|
| | | | |
| | | |
| Stat |
Members: 3645
Articles: 2'506'133
Articles rated: 2609
27 April 2024 |
|
| | | | |
|
Article forum
| |
|
|
Optical Observations of the Transiting Exoplanet GJ 1214b | | Johanna K. Teske
; Jake D. Turner
; Matthias Mueller
; Caitlin A. Griffith
; | | Date: |
15 Feb 2013 | | Abstract: | We observed nine primary transits of the super-Earth exoplanet GJ 1214b in
several optical photometric bands from March to August 2012, with the goal of
constraining the short-wavelength slope of the spectrum of GJ 1214b. Our
observations were conducted on the Kuiper 1.55 m telescope in Arizona and the
STELLA-I robotic 1.2 m telescope in Tenerife, Spain. From the derived light
curves we extracted transit depths in R (0.65 {mu}m), V (0.55 {mu}m), and g’
(0.475 {mu}m) bands. Most previous observations of this exoplanet suggest a
flat spectrum varying little with wavelength from the near-infrared to the
optical, corresponding to a low-scale-height, high-molecular-weight atmosphere.
However, a handful of observations around Ks band (~2.15 {mu}m) and g-band
(~0.46 {mu}m) are inconsistent with this scenario and suggest a variation on a
hydrogen- or water-dominated atmosphere that also contains a haze layer of
small particles. In particular, the g-band observations of de Mooij et al.
(2012), consistent with Rayleigh scattering, limit the potential atmosphere
compositions of GJ 1214b due to the increasing slope at optical wavelengths
(Howe & Burrows 2012). We find that our results overlap within errors the
short-wavelength observations of de Mooij et al. (2012), but are also
consistent with a spectral slope of zero in GJ 1214b in the optical wavelength
region. Our observations thus allow for a larger suite of possible atmosphere
compositions, including those with a high-molecular-weight and/or hazes. | | Source: | arXiv, 1302.3644 | | Services: | Forum | Review | PDF | Favorites | |
|
|
No message found in this article forum.
You have a question or message about this article?
Ask the community and write a message in the forum.
If you want to rate this article, please use the review section..
To add a message in the forum, you need to login or register first. (free): registration page
|
| |
|
|
|
|
News, job offers and information for researchers and scientists:
| |
REGISTER