Theoretical transit spectra for gj 1214b and other "super-earths"
Alex R. Howe,Adam Burrows +1 more
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In this article, the authors present new calculations of transit spectra of super-Earths that allow for atmospheres with arbitrary proportions of common molecular species and haze, and test this method with generic spectra, reproducing the expected systematics and absorption features, then apply it to the nearby super-Earth GJ 1214b.Abstract:
We present new calculations of transit spectra of super-Earths that allow for atmospheres with arbitrary proportions of common molecular species and haze. We test this method with generic spectra, reproducing the expected systematics and absorption features, then apply it to the nearby super-Earth GJ 1214b, which has produced conflicting observational data, leaving the questions of a hydrogen-rich versus hydrogen-poor atmosphere and the water content of the atmosphere ambiguous. We present representative transit spectra for a range of classes of atmosphere models for GJ 1214b. Our analysis supports a hydrogen-rich atmosphere with a cloud or haze layer, although a hydrogen-poor model with 10% water is not ruled out. Several classes of models are ruled out, however, including hydrogen-rich atmospheres with no haze, hydrogen-rich atmospheres with a haze of ~0.01 μm tholin particles, and hydrogen-poor atmospheres with major sources of absorption other than water. We propose an observational test to distinguish hydrogen-rich from hydrogen-poor atmospheres. Finally, we provide a library of theoretical transit spectra for super-Earths with a broad range of parameters to facilitate future comparison with anticipated data.read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
Clouds in the atmosphere of the super-Earth exoplanet GJ 1214b
Laura Kreidberg,Jacob L. Bean,Jean-Michel Desert,Björn Benneke,Drake Deming,Kevin B. Stevenson,Sara Seager,Zachory K. Berta-Thompson,Andreas Seifahrt,Derek Homeier +9 more
TL;DR: A measurement of the transmission spectrum of GJ 1214b at near-infrared wavelengths is reported, sufficiently precise to detect absorption features from a high mean-molecular-mass atmosphere and rule out cloud-free atmospheric models with compositions dominated by water, methane, carbon monoxide, nitrogen or carbon dioxide.
Book
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INFRARED TRANSMISSION SPECTROSCOPY OF THE EXOPLANETS HD 209458b AND XO-1b USING THE WIDE FIELD CAMERA-3 ON THE HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE
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References
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A super-Earth transiting a nearby low-mass star
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Transiting exoplanets from the CoRoT space mission VIII. CoRoT-7b: the first Super-Earth with measured radius
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors reported the discovery of very shallow (ΔF/F ≈ 3.4× 10 −4 ) periodic dips in the light curve of an active V = 11.7 G9V star observed by the CoRoT satellite, which they interpret as caused by a transiting companion.
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