A NIR Spectrum of a "Hot Jupiter” From the Ground: Preliminary Results

Details A NIR Spectrum of a "Hot Jupiter” From the Ground: Preliminary Results A NIR Spectrum of a "Hot Jupiter” From the Ground: Preliminary Results

Sep 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009dps....41.4212m&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #41, #42.12

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Scientific paper

High resolution NIR spectroscopy offers an excellent complement to the expanding dataset of transit and secondary eclipse observations of exo-planets with Spitzer that have provided the bulk of our understanding of the atmospheres and internal structure of these objects. High-resolution data can quantify the vertical temperature structure by isolating specific spectral lines formed at various depths. The presence of an opaque absorbing layer can also be inferred - and its pressure level determined quantitatively - via its effect on spectral line intensities.
However, a successful ground-based spectroscopic measurement must overcome a number of very difficult technical hurdles, and previous attempts to detect exoplanet thermal emission in the near infrared from the ground have been tantalizingly close but ultimately unsuccessful. Our observing strategy invokes two tactics to break through the detection barrier that has foiled other investigations and achieve a decisive detection/characterization: 1) We target the L-band where planet-star flux ratios are larger, and a number of atmospheric gases have transitions that span a large range in wavelength, and 2) We utilize a sophisticated first-order telluric absorption modeling technique that, combined with a calibration star, has already been proven to remove the effects of varying atmospheric transmittance and allow us to reach unprecedented S/N. We recently obtained several hours of data on a bright transiting exo-planet host star, both during the secondary eclipse and out of eclipse, using the NIRSPEC instrument on Keck-II. Data reduction is ongoing, and preliminary results will be presented.
Funding for this research comes from the NASA Post-Doctoral Program, and data was obtained at the W. M. Keck Observatory.

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