Portraits of Distant Worlds: Mapping the Atmospheres of Hot Jupiters

Details Portraits of Distant Worlds: Mapping the Atmospheres of Hot Jupiters Portraits of Distant Worlds: Mapping the Atmospheres of Hot Jupiters

May 2007

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007sptz.prop40280k&link_type=abstract

Spitzer Proposal ID #40280

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

Although Spitzer has made ground-breaking contributions to many areas of astronomy, its impact on the nascent field of exoplanetary science may be its single greatest legacy. In the few years since its launch, Spitzer has been responsible for the first detection of the light emitted by an extrasolar planet, the first spectrum of an extrasolar planet, and the first map of the flux distribution across the surface of an extrasolar planet. Spitzer's last full cycle of cryogenic observations represents a unique opportunity to cement this legacy for future generations with a set of observations that would directly address fundamental questions about the nature of extrasolar planets. We propose to map the brightness distributions on the surfaces of two extrasolar planets with significantly different properties in two widely separated wavelengths. This study would probe the three-dimensional structure of hot Jupiter atmospheres, and investigate the importance of irradiation, rotation rate, and surface gravity in determining the dynamic metrology of these atmospheres. Our recent detection of the day-night contrast for HD 189733b ('Mapping the Day-Night Contrast of an Extrasolar Planet', Knutson et al., Nature, submitted) has demonstrated that Spitzer is capable of making these ground-breaking observations; we seek to build on this success with a comparative study that will not be possible again until the launch of JWST. Our proposed observations consist of three parts: (1) mapping the day-night contrast of HD 189733b at 24 microns (33 hours), (2) mapping the day-night contrast of HD 209458b at 8 microns (52 hours) and (3) at 24 microns (52 hours), for a total of 138 hours of observations.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Portraits of Distant Worlds: Mapping the Atmospheres of Hot Jupiters 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 Portraits of Distant Worlds: Mapping the Atmospheres of Hot Jupiters, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Portraits of Distant Worlds: Mapping the Atmospheres of Hot Jupiters will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1748722