Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
Sep 2008
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008dps....40.3706r&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #40, #37.06; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 40, p.463
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Scientific paper
Transit spectroscopy is the most efficient method yet to characterize the atmospheric composition of extrasolar planets. It attempts to detect the tiny wavelength-dependent variations of transit depth that mimic the spectral signature of the atmospheric constituents. Transit spectroscopy studies have successfully detected several atomic species in the atmospheres of the two brightest transiting extrasolar planets, HD 209458b and HD 189733b, mostly analyzing data from the Hubble Space Telescope in the visible. Molecular species, including the most life-relevant molecule -water-, are more difficult to detect since they do not present isolated strong spectral features, but rather many weak features that blend together to form spectral bands in the infrared. Since last year, and only by using data from Space Telescopes, confirmed detections of molecules in the atmosphere of the extrasolar planet HD 189733b were announced.
Here, I will present an update of a ground-based search for the water signature on the atmosphere of the extrasolar planet HD 209458b. I will discuss the advantages and difficulties of ground-based searches with respect to space-based campaigns, and will show preliminary results of the analysis of new data obtained at the Very Large Telescope with SINFONI, a state-of-the-art integral field spectrograph.
This work is supported by grant I2-06/06-2 from the Research and Development administration at the Universidad de Chile, the FONDAP Center of Astrophysics, Chile, and the BASAL initiative PB07: CATA, Chile.
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