Exploring Exoplanets' Spectroscopic Secrets
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Exploring Exoplanets’ Spectroscopic Secrets: Clues on the Migration and Formation of Hot Jupiters Thesis by Danielle Piskorz In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Pasadena, California 2018 Defended 5 September 2017 ii © 2018 Danielle Piskorz ORCID: 0000-0003-4451-2342 All rights reserved iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thanks to my committee members, Professors Heather Knutson, Geoffrey Blake, Yuk Yung, and Lynne Hillenbrand, for their constant mentoring and advice the past five years. Professor Knutson encouraged me to foray into the field of exoplanets as a young graduate student. Professor Blake gave me the opportunity to perform extensive observations on the Keck Telescope and has always been an enthusiastic mentor and scientist. Professors Yung and Hillenbrand have constantly improved my research with their curious questioning. In addition, Professor Michael Line at ASU was a critical collaborator in the final project presented in this dissertation and I thank him for his devotion to planetary science and his support. None of this research would have been possible without the access to the telescopes on Mauna Kea in Hawaii. The summit of Mauna Kea has always had a very significant cultural role and reverence within the indigenous Hawaiian community. I and countless other astronomers are lucky to have the opportunity to conduct observations from this mountain. Thanks to everyone who participated in the data collection that made these projects possible. These people (to my knowledge) include Phil Muirhead, Sasha Hinkley, Henry Ngo, Geoff Blake, Alex Lockwood, Masha Kleshcheva, Nate Crockett, Bjorn Benneke, Katherine Kaufman, Ke Zhang, Cam Buzard, and Olivia Wilkins. Thanks to Professor Lindy Elkins-Tanton, Dr. Suzanne Smrekar, and Professor David Stevenson for nurturing me during my early days as a planetary scientist. The ongoing accomplishments of these three scientists have provided me with inspiration and motivation each and every day. Thanks to my parents for fostering my love for math and science and encouraging me to look to the stars. Thanks to my fellow graduate students, my kind officemates, and my friends, near and far, for keeping my feet on the ground. iv ABSTRACT Before the mid-90’s, scientists’ theories for planet formation were finely-tuned to explain the existence of our own Solar System. These theories were thrown into disarray when astronomers began to discover exoplanets, or planets in other solar systems. Forced to reconcile theory with observation, astronomers and planetary scientists have worked together for the past twenty years to solve the puzzles created by these thousands of exoplanets. One particularly intriguing group of newly- discovered planets were the hot Jupiters, planets the size of our Jupiter orbiting their host star every few days. This thesis details two observational campaigns that attempt to illuminate the origin and composition of hot Jupiters. Each project is powered by the NIRSPEC (Near-Infrared SPECtrometer) instrument located at Mauna Kea in Hawaii. The first project aims to determine the stellar multiplicity rate of hot Jupiter host stars. Such a metric can inform the migration histories of these planets. The second project treats a hot Jupiter and its host star as a spectroscopic binary. This treatment reveals the orbital elements and atmospheric composition of the hot Jupiter. The spectroscopic methods described in this thesis are small steps in the study of hot Jupiters and ultimately potentially habitable exoplanets. v PUBLISHED CONTENT AND CONTRIBUTIONS Piskorz, D., B. Benneke, N. Crockett, et al. (2017a). The Astronomical Journal 154.2, 78–86. doi: 10.3847/1538-3881/aa7dd8. D.P, B.B., N.R.C., A.C.L., and G.A.B. participated in the data collection. D.P. led the data reduction and analysis and wrote the manuscript. B.B. provided atmospheric models. Piskorz, D., M. Line, H. Knutson, et al. (2017b). Submitted to The Astronomical Journal. D.P, B.B., and G.A.B. participated in the NIRSPEC data collection. D.P. led the NIRSPEC data reduction, analyzed all the data, and wrote the manuscript. M.R.L provided atmospheric models. H.K. reduced the eclipse data procured by D.D.’s Spitzer program. Piskorz, D., B. Benneke, N. Crockett, et al. (2016). The Astrophysical Journal 832.2, 131–139. doi: 0004-637X/832/2/131. D.P., B.B., N.R.C, A.C.L, and G.A.B were involved in the data acquisition for this project. D.P. led the data reduction and analysis and wrote the manuscript. B.B. and T.S.B. provided atmospheric models. N.R.C. contributed to the initial code base. M.B. analyzed the radial velocity data. Piskorz, D., H. Knutson, H. Ngo, et al. (2015). The Astrophysical Journal 814.2, 148–161. doi: 10.1088/0004-637X/814/2/148. D.P and P.S.M were involved in the data acquisition. D.P. led the data reduction and analysis and wrote the manuscript. H.A.K. conceived the project. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements . iii Abstract . iv Published Content and Contributions . v Table of Contents . vi List of Illustrations . viii List of Tables . xvii Chapter I: Introduction . 1 1.1 Introduction to Hot Jupiters . 1 1.2 Investigation of Hot Jupiter Migration . 2 1.3 Investigation of Hot Jupiter Formation . 3 1.4 The NIRSPEC Instrument . 5 1.5 References . 6 Chapter II: Friends of Hot Jupiters: A Near-Infrared Spectroscopic Survey . 7 2.1 Introduction . 7 2.2 Observations and Data Analysis . 10 2.3 Results . 18 2.4 Discussion . 22 2.5 False Detections Due to Star Spots . 29 2.6 Companion Fraction . 31 2.7 Conclusion . 33 2.8 References . 36 Chapter III: Direct Detection of Hot Jupiter Atmospheres . 42 3.1 Extraction of 1-D Spectra from NIRSPEC Observations . 44 3.2 Telluric Correction with Principal Component Analysis . 45 3.3 Two-Dimensional Cross Correlation . 48 3.4 Maximum Likelihood Analysis of Planetary Velocity . 54 Chapter IV: Direct Detection of HD 88133 b’s Atmosphere . 58 4.1 Introduction . 58 4.2 HIRES Observations and RV Analysis . 58 4.3 NIRSPEC Observations . 60 4.4 NIRSPEC Data Analysis and Results . 62 4.5 Discussion . 68 4.6 Conclusion . 70 4.7 References . 71 Chapter V: Direct Detection of ups And b’s Atmosphere . 73 5.1 Introduction to the upsilon Andromedae system . 73 5.2 NIRSPEC Observations and Data Reduction . 77 5.3 Data Analysis and Results . 79 5.4 Discussion . 86 vii 5.5 Conclusion . 90 5.6 References . 92 Chapter VI: Direct Detection of KELT-2Ab’s Atmosphere . 95 6.1 Introduction . 95 6.2 Spitzer Observations and Data Reduction . 96 6.3 NIRSPEC Observations and Data Reduction . 101 6.4 High-Resolution Atmospheric Models with ScCHIMERA . 103 6.5 NIRSPEC Data Analysis and Results . 106 6.6 Joint Spitzer and NIRSPEC Constraints on KELT-2Ab’s Atmosphere 110 6.7 Discussion . 113 6.8 Conclusion . 115 6.9 References . 116 Chapter VII: Summary and Future Work . 119 7.1 Summary . 119 7.2 Capabilities enabled by the NIRSPEC upgrade . 120 7.3 Continuing the search for companions to hot Jupiter hosts . 121 7.4 Continuing exploration of exoplanetary atmospheres . 122 7.5 References . 125 Appendix A: NIRSPEC Reduction . 126 Appendix B: Telluric Removal with Principal Component Analysis . 129 Appendix C: Two-Dimensional Cross-Correlation . 131 viii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Number Page 1.1 Plot of known exoplanets detected with four methods (Han et al. 2014). Solar system planets and the separation (i.e., semi-major axis) of Mercury’s orbit are marked. Separation is the distance between the host star and the planet measured in astronomical units (1 AU is the distance from the Sun to the Earth). 2 2.1 Telluric-corrected and wavelength-calibrated K band spectrum for WASP-2 taken with NIRSPEC on UT July 4 2013 shown in black with the best-fit one-star model overplotted with a yellow dashed line and the best-fit two-star model overplotted with a red solid line. “Chirps" in the data, especially from 2.040-2.065 µm, are due to incomplete telluric removal. 11 2.2 Fit results (panels A - C) and sensitivity tests (panels D - F) for HAT-P-16, HAT-P-15, and WASP-10. The solid orange and black lines represent the reduced chi-squared value of the one- and two- star models, respectively. The red dotted line represents the effective temperature of the host star and the blue dotted lines in panels D-F represent the effective temperature of the injected stellar companion. The dotted black line in panel E represents the expected slope of the χ2 trend for a two-star fit in the case where no companion was present. These systems are classified as non-detections since there is no reliable reduction in χ2 when a second star having an effective temperature distinct from that of the target star is added to the model fit. We are able to inject and successfully recover signals due to 3700 K and 3900 K companions in the HAT-P-16 and HAT-P-15 systems (panels D and E, respectively). We cannot recover the 3800 K signal injected into the WASP-10 system due to WASP-10’s low effective temperature. 16 ix 2.3 Twelve systems with cool candidate companions that pass our detec- tion threshold as given in Table 2.3. See Fig. 2.2 caption for more information. We plot these systems in order of decreasing strength of detection, moving from left to right and top to bottom. HAT-P- 17, WASP-2, and WASP-22 were observed twice, and we show the stronger of the two detections here (see Fig 2.4 for comparison).