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"Extrasolar planets Atmospheres."
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Transiting Exoplanet Studies and Community Targets for JWST's Early Release Science Program
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will likely revolutionize transiting exoplanet atmospheric science, due to a combination of its capability for continuous, long duration observations and its larger collecting area, spectral coverage, and spectral resolution compared to existing space-based facilities. However, it is unclear precisely how well JWST will perform and which of its myriad instruments and observing modes will be best suited for transiting exoplanet studies. In this article, we describe a prefatory JWST Early Release Science (ERS) Cycle 1 program that focuses on testing specific observing modes to quickly give the community the data and experience it needs to plan more efficient and successful transiting exoplanet characterization programs in later cycles. We propose a multi-pronged approach wherein one aspect of the program focuses on observing transits of a single target with all of the recommended observing modes to identify and understand potential systematics, compare transmission spectra at overlapping and neighboring wavelength regions, confirm throughputs, and determine overall performances. In our search for transiting exoplanets that are well suited to achieving these goals, we identify 12 objects (dubbed \"community targets\") that meet our defined criteria. Currently, the most favorable target is WASP-62b because of its large predicted signal size, relatively bright host star, and location in JWST's continuous viewing zone. Since most of the community targets do not have well-characterized atmospheres, we recommend initiating preparatory observing programs to determine the presence of obscuring clouds/hazes within their atmospheres. Measurable spectroscopic features are needed to establish the optimal resolution and wavelength regions for exoplanet characterization. Other initiatives from our proposed ERS program include testing the instrument brightness limits and performing phase-curve observations. The latter are a unique challenge compared to transit observations because of their significantly longer durations. Using only a single mode, we propose to observe a full-orbit phase curve of one of the previously characterized, short-orbital-period planets to evaluate the facility-level aspects of long, uninterrupted time-series observations.
Journal Article
Alien skies : planetary atmospheres from earth to exoplanets
\"Planetary atmospheres are complex and evolving entities, as mankind is rapidly coming to realise whilst attempting to understand, forecast and mitigate human-induced climate change. In the Solar System, our neighbours Venus and Mars provide striking examples of two endpoints of planetary evolution, runaway greenhouse and loss of atmosphere to space. The variety of extra-solar planets brings a wider angle to the issue: from scorching \"hot jupiters\" to ocean worlds, exo-atmospheres explore many configurations unknown in the Solar System, such as iron clouds, silicate rains, extreme plate tectonics, and steam volcanoes. Exoplanetary atmospheres have recently become accessible to observations. This book puts our own climate in the wider context of the trials and tribulations of planetary atmospheres. Based on cutting-edge research, it uses a grand tour of the atmospheres of other planets to shine a new light on our own atmosphere, and its relation with life.\"-- Page 4 of cover.
Book
A Framework for Prioritizing the TESS Planetary Candidates Most Amenable to Atmospheric Characterization
A key legacy of the recently launched the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission will be to provide the astronomical community with many of the best transiting exoplanet targets for atmospheric characterization. However, time is of the essence to take full advantage of this opportunity. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), although delayed, will still complete its nominal five year mission on a timeline that motivates rapid identification, confirmation, and mass measurement of the top atmospheric characterization targets from TESS. Beyond JWST, future dedicated missions for atmospheric studies such as the Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey (ARIEL) require the discovery and confirmation of several hundred additional sub-Jovian size planets (Rp < 10 R⊕) orbiting bright stars, beyond those known today, to ensure a successful statistical census of exoplanet atmospheres. Ground-based extremely large telescopes (ELTs) will also contribute to surveying the atmospheres of the transiting planets discovered by TESS. Here we present a set of two straightforward analytic metrics, quantifying the expected signal-to-noise in transmission and thermal emission spectroscopy for a given planet, that will allow the top atmospheric characterization targets to be readily identified among the TESS planet candidates. Targets that meet our proposed threshold values for these metrics would be encouraged for rapid follow-up and confirmation via radial velocity mass measurements. Based on the catalog of simulated TESS detections by Sullivan et al., we determine appropriate cutoff values of the metrics, such that the TESS mission will ultimately yield a sample of ∼300 high-quality atmospheric characterization targets across a range of planet size bins, extending down to Earth-size, potentially habitable worlds.
Journal Article
Observations of Exoplanet Atmospheres
Detailed characterization of an extrasolar planet's atmosphere provides the best hope for distinguishing the makeup of its outer layers, and the only hope for understanding the interplay between initial composition, chemistry, dynamics and circulation, and disequilibrium processes. In recent years, some areas have seen rapid progress, while developments in others have come more slowly and/or have been hotly contested. This article gives an observer's perspective on the current understanding of extrasolar planet atmospheres prior to the considerable advances expected from the next generation of observing facilities. Atmospheric processes of both transiting and directly imaged planets are discussed, including molecular and atomic abundances, cloud properties, thermal structure, and planetary energy budgets. In the future we can expect a continuing and accelerating stream of new discoveries, which will fuel the ongoing exoplanet revolution for many years to come.
Journal Article
Characterizing Transiting Planet Atmospheres through 2025
The discovery of planets around other stars is revolutionizing our notions of planet formation and is poised to do the same for planetary climate. Studying transiting planets is complementary to eventual studies of directly imaged planets: (1) we can readily measure the mass and radius of transiting planets, linking atmospheric properties to bulk composition and formation, (2) many transiting planets are strongly irradiated and exhibit novel atmospheric physics, and (3) the most common temperate terrestrial planets orbit close to red dwarf stars and are difficult to image directly. We have only been able to comprehensively characterize the atmospheres of a handful of transiting planets, because most orbit faint stars. The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) will discover transiting planets orbiting the brightest stars, enabling, in principle, an atmospheric survey of 102-103 bright hot Jupiters and warm sub-Neptunes. Uniform observations of such a statistically significant sample would provide leverage to understand-and learn from-the diversity of short-period planets, and would identify the minority of truly special planets worthy of more intensive follow-up. We argue that the best way to maximize the scientific returns of TESS is to adopt a triage approach. A space mission consisting of a ∼1 m telescope with an optical-NIR spectrograph could measure molecular absorption for nonterrestrial planets discovered by TESS, as well as eclipses and phase variations for the hottest jovians. Such a mission could observe up to 103 transits per year, thus enabling it to survey a large fraction of the bright (J < 11) hot-Jupiters and warm sub-Neptunes TESS is expected to find. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) could be used to perform detailed atmospheric characterization of the most interesting transiting targets (transit, eclipse, and-when possible-phase-resolved spectroscopy). TESS is also expected to discover a few temperate terrestrial planets transiting nearby M-Dwarfs. Characterizing these worlds will be time-intensive: JWST will need months to provide tantalizing constraints on the presence of an atmosphere, planetary rotational state, clouds, and greenhouse gases. Future flagship missions should be designed to provide better constraints on the habitability of M-Dwarf temperate terrestrial planets.
Journal Article
No thick carbon dioxide atmosphere on the rocky exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 c
Seven rocky planets orbit the nearby dwarf star TRAPPIST-1, providing a unique opportunity to search for atmospheres on small planets outside the Solar System
1
. Thanks to the recent launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), possible atmospheric constituents such as carbon dioxide (CO
2
) are now detectable
2
,
3
. Recent JWST observations of the innermost planet TRAPPIST-1 b showed that it is most probably a bare rock without any CO
2
in its atmosphere
4
. Here we report the detection of thermal emission from the dayside of TRAPPIST-1 c with the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) on JWST at 15 µm. We measure a planet-to-star flux ratio of
f
p
/
f
⁎
= 421 ± 94 parts per million (ppm), which corresponds to an inferred dayside brightness temperature of 380 ± 31 K. This high dayside temperature disfavours a thick, CO
2
-rich atmosphere on the planet. The data rule out cloud-free O
2
/CO
2
mixtures with surface pressures ranging from 10 bar (with 10 ppm CO
2
) to 0.1 bar (pure CO
2
). A Venus-analogue atmosphere with sulfuric acid clouds is also disfavoured at 2.6
σ
confidence. Thinner atmospheres or bare-rock surfaces are consistent with our measured planet-to-star flux ratio. The absence of a thick, CO
2
-rich atmosphere on TRAPPIST-1 c suggests a relatively volatile-poor formation history, with less than
9.5
−
2.3
+
7.5
Earth oceans of water. If all planets in the system formed in the same way, this would indicate a limited reservoir of volatiles for the potentially habitable planets in the system.
The detection of thermal emission from the rocky exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 c using the Mid-Infrared Instrument on the James Webb Space Telescope reveals a dayside brightness temperature that disfavours a thick, CO
2
-rich atmosphere.
Journal Article
A solar C/O and sub-solar metallicity in a hot Jupiter atmosphere
Measurements of the atmospheric carbon (C) and oxygen (O) relative to hydrogen (H) in hot Jupiters (relative to their host stars) provide insight into their formation location and subsequent orbital migration
1
,
2
. Hot Jupiters that form beyond the major volatile (H
2
O/CO/CO
2
) ice lines and subsequently migrate post disk-dissipation are predicted have atmospheric carbon-to-oxygen ratios (C/O) near 1 and subsolar metallicities
2
, whereas planets that migrate through the disk before dissipation are predicted to be heavily polluted by infalling O-rich icy planetesimals, resulting in C/O < 0.5 and super-solar metallicities
1
,
2
. Previous observations of hot Jupiters have been able to provide bounded constraints on either H
2
O (refs.
3
–
5
) or CO (refs.
6
,
7
), but not both for the same planet, leaving uncertain
4
the true elemental C and O inventory and subsequent C/O and metallicity determinations. Here we report spectroscopic observations of a typical transiting hot Jupiter, WASP-77Ab. From these, we determine the atmospheric gas volume mixing ratio constraints on both H
2
O and CO (9.5 × 10
−5
–1.5 × 10
−4
and 1.2 × 10
−4
–2.6 × 10
−4
, respectively). From these bounded constraints, we are able to derive the atmospheric C/H (
0.35
−
0.10
+
0.17
× solar) and O/H (
0.32
−
0.08
+
0.12
× solar) abundances and the corresponding atmospheric carbon-to-oxygen ratio (C/O = 0.59 ± 0.08; the solar value is 0.55). The sub-solar (C+O)/H (
0.33
−
0.09
+
0.13
× solar) is suggestive of a metal-depleted atmosphere relative to what is expected for Jovian-like planets
1
while the near solar value of C/O rules out the disk-free migration/C-rich
2
atmosphere scenario.
The C/O ratio of the transiting hot Jupiter WASP-77Ab is measured here and found to be approximately solar, though the (C+O)/H ratio is subsolar.
Journal Article
Prevalence of Earth-size planets orbiting Sun-like stars
Determining whether Earth-like planets are common or rare looms as a touchstone in the question of life in the universe. We searched for Earth-size planets that cross in front of their host stars by examining the brightness measurements of 42,000 stars from National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Kepler mission. We found 603 planets, including 10 that are Earth size (1—2 R⊕) and receive comparable levels of stellar energy to that of Earth (0.25 — 4 F⊕). We account for Kepler's imperfect detectability of such planets by injecting synthetic planet—caused dimmings into the Kepler brightness measurements and recording the fraction detected. We find that 11 ± 4% of Sun-like stars harbor an Earth-size planet receiving between one and four times the stellar intensity as Earth. We also find that the occurrence of Earth-size planets is constant with increasing orbital period (P), within equal intervals of logP up to ∼200 d. Extrapolating, one finds $5.7^{+1.7}_{-2.2}\\%$ of Sun-like stars harbor an Earth-size planet with orbital periods of 200—400 d.
Journal Article