Other
Scientific paper
May 2008
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008dda....39.0601r&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, DDA meeting #39, #6.01
Other
Scientific paper
The radius of an extra-solar planet is measured photometrically when the planet transits its parent star. Many of these planets have anomalously large radii, while others are extremely compact. Despite many theoretical efforts, these radius anomalies are still unexplained, though they clearly depend on the diversity of planetary interiors. We show that the currently unknown interior properties of extra-solar planets can be directly measured by observing the orbital precession induced by the quadrupole moment of the planet as evidenced by subtle but observable changes in the transit light curves (Ragozzine & Wolf, 2008, ApJ, pending submission). Other authors have suggested using transit timing to observe the effects of general relativity, stellar oblateness, or additional planets in the system. We show that precession due to the quadrupole moment of the planet dominates over other perturbations by 1-2 orders of magnitude in the case of single very hot Jupiters (a ≃ 0.02 AU). We assess the realistic measurement accuracy of extra-solar gravitational moments (e.g. J2) and find that it is a sensitive function of eccentricity, but clearly measurable for reasonable eccentricities (e < 0.01). We will discuss the capabilities of this new technique to directly characterize the diversity of extra-solar planet interiors in light of future observations, particularly those provided by the Kepler space-based photometry mission.
Ragozzine Darin
Wolf Aaron S.
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