Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
May 2011
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011sptz.prop80016k&link_type=abstract
Spitzer Proposal ID #80016
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Scientific paper
Spitzer's extended warm mission gives us the opportunity to contribute to its legacy by performing comparative science on atmospheres of extrasolar planets. The goal of this proposal is to obtain high quality 4.5 micron phase curves for 22 transiting hot Jupiter systems, which represent a complete sample of systems that can be studied with Spitzer in a reasonable amount of time. The resulting dataset will not only quadruple the number of phase curve observations to date, but also populate gaps in parameter space explored by current phase curve studies. The combination of our phase curves with well-known literature ephemerides and observations of secondary eclipses will produce maps of the longitudinal brightness/temperature distributions in the planetary atmospheres. These maps can be used to calculate energy redistribution efficiencies between the hot dayside and cooler nightside -- exoplanetary weather. Our observations focus on the following three questions: (1) What is the contrast between exoplanetary day- and nightside temperatures, i.e., how efficiently is the incident energy redistributed? (2) Are the weather phenomena in the exoplanetary atmospheres stable over long periods of time? (3) How do the temperature distributions on the planetary surfaces correlate with astrophysical properties of the star-planet systems? To answer these questions with our proposed Spitzer observations, we will employ a novel observing technique using snapshot observing to reduce telescope time requirements, and PCRS peak-up to IRAC to increase the pointing accuracy and thus minimize the photometric error due to intrapixel sensitivity variation. The analysis of this comprehensive data set will elevate the study of phase curves to the level of comparative atmospheric studies outside the solar system.
Burrows Adam
Carey Sean
Ciardi David
Gelino Chris
Gelino Dawn
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