Detection of an Extrasolar Planet Atmosphere

Details Detection of an Extrasolar Planet Atmosphere Detection of an Extrasolar Planet Atmosphere

2001-11-28

arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0111544v1

Astrophys.J.568:377-384,2002

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

26 pages, 8 figures, accepted by ApJ 2001 November 19

Scientific paper

10.1086/338770

We report high precision spectrophotometric observations of four planetary transits of HD 209458, in the region of the sodium resonance doublet at 589.3 nm. We find that the photometric dimming during transit in a bandpass centered on the sodium feature is deeper by (2.32 +/- 0.57) x 10^{-4} relative to simultaneous observations of the transit in adjacent bands. We interpret this additional dimming as absorption from sodium in the planetary atmosphere, as recently predicted from several theoretical modeling efforts. Our model for a cloudless planetary atmosphere with a solar abundance of sodium in atomic form predicts more sodium absorption than we observe. There are several possibilities that may account for this reduced amplitude, including reaction of atomic sodium into molecular gases and/or condensates, photoionization of sodium by the stellar flux, a low primordial abundance of sodium, or the presence of clouds high in the atmosphere.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Detection of an Extrasolar Planet Atmosphere 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 Detection of an Extrasolar Planet Atmosphere, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Detection of an Extrasolar Planet Atmosphere will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-176831