A Case for an Atmosphere on Super-Earth 55 Cancri E
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The Astronomical Journal, 154:232 (8pp), 2017 December https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/aa9278 © 2017. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. A Case for an Atmosphere on Super-Earth 55 Cancri e Isabel Angelo1,2 and Renyu Hu1,3 1 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA; [email protected] 2 Department of Astronomy, University of California, Campbell Hall, #501, Berkeley CA, 94720, USA 3 Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA Received 2017 August 2; revised 2017 October 6; accepted 2017 October 8; published 2017 November 16 Abstract One of the primary questions when characterizing Earth-sized and super-Earth-sized exoplanets is whether they have a substantial atmosphere like Earth and Venus or a bare-rock surface like Mercury. Phase curves of the planets in thermal emission provide clues to this question, because a substantial atmosphere would transport heat more efficiently than a bare-rock surface. Analyzing phase-curve photometric data around secondary eclipses has previously been used to study energy transport in the atmospheres of hot Jupiters. Here we use phase curve, Spitzer time-series photometry to study the thermal emission properties of the super-Earth exoplanet 55 Cancri e. We utilize a semianalytical framework to fit a physical model to the infrared photometric data at 4.5 μm. The model uses parameters of planetary properties including Bond albedo, heat redistribution efficiency (i.e., ratio between radiative timescale and advective timescale of the atmosphere), and the atmospheric greenhouse factor. The phase curve of 55 Cancri e is dominated by thermal emission with an eastward-shifted hotspot. We determine the heat fi +0.30 redistribution ef ciency to be 1.47-0.25, which implies that the advective timescale is on the same order as the radiative timescale. This requirement cannot be met by the bare-rock planet scenario because heat transport by currents of molten lava would be too slow. The phase curve thus favors the scenario with a substantial atmosphere. Our constraints on the heat redistribution efficiency translate to an atmospheric pressure of ∼1.4 bar. The Spitzer 4.5 μm band is thus a window into the deep atmosphere of the planet 55 Cancri e. Key words: occultations – planets and satellites: atmospheres – planets and satellites: individual (55 Cnc e) – planets and satellites: terrestrial planets – techniques: photometric 1. Introduction the planets may come from either the atmosphere or the surface. If the planet has a substantial atmosphere, the phase- Recent successes in exoplanet science can be attributed in curve signal would be controlled by temperature and cloud part to the development of high precision photometry. fi distributions in the atmosphere (e.g., Hu et al. 2015; Webber Thousands of known exoplanets were rst detected using ) photometric data from space-based missions like Kepler, K2, et al. 2015; Parmentier et al. 2016 ; whereas, if the planet has a and CoRot, and this number will continue to grow with the next bare-rock surface, the phase curve would be controlled by the generation of exoplanet detection missions like TESS (Ricker temperature of the surface and patchy surface features, such as ) ( ) lava lakes that affect the reflectivity (e.g., Kite et al. 2016). et al. 2016 and PLATO Rauer et al. 2016 . Photometric data fi are also useful for analysis beyond planet detection. This is The rst phase curve of a super-Earth exoplanet has been fl detected recently in the infrared (Demory et al. 2016a). The because light curves out of transit contain light from re ected ± stellar radiation and planetary thermal emission. Photometric planet 55 Cancri e has a measured mass of 8.08 0.31 M⊕ and ± measurements with Spitzer (e.g., Knutson et al. 2007), Kepler a radius of 1.91 0.08 R⊕. Interior composition models have (e.g., Demory et al. 2013), and Hubble (e.g., Stevenson found that the measured mass and radius are consistent with a et al. 2014) have provided insight into the properties of planetary scenario with a massive, high-mean-molecular- ( ) exoplanets’ atmospheres. weight atmosphere Demory et al. 2011; Winn et al. 2011 , Several previous studies have monitored transiting hot or a volatile-poor planetary scenario with a carbon-rich interior Jupiters during and between transit and occultation (or and no atmosphere (Madhusudhan et al. 2012). It is also known secondary transit), and used phase curves taken in the visible that the planet does not have an extended, H-rich exosphere or infrared wavelengths to determine a variety of planet (Ehrenreich et al. 2012), which excludes the possibility of an properties (e.g., Knutson et al. 2007, 2012; Cowan et al. 2012; H-rich atmosphere, but does not exclude the high-mean- Demory et al. 2013; Esteves et al. 2013, 2015; Stevenson molecular-weight atmosphere scenario. There have been et al. 2014; Shporer & Hu 2015; Armstrong et al. 2016; Wong searches for molecular features of 55 Cancri e, using transit et al. 2016; Lewis et al. 2017). These phase curves have spectroscopy in the infrared (Tsiaras et al. 2016) and high- provided constraints on the temperature of the planet’s resolution optical spectroscopy (Esteves et al. 2017), but results atmosphere and the longitudinal location of hotspots. In the are nonconclusive. The phase curve of 55 Cancri e, taken in the cases where a reflected stellar radiation component is detected, Spitzer Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) 2 band of 4–5 μm, the phase curves also constrain the location of clouds. These features a peak of the planet’s radiation occurring prior to the constraints allow us to further study physical properties of the occultation, and a large day–night temperature contrast. atmosphere such as circulation patterns, temperature profile, Demory et al. (2016a) hypothesized that the phase curve could and possible molecular composition. be explained by either a planet with an optically thick, high- When it comes to Earth-sized and super-Earth-sized mean-molecular-weight atmosphere, or a planet devoid of exoplanets that may be predominantly rocky, radiation from atmosphere with low-viscosity magma flows. 1 The Astronomical Journal, 154:232 (8pp), 2017 December Angelo & Hu In this paper, we utilize a physical model developed by Hu relativistic beaming and tidal ellipsoidal distortion modulations et al. (2015) to analyze the phase curve for 55 Cancri e. The that can alter the phase curve (e.g., Shporer & Hu 2015; purpose of our study is to augment the results of Demory et al. Shporer 2017). These processes do not produce significant (2016a) by using the same data set to fit for a more physically effects on the infrared light curve for 55 Cancri e (e.g., beaming motivated model and derive improved constraints on the modulation ∼1 ppm, ellipsoidal modulation ∼0.6 ppm; planet’s heat redistribution. Our reanalysis of the phase curve Demory et al. 2016a). We therefore make no corrections to suggests that the planet has a substantial atmosphere and the our sample to account for these effects. Furthermore, the orbit Spitzer IRAC 2 band is a window into the pressure level as of 55 Cancri e can be approximated as circular (e≈0.040± deep as 1–2 bars. We first outline our data preparation and 0.027, see Baluev 2015), allowing us to use a model fitting model fitting in Section 2. The results of our analysis are method in line with that of Hu et al. (2015). presented in Section 3. In Section 4, we interpret these results One must be cautious when binning time-series photometric and discuss their implications on the planetary scenarios. data for phase-curve analysis to prevent loss or distortion of Finally, we summarize our findings and discuss prospects for information (e.g., Kipping 2010). We have additionally future research in Section 5. computed model fits for the same data with a much smaller bin size (the native 30 s bins), and with a larger bin size similar 2. Analysis to the phase curve in Demory et al. (2016a; a total of ≈70 bins of in- and out-of-transit data). The constraints on the jump 2.1. Observations parameters are identical to the 200-bin data set to within For our analysis, we use the same photometric data as uncertainty limits, confirming that our model fit does not Demory et al. (2016a), taken by the Spitzer Space Telescope depend on the binning of the data. We therefore proceed with Infrared Camera (IRAC 2) at 4.5 μm. Observations during the our analysis using only results from the ≈200-bin data set primary transit and occultation of 55 Cancri e were taken described above. between 2013 June 15 and July 15. A total of 4,981,760 frames were obtained with an integration time of 0.02 s. The frames 2.3. Phase-curve Modeling were taken during eight observing sessions of 9 hr each (half of To perform our model fit to the photometric data, we use a the planet’s orbital period), yielding a total observation time semianalytical method outlined in Hu et al. (2015). The general of 75 hr. model performs a fit to the occultation light curve of a planet and also computes three independent light curves representing 2.2. Data Reduction and Preparation flux contributions from symmetric reflection, asymmetric reflection (e.g., due to patchy clouds), and thermal emission. Once the observations were obtained from Spitzer, they It also uses an existing model of secondary transit (Mandel & needed to be converted into a photometric time series from Agol 2002) from which it can derive the phase-curve which we can perform phase-curve analysis and modeling.