A Detection of Water in the Transmission Spectrum of the Hot Jupiter WASP-12b and Implications for its Atmospheric Composition
Laura Kreidberg,Michael R. Line,Jacob L. Bean,Kevin B. Stevenson,Jean-Michel Desert,Nikku Madhusudhan,Jonathan J. Fortney,Joanna K. Barstow,Gregory W. Henry,Michael H. Williamson,Adam P. Showman +10 more
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In this article, a near-infrared transmission spectrum for WASP-12b based on six transit observations with the Hubble Space Telescope/Wide Field Camera 3 (HST-WFC) was reported.Abstract:
Detailed characterization of exoplanets has begun to yield measurements of their atmospheric properties that constrain the planets’ origins and evolution. For example, past observations of the dayside emission spectrum of the hot Jupiter WASP-12b indicated that its atmosphere has a high carbon-tooxygen ratio (C/O > 1), suggesting it had a dierent formation pathway than is commonly assumed for giant planets. Here we report a precise near-infrared transmission spectrum for WASP-12b based on six transit observations with the Hubble Space Telescope/Wide Field Camera 3. We bin the data in 13 spectrophotometric light curves from 0.84 - 1.67 m and measure the transit depths to a median precision of 51 ppm. We retrieve the atmospheric properties using the transmission spectrum and nd strong evidence for water absorption (7 condence). This detection marks the rst high-condence, spectroscopic identication of a molecule in the atmosphere of WASP-12b. The retrieved 1 water volume mixing ratio is between 10 5 10 2 , which is consistent with C/O > 1 to within 2 . However, we also introduce a new retrieval parameterization that ts for C/O and metallicity under the assumption of chemical equilibrium. With this approach, we constrain C/O to 0:5 +0:2 0:3 at 1 and rule out a carbon-rich atmosphere composition (C/O> 1) at > 3 condence. Further observations and modeling of the planet’s global thermal structure and dynamics would aid in resolving the tension between our inferred C/O and previous constraints. Our ndings highlight the importance of obtaining high-precision data with multiple observing techniques in order to obtain robust constraints on the chemistry and physics of exoplanet atmospheres. Subject headings: planets and satellites: atmospheres | planets and satellites: composition | planets and satellites: individual: WASP-12bread more
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Gemini/GMOS Transmission Spectral Survey: Complete Optical Transmission Spectrum of the hot Jupiter WASP-4b
Catherine M. Huitson,Jean-Michel Desert,Jacob L. Bean,J. J. Fortney,Kevin B. Stevenson,Marcel Bergmann +5 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors presented the complete optical transmission spectrum of the hot Jupiter WASP-4b from 440-940 nm at R ~ 400-1500 obtained with the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrometers (GMOS); this is the first result from a comparative exoplanetology survey program of close-in gas giants conducted with GMOS.
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KELT-11 b: Abundances of water and constraints on carbon-bearing molecules from the Hubble transmission spectrum
Quentin Changeat,Billy Edwards,Ahmed Al-Refaie,Mario Morvan,Angelos Tsiaras,Ingo Waldmann,Giovanna Tinetti +6 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyzed the transmission spectrum of the puffy, clear hot-Jupiter KELT-11 b from the HST Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) camera and found that the spectrum is consistent with the presence of water vapor and an additional absorption at longer wavelengths than 1.5um.
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The Influence of H2O Pressure Broadening in High Metallicity Exoplanet Atmospheres
TL;DR: In this article, the role of water self-broadening on the emission and transmission spectra as well as on the vertical energy balance in representative sub-Neptune/super-Earth atmospheres was investigated.
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Hot Jupiters: Origins, Structure, Atmospheres
TL;DR: A brief review of planetary physics of hot Jupiters can be found in this article, where the authors provide an overview of the major areas of current study while providing the reader with additional references for more detailed follow-up.
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TESS Transit Timing of Hundreds of Hot Jupiters
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