Confirmation and Characterization of Kepler Mission Exoplanets: The Era of Rock and Ice Exoplanets

Details Confirmation and Characterization of Kepler Mission Exoplanets: The Era of Rock and Ice Exoplanets Confirmation and Characterization of Kepler Mission Exoplanets: The Era of Rock and Ice Exoplanets

Dec 2008

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008sptz.prop60028c&link_type=abstract

Spitzer Proposal ID #60028

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

Scientific paper

In the past 4 years, the combination of ground-based transit surveys and the remarkable stability of the Spitzer Space Telescope permitted the direct investigation of the atmospheres of one specific class of exoplanet, namely the Hot Jupiters. The power of the NASA Kepler Mission will be to discover dozens of transiting exoplanets that are not detectable from the ground either due to the shallow transit depth or the low transit frequency resulting from their longer orbital periods. Kepler will find large numbers of transiting hot Neptunes and hot SuperEarth exoplanets, as well as cooler Jupiters, each of which are nonetheless amenable to direct study of their infrared emission. We propose to use Spitzer to observe Kepler-detected exoplanets and candidates to pursue two goals. First, we will measure the two-color planetary emission for 20 representative members of these previously inaccessible cexoplanets. Such observations will permit the first opportunity to directly test theoretical models of exoplanetary atmospheres of varying compositions (notably SuperEarths and Neptunes) and under differing levels of irradiation (cooler Jovian companions). The same data will permit an estimate of the orbital eccentricities, thus providing a test of models of the orbital migration, and tidal dissipation for these various types of exoplanets. Second, we will use Spitzer to follow up Kepler-identified candidate terrestrial exoplanets to prove that these signals are indeed planetary in origin. By gathering single color time series spanning times of primary transit, we will exclude a significant source of astrophysical false positives (resulting from blends of triple stars systems containing an eclipsing binary) that will precisely mimic an exoplanetary signature in the Kepler data. These infrared data will provide a crucial step in confirming the planetary nature of many of the most exciting candidates, namely the planets with the smallest radii that are likely rocky in composition.

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