Prof Suzanne Aigrain

Abstract:

We present a secondary eclipse observation for the hot Jupiter HD 189733b across the wavelength range 290-570 nm made using the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope. We measure geometric albedos of Ag = 0.40 ± 0.12 across 290-450 nm and Ag < 0.12 across 450-570 nm at 1σ confidence. The albedo decrease toward longer wavelengths is also apparent when using six wavelength bins over the same wavelength range. This can be interpreted as evidence for optically thick reflective clouds on the dayside hemisphere with sodium absorption suppressing the scattered light signal beyond 450 nm. Our best-fit albedo values imply that HD 189733b would appear a deep blue color at visible wavelengths. © 2013. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved..

Abstract:

We report the discovery of two transiting exoplanets, CoRoT-25b and CoRoT-26b, both of low density, one of which is in the Saturn mass-regime. For each star, ground-based complementary observations through optical photometry and radial velocity measurements secured the planetary nature of the transiting body and allowed us to fully characterize them. For CoRoT-25b we found a planetary mass of 0.27 ± 0.04 MJup, a radius of 1.08 -0.10+0.3 RJup and hence a mean density of 0.15-0.06+0.15 g cm-3. The planet orbits an F9 main-sequence star in a 4.86-day period, that has a V magnitude of 15.0, solar metallicity, and an age of 4.5-2.0+1.8-Gyr. CoRoT-26b orbits a slightly evolved G5 star of 9.06 ± 1.5-Gyr age in a 4.20-day period that hassolar metallicity and a V magnitude of 15.8. With a mass of 0.52 ± 0.05 MJup, a radius of 1.26-0.07+0.13 RJup, and a mean density of 0.28-0.07+0.09 g cm-3, it belongs to the low-mass hot-Jupiter population. Planetary evolution models allowed us to estimate a core mass of a few tens of Earth mass for the two planets with heavy-element mass fractions of 0.52 -0.15+0.08 and 0.26-0.08+0.05, respectively, assuming that a small fraction of the incoming flux is dissipated at the center of the planet. In addition, these models indicate that CoRoT-26b is anomalously large compared with what standard models could account for, indicating that dissipation from stellar heating could cause this size. © 2013 ESO.