Optical Flux from Hot Jupiters: Application to Kepler and CoRoT

Details Optical Flux from Hot Jupiters: Application to Kepler and CoRoT Optical Flux from Hot Jupiters: Application to Kepler and CoRoT

Sep 2008

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008dps....40.1101f&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #40, #11.01; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 40, p.401

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

The Kepler and CoRoT transiting planet missions will be able to detect the secondary eclipses of planets as they pass behind their parent stars. Both of these spacecraft have a wide optical bandpass and CCD detectors. The planets they seek to detect are strongly irradiated and have very low geometric albedos, leading to atmospheric temperatures of 1200-2500 K. Consequently, the measured planetary flux will likely be dominated by optical thermal emission, rather than scattered ("reflected") light, except for the coolest planets. If the opacity of the day-side atmospheres is dominated by the TiO and VO molecules (pM Class planets as defined by Fortney et al. 2008) then the measured planet-to-star flux ratios will provide a sensitive test of the temperature of the upper atmospheres of these planets, where incident flux is absorbed. In comparison, the Spitzer Space Telescope probes higher atmospheric pressures. If the atmospheres are instead dominated by absorption of incident flux by neutral atomic Na and K (once Ti and V have condensed, termed pL Class planets), then the reverse is true, and Kepler/CoRoT will probe higher pressures than Spitzer. We also explore models with potential photochemical products, which could alter this simple classification scheme. Here we present self-consistent atmosphere models which couple the atmospheric structure, chemical mixing ratios, and scattered and emitted spectra. We investigate models with varying surface gravities and atmospheric metallicities to investigate how well these atmospheres may be characterized by Kepler and CoRoT. This is especially important since the Spitzer mission will lose most wavelength coverage when its cryogen runs out in Spring 2009.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Optical Flux from Hot Jupiters: Application to Kepler and CoRoT does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Optical Flux from Hot Jupiters: Application to Kepler and CoRoT, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Optical Flux from Hot Jupiters: Application to Kepler and CoRoT will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1436539