An Atomic Spectral Survey of WASP-76b: Resolving Chemical Gradients and Asymmetries

Kesseli, Aurora Y.; Snellen, I. A. G.; Casasayas-Barris, N.; Mollière, P.; Sánchez-López, A.

doi:10.3847/1538-3881/ac4336

Cited by 68 publications

(106 citation statements)

References 63 publications

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“…In order to detect the minute planetary signal, it is necessary to correct for systematic sources of error, most notably the presence of telluric absorption lines in the spectra, but also systematics due to detector imperfections, etc. Most recent studies of exoplanetary atmospheres at high resolution use one of two methods to correct systematics: SYSREM (e.g., Nugroho et al 2020;Merritt et al 2021;Cont et al 2021a) or molecfit (e.g., Stangret et al 2021;Cabot et al 2021;Kesseli et al 2022). The SYSREM algorithm (Tamuz et al 2005) is a PCA-based algorithm to remove common linear or timevarying systematics.…”

Section: Comparison Of Telluric and Systematics Correction Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The PEPSI-LBT Exoplanet Transit Survey (PETS). II. A Deep Search for Thermal Inversion Agents in KELT-20 b/MASCARA-2 b with Emission and Transmission Spectroscopy

Johnson¹,

Wang²,

Asnodkar³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Recent observations have shown that the atmospheres of ultra hot Jupiters (UHJs) commonly possess temperature inversions, where the temperature increases with increasing altitude. Nonetheless, which opacity sources are responsible for the presence of these inversions remains largely observationally unconstrained. We used LBT/PEPSI to observe the atmosphere of the UHJ KELT-20 b in both transmission and emission in order to search for molecular agents which could be responsible for the temperature inversion. We validate our methodology by confirming a previous detection of Fe i in emission at 15.1σ; however, we are unable to reproduce published detections of Fe ii, Cr i, or Si i. We attribute the non-detection of Si i to the lack of lines in our bandpass, but the non-detections of Fe ii and Cr i are puzzling due to our much higher signal-to-noise ratio than previous works. Our search for the inversion agents TiO, VO, FeH, and CaH results in non-detections. Using injection-recovery testing we set 4σ upper limits upon the volume mixing ratios for these constituents as low as ∼ 1 × 10 −10 for TiO. For TiO, VO, and CaH, our limits are much lower than expectations from an equilibrium chemical model, while FeH is lower than the expectations only from a super-Solar metallicity model. We thus rule out TiO, VO, and CaH as the source of the temperature inversion in KELT-20 b, while FeH is disfavored only if KELT-20 b possesses a high-metallicity atmosphere.

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Section: Comparison Of Telluric and Systematics Correction Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The PEPSI-LBT Exoplanet Transit Survey (PETS). II. A Deep Search for Thermal Inversion Agents in KELT-20 b/MASCARA-2 b with Emission and Transmission Spectroscopy

Johnson¹,

Wang²,

Asnodkar³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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“…As a consequence, we expect that the K p measurements from different species might be dissimilar (e.g. Wardenier et al 2021;Rainer et al 2021;Prinoth et al 2022;Kesseli et al 2022).…”

Section: Detection Of Fe II In Kelt-9 Bmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exoplanet atmospheres at high resolution through a modest-size telescope

Bello-Arufe

Buchhave

Mendonça

et al. 2022

A&A

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Ground-based, high-resolution spectrographs are providing us with an unprecedented view of the dynamics and chemistry of the atmospheres of planets outside the Solar System. While there are a large number of stable and precise high-resolution spectrographs on modest-size telescopes, it is the spectrographs at observatories with apertures larger than 3.5 m that dominate the atmospheric follow-up of exoplanets. In this work we explore the potential of characterising exoplanetary atmospheres with FIES, a high-resolution spectrograph at the 2.56 m Nordic Optical Telescope. We observed two transits of MASCARA-2 b (also known as KELT-20 b) and one transit of KELT-9 b to search for atomic iron, a species that has recently been discovered in both neutral and ionised forms in the atmospheres of these ultra-hot Jupiters using large telescopes. Using a cross-correlation method, we detect a signal of Fe II at the 4.5σ and 4.0σ level in the transits of MaSCARA-2 b. We also detect Fe II in the transit of KELT-9 b at the 8.5σ level. Although we do not find any significant Doppler shift in the signal of MASCARA-2 b, we do measure a moderate blueshift (3–6 km s−1) of the feature in KELT-9 b, which might be a manifestation of high-velocity winds transporting Fe II from the planetary dayside to the nightside. Our work demonstrates the feasibility of investigating exoplanet atmospheres with FIES, and it potentially unlocks a wealth of additional atmosphere detections with this and other high-resolution spectrographs mounted on similar-size telescopes.

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“…As a consequence, we expect that the K p measurements from different species might be dissimilar (e.g. Wardenier et al 2021;Rainer et al 2021;Prinoth et al 2022;Kesseli et al 2022).…”

Section: Detection Of Fe II In Kelt-9 Bmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exoplanet atmospheres at high resolution through a modest-size telescope. Fe II in MASCARA-2b and KELT-9b with FIES on the Nordic Optical Telescope

Bello-Arufe,

Buchhave,

Mendonça

et al. 2022

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Ground-based, high-resolution spectrographs are providing us with an unprecedented view of the dynamics and chemistry of the atmospheres of planets outside the Solar System. While there is a large number of stable and precise high-resolution spectrographs on modest-size telescopes, it is the spectrographs at observatories with apertures larger than 3.5 metres that dominate the atmospheric follow-up of exoplanets. In this work, we explore the potential of characterising exoplanetary atmospheres with FIES, a high-resolution spectrograph at the 2.56 metre Nordic Optical Telescope. We observed two transits of MASCARA-2 b (also known as KELT-20 b) and one transit of KELT-9 b to search for atomic iron, a species that has been recently discovered in both neutral and ionised forms in the atmospheres of these ultra-hot Jupiters using large telescopes. Using a cross-correlation method, we detect a signal of Fe II at the 4.5σ and 4.0σ level in the transits of MASCARA-2 b. We also detect Fe II in the transit of KELT-9 b at the 8.5σ level. Although we do not find any significant Doppler shift in the signal of MASCARA-2 b, we do measure a moderate blueshift (3-6 km s −1 ) of the feature in KELT-9 b, which might be a manifestation of high-velocity winds transporting Fe II from the planetary dayside to the nightside. Our work demonstrates the feasibility of investigating exoplanet atmospheres with FIES, potentially unlocking a wealth of additional atmosphere detections with this and other high-resolution spectrographs mounted on similar-size telescopes.

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An Atomic Spectral Survey of WASP-76b: Resolving Chemical Gradients and Asymmetries

Cited by 68 publications

References 63 publications

The PEPSI-LBT Exoplanet Transit Survey (PETS). II. A Deep Search for Thermal Inversion Agents in KELT-20 b/MASCARA-2 b with Emission and Transmission Spectroscopy

The PEPSI-LBT Exoplanet Transit Survey (PETS). II. A Deep Search for Thermal Inversion Agents in KELT-20 b/MASCARA-2 b with Emission and Transmission Spectroscopy

Exoplanet atmospheres at high resolution through a modest-size telescope

Exoplanet atmospheres at high resolution through a modest-size telescope. Fe II in MASCARA-2b and KELT-9b with FIES on the Nordic Optical Telescope

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