How Does Thermal Scattering Shape the Infrared Spectra of Cloudy Exoplanets? A Theoretical Framework and Consequences for Atmospheric Retrievals in the JWST era

(2020)

Authors:

Jake Taylor, Vivien Parmentier, Michael R Line, Elspeth KH Lee, Patrick GJ Irwin, Suzanne Aigrain

Simulating gas kinematic studies of high-redshift galaxies with the HARMONI integral field spectrograph

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Oxford University Press (OUP) 498:2 (2020) 1891-1904

Authors:

Mark LA Richardson, Laurence Routledge, Niranjan Thatte, Matthias Tecza, Ryan CW Houghton, Miguel Pereira-Santaella, Dimitra Rigopoulou

Erratum: The first planet detected in the WTS: an inflated hot-Jupiter in a 3.35 day orbit around a late F-star

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Oxford University Press (OUP) 497:1 (2020) 916-916

Authors:

M Cappetta, RP Saglia, JL Birkby, J Koppenhoefer, DJ Pinfield, ST Hodgkin, P Cruz, G Kovács, B Sipőcz, D Barrado, B Nefs, YV Pavlenko, L Fossati, C del Burgo, EL Martín, I Snellen, J Barnes, D Campbell, S Catalan, MC Gálvez-Ortiz, N Goulding, C Haswell, O Ivanyuk, H Jones, M Kuznetsov, N Lodieu, F Marocco, D Mislis, F Murgas, R Napiwotzki, E Palle, D Pollacco, L Sarro Baro, E Solano, P Steele, H Stoev, R Tata, J Zendejas

The Multiplanet System TOI-421: A Warm Neptune and a Super Puffy Mini-Neptune Transiting a G9 V Star in a Visual Binary* * Based on observations made with ESO Telescopes at the La Silla Observatory under programs ID 1102.C-0923, 0103.C-0874, 0103.C-0759, 0103.C-0442, and 60.A-970. Based on observations obtained with the Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT), operated on the island of La Palma jointly by Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, in the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos (ORM) of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC). This paper includes data gathered with the 6.5 m Magellan Telescopes located at Las Campanas Observatory, Chile. This work makes use of observations from the LCOGT network.

The Astronomical Journal American Astronomical Society 160:3 (2020) 114

Authors:

Ilaria Carleo, Davide Gandolfi, Oscar Barragán, John H Livingston, Carina M Persson, Kristine WF Lam, Aline Vidotto, Michael B Lund, Carolina Villarreal D’Angelo, Karen A Collins, Luca Fossati, Andrew W Howard, Daria Kubyshkina, Rafael Brahm, Antonija Oklopčić, Paul Mollière, Seth Redfield, Luisa Maria Serrano, Fei Dai, Malcolm Fridlund, Francesco Borsa, Judith Korth, Massimiliano Esposito, Matías R Díaz, Louise Dyregaard Nielsen, Coel Hellier, Savita Mathur, Hans J Deeg, Artie P Hatzes, Serena Benatti, Florian Rodler, Javier Alarcon, Lorenzo Spina, Ângela RG Santos, Iskra Georgieva, Rafael A García, Lucía González-Cuesta, George R Ricker, Roland Vanderspek, David W Latham, Sara Seager, Joshua N Winn, Jon M Jenkins, Simon Albrecht, Natalie M Batalha, Corey Beard, Patricia T Boyd, François Bouchy, Jennifer A Burt, R Paul Butler, Juan Cabrera, Ashley Chontos, David R Ciardi, William D Cochran, Kevin I Collins, Jeffrey D Crane, Ian Crossfield, Szilard Csizmadia, Diana Dragomir, Courtney Dressing, Philipp Eigmüller, Michael Endl, Anders Erikson, Nestor Espinoza, Michael Fausnaugh, Fabo Feng, Erin Flowers, Benjamin Fulton, Erica J Gonzales, Nolan Grieves, Sascha Grziwa, Eike W Guenther, Natalia M Guerrero, Thomas Henning, Diego Hidalgo, Teruyuki Hirano, Maria Hjorth, Daniel Huber, Howard Isaacson, Matias Jones, Andrés Jordán, Petr Kabáth, Stephen R Kane, Emil Knudstrup, Jack Lubin, Rafael Luque, Ismael Mireles, Norio Narita, David Nespral, Prajwal Niraula, Grzegorz Nowak, Enric Palle, Martin Pätzold, Erik A Petigura, Jorge Prieto-Arranz, Heike Rauer, Paul Robertson, Mark E Rose, Arpita Roy, Paula Sarkis, Joshua E Schlieder, Damien Ségransan, Stephen Shectman, Marek Skarka, Alexis MS Smith, Jeffrey C Smith, Keivan Stassun, Johanna Teske, Joseph D Twicken, Vincent Van Eylen, Sharon Wang, Lauren M Weiss, Aurélien Wyttenbach

Mineral cloud and hydrocarbon haze particles in the atmosphere of the hot Jupiter JWST target WASP-43b

Astronomy & Astrophysics EDP Sciences 641 (2020) A178-A178

Authors:

Ch Helling, Y Kawashima, V Graham, D Samra, KL Chubb, M Min, LBFM Waters, V Parmentier

Abstract:

Context. Having a short orbital period and being tidally locked makes WASP-43b an ideal candidate for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) phase curve measurements. Phase curve observations of an entire orbit will enable the mapping of the atmospheric structure across the planet, with different wavelengths of observation allowing different atmospheric depths to be seen. Aims. We provide insight into the details of the clouds that may form on WASP-43b and their impact on the remaining gas phase, in order to prepare the forthcoming interpretation of the JWST and follow-up data. Methods. We follow a hierarchical modelling strategy. We utilise 3D GCM results as input for a kinetic, non-equilibrium model for mineral cloud particles and for a kinetic model to study a photochemically-driven hydrocarbon haze component. Results. Mineral condensation seeds form throughout the atmosphere of WASP-43b. This is in stark contrast to the ultra-hot Jupiters, such as WASP-18b and HAT-P-7b. The dayside is not cloud free but it is loaded with few yet large mineral cloud particles in addition to hydrocarbon haze particles of a comparable abundance. Photochemically driven hydrocarbon haze appears on the dayside, but it does not contribute to the cloud formation on the nightside. The geometrical cloud extension differs across the globe due to the changing thermodynamic conditions. Day and night differ by 6000 km in pressure scale height. As reported for other planets, the C/O is not constant throughout the atmosphere and varies between 0.74 and 0.3. The mean molecular weight is approximately constant in a H2-dominated WASP-43b atmosphere because of the moderate day/night-temperature differences compared to the super-hot Jupiters. Conclusions. WASP-43b is expected to be fully covered in clouds which are not homogeneously distributed throughout the atmosphere. The dayside and the terminator clouds are a combination of mineral particles of locally varying size and composition as well as of hydrocarbon hazes. The optical depth of hydrocarbon hazes is considerably lower than that of mineral cloud particles such that a wavelength-dependent radius measurement of WASP-43b would be determined by the mineral cloud particles but not by hazes.