A Search for H-alpha Absorption in Exoplanetary Exospheres

Details A Search for H-alpha Absorption in Exoplanetary Exospheres A Search for H-alpha Absorption in Exoplanetary Exospheres

May 2011

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011aas...21821806j&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #218, #218.06; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 43, 2011

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

Scientific paper

The number of exoplanets with detected atmospheres is rapidly increasing. Particularly intriguing are detections of hydrogen that are attributed to the upper, unbound portion of their atmospheres (i.e. the "exospheres") and indicate that some gas giants may be evaporating. Exospheric hydrogen has only been detected in Lyman-alpha, which, as with all single line detections, only provides limited information about physical conditions such as density and temperature. A much better understanding of exospheres and their evolution would be gained through a constraint on H-alpha. We have obtained more than 100 total hours of spectroscopic observations with the Hobby-Eberly Telescope of five different exoplanetary targets, with the goal of deriving transmission spectra of exoplanetary atmospheres; two of these targets have had their exospheres detected in Lyman-alpha. Here we report on our search for H-alpha absorption in these exospheres, and the implications for their physical conditions and evolution. This work is supported by the National Science Foundation through an Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Grant (AST-0903573). The Hobby-Eberly Telescope is a joint project of the University of Texas at Austin, the Pennsylvania State University, Stanford University, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, and Georg-August-Universität Göttingen and is named in honor of its principal benefactors, William P. Hobby and Robert E. Eberly.

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