1 / 42

Exoplanet Atmospheres: Insights via the Hubble Space Telescope

Hubble Science Briefing. Exoplanet Atmospheres: Insights via the Hubble Space Telescope. Nicolas Crouzet 1 , Drake Deming 2 , Peter R. McCullough 1 1 Space Telescope Science Institute 2 University of Maryland May 2, 2013. The Solar system. Sizes to scale Distances NOT to scale.

leanna
Download Presentation

Exoplanet Atmospheres: Insights via the Hubble Space Telescope

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. Hubble Science Briefing Exoplanet Atmospheres: Insights via the Hubble Space Telescope Nicolas Crouzet 1, Drake Deming 2, Peter R. McCullough 1 1 Space Telescope Science Institute 2University of Maryland May 2, 2013

  2. The Solar system Sizes to scale Distances NOT to scale 8 planets in the Solar system: Mercury , Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune 2 Hubble Science Briefing 5/2/13

  3. A revolution!! The first exoplanet: 51 Peg b (Mayor & Queloz 1995) 51 Peg b: Mass ≈ 0.5 Jupiter masses Orbital period = 4.2 days!! 3 Hubble Science Briefing 5/2/13

  4. How do we detect exoplanets? The radial velocity method Indicates the mass of the planet 4 http://media4.obspm.fr/exoplanetes/pages_exopl-methodes/vitesses-radiales.html credit Emmanuel Pécontal Hubble Science Briefing 5/2/13

  5. How do we detect exoplanets? The radial velocity method Indicates the mass of the planet 5 http://media4.obspm.fr/exoplanetes/pages_exopl-methodes/vitesses-radiales.html credit Emmanuel Pécontal Hubble Science Briefing 5/2/13

  6. How do we detect exoplanets? The radial velocity method Indicates the mass of the planet 6 http://media4.obspm.fr/exoplanetes/pages_exopl-methodes/vitesses-radiales.html credit Emmanuel Pécontal Hubble Science Briefing 5/2/13

  7. How do we detect exoplanets? The radial velocity method Indicates the mass of the planet 7 http://media4.obspm.fr/exoplanetes/pages_exopl-methodes/vitesses-radiales.html credit Emmanuel Pécontal Hubble Science Briefing 5/2/13

  8. How do we detect exoplanets? The radial velocity method Indicates the mass of the planet 8 http://media4.obspm.fr/exoplanetes/pages_exopl-methodes/vitesses-radiales.html credit Emmanuel Pécontal Hubble Science Briefing 5/2/13

  9. How do we detect exoplanets? The radial velocity method Indicates the mass of the planet 9 http://media4.obspm.fr/exoplanetes/pages_exopl-methodes/vitesses-radiales.html credit Emmanuel Pécontal Hubble Science Briefing 5/2/13

  10. How do we detect exoplanets? The transit method Indicates the radius of the planet 10 Hubble Science Briefing 5/2/13

  11. How do we detect exoplanets? The imaging method HR 8799 (Marois et al. 2008, 2010) Direct detection of exoplanets 11 Hubble Science Briefing 5/2/13

  12. Historical background The discovery of exoplanets 12 Hubble Science Briefing 5/2/13

  13. Historical background 1995: The first exoplanet around a Sun-like star, 51 Peg b Mayor & Queloz 1995 13 Hubble Science Briefing 5/2/13

  14. Historical background 1999: The first transiting exoplanet, HD 209458 b Charbonneau et al. 2000 14 Hubble Science Briefing 5/2/13

  15. Historical background 2008: Direct imaging of Fomalhaut b and HR8799 b Marois et al. 2008 Kalas et al. 2008 15 Hubble Science Briefing 5/2/13

  16. Historical background 2009: The first transiting super-Earth, CoRoT-7 b Léger et al. 2009 16 Hubble Science Briefing 5/2/13

  17. Historical background 2012: The first Earth-size exoplanets, Kepler 20 e & f Fressin et al. 2012 17 Hubble Science Briefing 5/2/13

  18. Historical background The discovery of exoplanets As of April 30th, 2013: 880 exoplanets: 132 in multiple systems 308 transiting 18 Hubble Science Briefing 5/2/13

  19. Historical background And probably millions more… 19 Hubble Science Briefing 5/2/13

  20. Detection and characterization Basics Detection = Finding planets Characterization = Studying in detail individual planets, after their detection Requires a bright host star to maximize the signal Currently only a few exoplanets can be characterized 20 Hubble Science Briefing 5/2/13

  21. The power of the transit method 21 Hubble Science Briefing 5/2/13

  22. Transit spectroscopy with the Hubble Space Telescope Image of the target star on the detector HST has several spectrographs on board 22 Hubble Science Briefing 5/2/13

  23. Transit spectroscopy with the Hubble Space Telescope Spectrum: Measure of the light at different wavelengths Variations reveal absorption by molecules in the atmosphere of the planet Absorption Wavelength 23 Hubble Science Briefing 5/2/13

  24. Transit spectroscopy with the Hubble Space Telescope First detection of an exoplanet atmosphere… … that is escaping HD209458b - HST STIS (Charbonneau et al. 2002) HD209458b - HST STIS (Vidal-Madjar et al. 2003, 2004) Excess absorption 24 Hubble Science Briefing 5/2/13

  25. Transit spectroscopy with the Hubble Space Telescope The NICMOS controversy NICMOS: Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer onboard Hubble Space Telescope Methane and water in the atmosphere of HD198733b (Swain et al. 2008) 25 Hubble Science Briefing 5/2/13

  26. Transit spectroscopy with the Hubble Space Telescope The NICMOS controversy HD189733b A new look at NICMOS transmission spectroscopy of HD 189733, GJ-436 and XO-1 “No conclusive evidence for molecular features” (Gibson et al. 2011) 26 Hubble Science Briefing 5/2/13

  27. Transit spectroscopy with the Hubble Space Telescope The NICMOS controversy Need more observations 27 Hubble Science Briefing 5/2/13

  28. Transit spectroscopy with the Hubble Space Telescope But NICMOS became unavailable… New instruments installed on HST, including Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) Installation by a team of astronauts in May, 2009 28 Hubble Science Briefing 5/2/13

  29. Transit spectroscopy with the Hubble Space Telescope WFC3 observations of HD 189733: coming this year… 29 Hubble Science Briefing 5/2/13

  30. Transit spectroscopy with the Hubble Space Telescope HD 209458 b Sodium in an escaping atmosphere, detected by HST Why is sodium important? • A key to distinguish between 2 classes of hot-Jupiters as proposed by theoretical models (Fortney 2008, 2010) • Strongly irradiated hot-Jupiters: - planet is very hot (~ 2000 to 5000°F) • - large day-night temperature contrast • - do not show sodium in their atmosphere • Less irradiated hot-Jupiters: - planet is cooler (less than 2000°F) • - more redistribution of heat around the planet • - show sodium in their atmosphere Sodium helps to understand the general characteristics of hot-Jupiters 30 Hubble Science Briefing 5/2/13

  31. Transit spectroscopy with the Hubble Space Telescope HD 209458 b Recent observations with HST WFC3 (Deming et al. 2013) Best precision ever achieved for exoplanetspectroscopy (40 parts per million) Detection of water vapor in the planet’s atmosphere! (signal: 200 parts per million) 31 Hubble Science Briefing 5/2/13

  32. Transit spectroscopy with the Hubble Space Telescope HD 209458 b But water vapor signal is smaller than expected! Interpretation: Presence of clouds and/or haze in the planet’s atmosphere, that weaken the signal 32 Hubble Science Briefing 5/2/13

  33. Transit spectroscopy with the Hubble Space Telescope HD 209458 b But water vapor signal is smaller than expected! Interpretation: Presence of clouds and/or haze in the planet’s atmosphere, that weaken the signal HST provides clues about HD 209458 b’s atmosphere: water vapor, with clouds and/or haze 33 Hubble Science Briefing 5/2/13

  34. Transit spectroscopy with the Hubble Space Telescope GJ 1214 b A transiting super-Earth or mini-Neptune (Charbonneau et al. 2009) Radius = 2.7 RE Mass = 6.6 ME Density = 1.9 g/cm3 (Earth: 5.5 g/cm3) Marcy 2009 34 Hubble Science Briefing 5/2/13

  35. Transit spectroscopy with the Hubble Space Telescope GJ 1214 b Berta et al. 2012 - HST WFC3 Bean et al. 2010 - Ground based observations The spectrum is flat!! 35 Hubble Science Briefing 5/2/13

  36. Transit spectroscopy with the Hubble Space Telescope GJ 1214 b Inconsistent with a cloud-free extended atmosphere Atmosphere has to be “heavy” (high molecular weight)… But it might also be a very cloudy atmosphere 36 Hubble Science Briefing 5/2/13

  37. Transit spectroscopy with the Hubble Space Telescope GJ 1214 b Inconsistent with a cloud-free extended atmosphere Atmosphere has to be “heavy” (high molecular weight)… But it might also be a very cloudy atmosphere Still an open question… On-going HST program for more observations 37 Hubble Science Briefing 5/2/13

  38. The future Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) NASA Mission for launch in 2017 Principal Investigator: George Ricker (MIT) Aim: Discover Transiting Earths and Super-Earths orbiting bright, nearbystars 38 Hubble Science Briefing 5/2/13

  39. The future The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) JWST… a big thing!! Mirror: 6.5 meters (21 feet) in diameter Observations in the infrared Orbit about 1.5 million km (1 million miles) from the Earth Launch: goal 2018 39 Hubble Science Briefing 5/2/13

  40. The future The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Predicted performances: Example of carbon dioxide in a habitable SuperEarth 40 Hubble Science Briefing 5/2/13

  41. Conclusion The transit method is the most powerful to characterize exoplanets HST plays a major role in transit spectroscopy These observations bring information about molecules, clouds, and haze in the atmosphere of exoplanets The future: TESS and JWST 41 Hubble Science Briefing 5/2/13

  42. Thanks!! 42 Hubble Science Briefing 5/2/13

More Related