학술논문
Ground-based near-UV observations of 15 transiting exoplanets: Constraints on their atmospheres and no evidence for asymmetrical transits
Document Type
Working Paper
Author
Turner, Jake D.; Pearson, Kyle A.; Biddle, Lauren I.; Smart, Brianna M.; Zellem, Robert T.; Teske, Johanna K.; Hardegree-Ullman, Kevin K.; Griffith, Caitlin C.; Leiter, Robin M.; Cates, Ian T.; Nieberding, Megan N.; Smith, Carter-Thaxton W.; Thompson, Robert M.; Hofmann, Ryan; Berube, Michael P.; Nguyen, Chi H.; Small, Lindsay C.; Guvenen, Blythe C.; Richardson, Logan; McGraw, Allison; Raphael, Brandon; Crawford, Benjamin E.; Robertson, Amy N.; Tombleson, Ryan; Carleton, Timothy M.; Towner, Allison P. M.; Walker-LaFollette, Amanda M.; Hume, Jeffrey R.; Watson, Zachary T.; Jones, Christen K.; Lichtenberger, Matthew J.; Hoglund, Shelby R.; Cook, Kendall L.; Crossen, Cory A.; Jorgensen, Curtis R.; Thompson, James M. Romine Alejandro R.; Villegas, Christian F.; Wilson, Ashley A.; Sanford, Brent; Taylor, Joanna M.
Source
Subject
Language
Abstract
Transits of exoplanets observed in the near-UV have been used to study the scattering properties of their atmospheres and possible star-planet interactions. We observed the primary transits of 15 exoplanets (CoRoT-1b, GJ436b, HAT-P-1b, HAT-P-13b, HAT-P-16b, HAT-P-22b, TrES-2b, TrES-4b, WASP-1b, WASP-12b, WASP-33b, WASP-36b, WASP-44b, WASP-48b, and WASP-77Ab) in the near-UV and several optical photometric bands to update their planetary parameters, ephemerides, search for a wavelength dependence in their transit depths to constrain their atmospheres, and determine if asymmetries are visible in their light curves. Here we present the first ground-based near-UV light curves for 12 of the targets (CoRoT-1b, GJ436b, HAT-P-1b, HAT-P-13b, HAT-P-22b, TrES-2b, TrES-4b, WASP-1b, WASP-33b, WASP-36b, WASP-48b, and WASP-77Ab). We find that none of the near-UV transits exhibit any non-spherical asymmetries, this result is consistent with recent theoretical predictions by Ben-Jaffel et al. and Turner et al. The multi-wavelength photometry indicates a constant transit depth from near-UV to optical wavelengths in 10 targets (suggestive of clouds), and a varying transit depth with wavelength in 5 targets (hinting at Rayleigh or aerosol scattering in their atmospheres). We also present the first detection of a smaller near-UV transit depth than that measured in the optical in WASP-1b and a possible opacity source that can cause such radius variations is currently unknown. WASP-36b also exhibits a smaller near-UV transit depth at 2.6$\sigma$. Further observations are encouraged to confirm the transit depth variations seen in this study.
Comment: 35 pages, 16 tables, 10 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS (March 8, 2016). Light curves are available online. Updated EXOMOP (transit modeling software) and is also available online
Comment: 35 pages, 16 tables, 10 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS (March 8, 2016). Light curves are available online. Updated EXOMOP (transit modeling software) and is also available online