DISCOVERY of WATER at HIGH SPECTRAL RESOLUTION in the ATMOSPHERE of 51 Peg B
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Draft version January 26, 2017 Preprint typeset using LATEX style emulateapj v. 5/2/11 DISCOVERY OF WATER AT HIGH SPECTRAL RESOLUTION IN THE ATMOSPHERE OF 51 Peg b J. L. Birkby1,2 Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge MA 02138, USA; and Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, Niels Bohrweg 2, 2333 CA Leiden, The Netherlands R. J. de Kok Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, Niels Bohrweg 2, 2333 CA Leiden, The Netherlands; and SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, Sorbonnelaan 2, 3584 CA Utrecht, The Netherlands M. Brogi3 Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309, USA H. Schwarz, I. A. G. Snellen Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, Niels Bohrweg 2, 2333 CA Leiden, The Netherlands Draft version January 26, 2017 ABSTRACT We report the detection of water absorption features in the day side spectrum of the first-known hot Jupiter, 51 Peg b, confirming the star-planet system to be a double-lined spectroscopic binary. We used high-resolution (R ≈ 100 000), 3:2µm spectra taken with CRIRES/VLT to trace the radial-velocity shift of the water features in the planet's day side atmosphere during 4 hours of its 4.23-day orbit after superior conjunction. We detect the signature of molecular absorption by water at a significance −1 of 5:6σ at a systemic velocity of Vsys = −33 ± 2 km s , coincident with the 51 Peg host star, with +4:3 −1 a corresponding orbital velocity KP = 133−3:5 km s . This translates directly to a planet mass of +0:032 Mp = 0:476−0:031MJ, placing it at the transition boundary between Jovian and Neptunian worlds. We determine upper and lower limits on the orbital inclination of the system of 70◦ < i < 82:2◦. We also provide an updated orbital solution for 51 Peg b, using an extensive set of 639 stellar radial velocities measured between 1994 and 2013, finding no significant evidence of an eccentric orbit. We find no evidence of significant absorption or emission from other major carbon-bearing molecules of the planet, including methane and carbon dioxide. The atmosphere is non-inverted in the temperature-pressure region probed by these observations. The deepest absorption lines reach an observed relative contrast of 0:9×10−3 with respect to the host star continuum flux at an angular separation of 3 milliarcseconds. This work is consistent with a previous tentative report of K-band molecular absorption for 51 Peg b by Brogi et al. (2013). Subject headings: planets and satellites: atmospheres | planets and satellites: fundamental parame- ters | techniques: spectroscopic 1. INTRODUCTION date4. In just two decades, exoplanets have transitioned arXiv:1701.07257v1 [astro-ph.EP] 25 Jan 2017 The field of exoplanets has come of age, with twenty- from mere theoretical possibility to highly characteriz- one years passing since the first confirmation of an exo- able systems. There are now radius measurements of planet orbiting a main sequence star, 51 Peg b (Mayor Earth-like planets, aided by asteroseismology, with er- & Queloz 1995). The close, 4.23-day orbit of this planet ror bars precise to 120 km (Ballard et al. 2014); there placed it in an entirely new and unexpected population is evidence that clouds pervade the atmospheres of exo- of highly-irradiated bodies close to their parent stars. planets across the mass spectrum from super-Earths to It ignited the field of planet migration theory (Lin et al. hot Jupiters (e.g. Kreidberg et al. 2014; Evans et al. 1996; Rasio & Ford 1996), and paved the way for another 2013; Sing et al. 2016; Heng 2016); there are a growing 3434 confirmed exoplanets in 2568 planetary systems to number of robust detections of elemental and molecu- lar species in transiting planets using the Hubble Space Telescope, including sodium, potassium and water (see 1 NASA Sagan Fellow 2 [email protected] 4 As of 13 June 2016, see http://www.exoplanet.eu, Schneider 3 NASA Hubble Fellow et al. 2011. 2 e.g. Crossfield 2015 for an up-to-date review of chem- troscopy to directly detect hot Jupiters via their reflected icals observed in exoplanet atmospheres), alongside the light. Charbonneau et al. (1999) and Collier Cameron first detections of carbon monoxide, water, and methane et al. (1999) announced upper limits and even a detec- in the atmospheres of widely-separated directly imaged tion, respectively, of the reflected light from τ Boo b, giants planets (e.g. Konopacky et al. 2013; Snellen et al. although ultimately they converged to an upper limit on −5 2014; Barman et al. 2015; Macintosh et al. 2015), and the star-planet flux ratio of Fp=Fs < 3:5 × 10 (Collier- in the atmospheres of non-transiting hot Jupiters using Cameron et al. 2004). Many of the diagnostic properties ground-based high-resolution spectroscopy (Brogi et al. of high-resolution spectra of exoplanets were outlined by 2012; Rodler et al. 2012; Lockwood et al. 2014; Brogi Brown (2001) and multiple attempts followed to directly et al. 2014). Even the global wind dynamics and atmo- detect the thermally emitted light from giant exoplan- spheric circulation of hot Jupiters have been studied in ets at infrared wavelengths using high-resolution spec- detail (e.g. Knutson et al. 2009; Stevenson et al. 2014; trographs such as NIRSPEC on Keck II and Phoenix on Louden & Wheatley 2015; Brogi et al. 2016a; Zhou et al. Gemini South (e.g. Brown et al. 2002; Deming et al. 2016). The next few decades hold promise of remote, 2005; Barnes et al. 2007a,b), but again only providing ground-based biomarker hunting in Earth-like planets or- upper limits. It wasn't until Snellen et al. (2010) used biting nearby bright stars (e.g. Snellen et al. 2013; Rodler the CRyogenic high-resolution InfraRed Echelle Spectro- & L´opez-Morales 2014; Snellen et al. 2015), as well as the graph (CRIRES) at the Very Large Telescope (VLT) that mapping of features akin to Jupiter's Great Red Spot in the technique delivered its first unambiguous detections the atmospheres of giant exoplanets with the extremely of a molecule (carbon monoxide) in the atmosphere of large telescopes (Kostov & Apai 2013; Snellen et al. 2014; an exoplanet. While weather may have thwarted some Crossfield 2014; Karalidi et al. 2015), in a similar vein to earlier attempts with other telescopes, the stability of that already achieved for brown dwarfs (Crossfield et al. CRIRES, in part delivered by its use of adaptive optics 2014). The discovery of 51 Peg b was, in short, transfor- and Nasmyth mounting, and its higher spectral resolu- mational. tion, were undoubtedly instrumental to its success. Since However, its discovery was initally met with uncer- then, the technique has been used to study the atmo- tainty and caution, given its unusual orbital parameters. spheric composition of both transiting (Crossfield et al. It was suggested that the radial velocity measurements 2011; Birkby et al. 2013; de Kok et al. 2013; Rodler & that revealed the planet were instead line profile varia- et al. 2013; Schwarz et al. 2015; Hoeijmakers et al. 2015; tions caused by non-radial stellar oscillations (Gray 1997; Brogi et al. 2016a) and non-transiting exoplanets (Brogi Gray & Hatzes 1997). Although this claim was later re- et al. 2012; Rodler et al. 2012; Brogi et al. 2013, 2014; tracted in light of additional observations (Gray 1998), Lockwood et al. 2014; Snellen et al. 2014; Schwarz et al. the rapid onslaught of similar discoveries (e.g. Butler 2016; Piskorz et al. 2016). Additionally, the technique et al. 1997), and the eventual detection of transiting ex- reveals the inclination, i, of the orbit, thus the mass of oplanets (Charbonneau et al. 2000; Henry et al. 2000), the planet can be measured directly in both cases, rather largely laid to rest any doubts about the planetary na- than just a lower MP sin(i) limit for the non-transiting ture of the non-transiting planet orbiting 51 Peg. As a planets. final proof, in this paper, we demonstrate the true bi- The use of high-resolution infrared ground-based spec- nary nature of the 51 Peg star-planet system, revealing troscopy in this paper further cements the important it to be a double-lined spectroscopic (non-eclipsing) bi- role of high-resolution optical and infrared spectrographs nary, via the direct detection of water absorption lines in in studying the atmospheres of non-transiting planets. the spectrum of the planet's atmosphere that undergo a This is pertinent given that the nearest potentially hab- change in Doppler-shift. itable, non-transiting, terrestrial planets orbiting small The technique employed in this work uses ground- stars (which have the most favourable contrast ratios) based, high-resolution spectroscopy to directly observe are likely to be a factor of four times closer to Earth −1 the large radial velocity change (∆RVP ∼ km s ) of the than their transiting counterparts (Dressing & Charbon- planet's spectrum while the contamination from Earth's neau 2015). Finally, this paper also serves as an indepen- telluric features and the stellar lines are essentially sta- dent confirmation of the tentative detection of molecu- −1 tionary (∆RV? ∼ m s ). It works on the premise that lar absorption features in 51 Peg b reported in Brogi at high resolution (e.g. R ∼ 100 000), broad molecular et al. (2013). While we have used the same instrument bands are resolved into a dense forest of tens to hundreds as Brogi et al. (2013) for our observations, we operated of individual lines in a pattern that is unique to each under a different instrument setup to observe a redder molecule.