetary nature of both of them using precise radial velocity measurements from the CARMENES and MAROON-X spectrographs, and supplement them with ground-based transit photometry. A joint analysis of all these data reveals that the shorter-period planet, TOI-1468 b (P-b = 1.88 d), has a planetary mass of M-b = 3.21 +/- 0.24M(circle plus) and a radius of R-b = 1.280(-0.039)(+0.038) R-circle plus, resulting in a density of rho(b) = 8.39(-0.92)(+1.05) g cm(-3), which is consistent with a mostly rocky composition. For the outer planet, TOI-1468 c (P-c = 15.53 d), we derive a mass of M-c = 6.64(-0.68)(+0.67) M-circle plus,aradius of R-c = 2.06 +/- 0.04 R-circle plus, and a bulk density of rho(c) = 2.00(-0.19)(+0.21) g cm(-3), which corresponds to a rocky core composition with a H/He gas envelope. These planets are located on opposite sides of the radius valley, making our system an interesting discovery as there are only a handful of other systems with the same properties. This discovery can further help determine a more precise location of the radius valley for small planets around M dwarfs and, therefore, shed more light on planet formation and evolution scenarios.
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| 7. |
- Borsato, N. W., et al.
(författare)
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Small but mighty : High-resolution spectroscopy of ultra-hot Jupiter atmospheres with compact telescopes Transmission spectrum of KELT-9 b with Wendelstein’s FOCES spectrograph
- 2024
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Ingår i: Astronomy and Astrophysics. - 0004-6361. ; 683
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- When observing transmission spectra produced by the atmospheres of ultra-hot Jupiters (UHJs), large telescopes are typically the instrument of choice given the very weak signal of the planet’s atmopshere. The aim of the present study is to demonstrate that, for favourable targets, smaller telescopes are fully capable of conducting high-resolution cross-correlation spectroscopy. We apply the cross-correlation technique to data from the 2.1 m telescope at the Wendelstein Observatory, using its high-resolution spectrograph FOCES, in order to demonstrate its efficacy in resolving the atmosphere of the UHJ KELT-9 b. Using three nights of observations with the FOCES spectrograph and one with the HARPS-N spectrograph, we conduct a performance comparison between FOCES and HARPS-N. This comparison considers both single-transit and combined observations over the three nights. We then consider the potential of 2 m class telescopes by generalising our results to create a transit emulator capable of evaluating the potential of telescopes of this size. With FOCES, we detected seven species in the atmosphere of KELT-9 b: Ti II, Fe I, Fe II, Na I, Mg I, Na II, Cr II, and Sc II. Although HARPS-N surpasses FOCES in performance thanks to the mirror of the TNG, our results reveal that smaller telescope classes are capable of resolving the atmospheres of UHJs given sufficient observing time. This broadens the potential scope of such studies, demonstrating that smaller telescopes can be used to investigate phenomena such as temporal variations in atmospheric signals and the atmospheric loss characteristics of these close-in planets.
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| 8. |
- Mueller, A., et al.
(författare)
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Orbital and atmospheric characterization of the planet within the gap of the PDS70 transition disk
- 2018
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Ingår i: Astronomy and Astrophysics. - : EDP Sciences. - 0004-6361 .- 1432-0746. ; 617
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Context. The observation of planets in their formation stage is a crucial but very challenging step in understanding when, how, and where planets form. PDS 70 is a young pre-main sequence star surrounded by a transition disk, in the gap of which a planetary-mass companion has recently been discovered. This discovery represents the first robust direct detection of such a young planet, possibly still at the stage of formation.Aims. We aim to characterize the orbital and atmospheric properties of PDS 70 b, which was first identified on May 2015 in the course of the SHINE survey with SPHERE, the extreme adaptive-optics instrument at the VLT.Methods. We obtained new deep SPHERE/IRDIS imaging and SPHERE/IFS spectroscopic observations of PDS 70 b. The astrometric baseline now covers 6 yr, which allowed us to perform an orbital analysis. For the first time, we present spectrophotometry of the young planet which covers almost the entire near-infrared range (0.96-3.8 mu m). We use different atmospheric models covering a large parameter space in temperature, log g, chemical composition, and cloud properties to characterize the properties of the atmosphere of PDS 70 b.Results. PDS 70 b is most likely orbiting the star on a circular and disk coplanar orbit at similar to 22 au inside the gap of the disk. We find a range of models that can describe the spectrophotometric data reasonably well in the temperature range 1000-1600 K and log g no larger than 3.5 dex. The planet radius covers a relatively large range between 1.4 and 3.7 R-J with the larger radii being higher than expected from planet evolution models for the age of the planet of 5.4 Myr. Conclusions. This study provides a comprehensive data set on the orbital motion of PDS 70 b, indicating a circular orbit and a motion coplanar with the disk. The first detailed spectral energy distribution of PDS 70 b indicates a temperature typical of young giant planets. The detailed atmospheric analysis indicates that a circumplanetary disk may contribute to the total planetflux.
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| 9. |
- Orell-Miquel, J., et al.
(författare)
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Confirmation of an He I evaporating atmosphere around the 650-Myr-old sub-Neptune HD 235088 b (TOI-1430 b) with CARMENES
- 2023
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Ingår i: Astronomy and Astrophysics. - 0004-6361 .- 1432-0746. ; 677
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- HD 235088 (TOI-1430) is a young star known to host a sub-Neptune-sized planet candidate. We validated the planetary nature of HD 235088 b with multiband photometry, refined its planetary parameters, and obtained a new age estimate of the host star, placing it at 600- 800 Myr. Previous spectroscopic observations of a single transit detected an excess absorption of He I coincident in time with the planet candidate transit. Here, we confirm the presence of He I in the atmosphere of HD 235088 b with one transit observed with CARMENES. We also detected hints of variability in the strength of the helium signal, with an absorption of -0.91 ± 0.11%, which is slightly deeper (2γ) than the previous measurement. Furthermore, we simulated the He I signal with a spherically symmetric 1D hydrodynamic model, finding that the upper atmosphere of HD 235088 b escapes hydrodynamically with a significant mass loss rate of (1.5-5) × 1010 g s-1 in a relatively cold outflow, with T = 3125 ±375 K, in the photon-limited escape regime. HD 235088 b (Rp = 2.045 ± 0.075 R⊕) is the smallest planet found to date with a solid atmospheric detection - not just of He I but any other atom or molecule. This positions it a benchmark planet for further analyses of evolving young sub-Neptune atmospheres.
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