Exoplanet Meteorology: Characterizing the Atmospheres Of
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Exoplanet Meteorology: Characterizing the Atmospheres of Directly Imaged Sub-Stellar Objects by Abhijith Rajan A Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy Approved April 2017 by the Graduate Supervisory Committee: Jennifer Patience, Co-Chair Patrick Young, Co-Chair Paul Scowen Nathaniel Butler Evgenya Shkolnik ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY May 2017 ©2017 Abhijith Rajan All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT The field of exoplanet science has matured over the past two decades with over 3500 confirmed exoplanets. However, many fundamental questions regarding the composition, and formation mechanism remain unanswered. Atmospheres are a window into the properties of a planet, and spectroscopic studies can help resolve many of these questions. For the first part of my dissertation, I participated in two studies of the atmospheres of brown dwarfs to search for weather variations. To understand the evolution of weather on brown dwarfs we conducted a multi- epoch study monitoring four cool brown dwarfs to search for photometric variability. These cool brown dwarfs are predicted to have salt and sulfide clouds condensing in their upper atmosphere and we detected one high amplitude variable. Combining observations for all T5 and later brown dwarfs we note a possible correlation between variability and cloud opacity. For the second half of my thesis, I focused on characterizing the atmospheres of directly imaged exoplanets. In the first study Hubble Space Telescope data on HR8799, in wavelengths unobservable from the ground, provide constraints on the presence of clouds in the outer planets. Next, I present research done in collaboration with the Gemini Planet Imager Exoplanet Survey (GPIES) team including an exploration of the instrument contrast against environmental parameters, and an examination of the environment of the planet in the HD 106906 system. By analyzing archival HST data and examining the near-infrared colors of HD 106906b, we conclude that the companion shows weak evidence of a circumplanetary dust disk or cloud. Finally, I measure the properties of the low mass directly imaged planet 51 Eridani b. We combined published J, H spectra with updated LP photometry, new K1, K2 spectra, and MS photometry. The new data confirms that the planet has redder than similar i spectral type objects, which might be due to the planet still transitioning from to L-to-T. Model atmospheres indicate a cooler effective temperature best fit by a patchy cloud atmosphere making 51 Eri b an excellent candidate for future variability studies with the James Webb Space Telescope. ii To my wife, Divya: Thank you for your love and unconditional support. To my parents, and my brother: Thank you for enabling me to pursue my dreams iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS As a fan of sci-fi I have always dreamt of exploring the Universe and solving its mysteries and I wanted to be an astronaut and a rocket scientist to achieve this dream. It wasn’t until many years later while in doing my engineering that I read about SETI and downloaded the seti@home software. The idea that my tiny machine in a corner of India could be searching for signs of intelligent life completely changed my life. That was when I knew that I would become an astronomer. That moment was more than a decade ago and I have followed a windy path to reach this point and I am glad that I persevered. I have been fortunate in my career to have met many incredible people who were willing to guide and support me even when at times I didn’t believe in myself. I would like to thank Patrick and Steve for their incredible support these last two years and Jenny for all the wonderful science and research opportunities she made possible. To Rémi, Travis and Laurent for being my friends and mentors. To my wonderful group mates Kim, Joanna and Rob without whom those many proposal writing nights would have been impossible. My office mates Caleb and Kay who patiently listened to me whine and complain even when I know they’d rather have been out having a drink. To Heather, Alli, and Julie for making my years in Tempe so much more fun and for watching Archer while I was working. Thanks to the entire GPIES team for their incredible support and to Bruce for letting me work at Stanford this last year. To the wonderful people in the SESE administration office, you have been incredibly nice to me even when I bungled my forms and forgot deadlines. This is for my father who taught me to follow my dreams and my mother who motivated me to persevere on in the face of failure. They made me the person I am today and to them I owe everything. To my brother with whom I spent many nights iv dreaming about exploring the uncharted cosmos. And in the words of Walt Whitman “I am to see to it that I do not lose you”, my wife, the best part of my everyday. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF TABLES . xi LIST OF FIGURES . xii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION . 1 1.1 Brown Dwarfs . 1 1.1.1 Discovery and Classification . 2 1.1.2 Brown Dwarf Atmospheres . 5 1.1.2.1 Clouds on Brown Dwarfs . 7 1.1.2.2 Brown dwarf variability studies . 10 1.1.2.3 The Brown dwarf Atmosphere Monitoring program . 12 1.2 Exoplanets . 14 1.3 Direct Imaging of Exoplanets. 17 1.3.1 Brown Dwarfs and Imaged Planets. 18 1.3.2 Exoplanet Formation . 19 1.3.3 Characterizing planets . 25 1.4 Surveys Searching for Imaged Planets, Past and Present. 26 1.4.1 Understanding adaptive optics and coronagraphs for high contrast imaging . 27 1.4.2 Previous High-Contrast Imaging Surveys . 31 1.4.3 State of field today . 32 1.5 Structure of this thesis . 36 vi CHAPTER Page 2 THE BROWN-DWARF ATMOSPHERE MONITORING (BAM) PROJECT II: MULTI-EPOCH MONITORING OF EXTREMELY COOL BROWN DWARFS . 38 2.1 Introduction . 38 2.2 The BAM-II sample . 41 2.2.1 2MASSW J1047539+212423. 42 2.2.2 Ross 458C . 43 2.2.3 WISEP J045853.89+643452.9AB . 44 2.2.4 WISEP J173835.53+273258.9 . 44 2.3 Observations and Data Reduction . 45 2.3.1 MMT. 45 2.3.2 CFHT . 46 2.3.3 UKIRT . 48 2.3.4 NTT . 48 2.4 Light Curve Generation and Identification of Variability . 49 2.5 Results . 51 2.5.1 2M1047 . 51 2.5.2 Ross 458C . 53 2.5.3 WISE0458 . 54 2.5.4 WISE1738 . 55 2.6 Discussion . 56 3 CHARACTERIZING THE ATMOSPHERES OF THE HR8799 PLAN- ETS WITH HST/WFC3 . 62 3.1 Introduction . 62 vii CHAPTER Page 3.2 Observations . 64 3.3 Data Calibration . 65 3.4 Results . 68 3.4.1 HR8799b . 69 3.4.2 HR8799c . 73 3.5 Discussion . 74 3.6 Conclusions . 75 4 THE GPIES CAMPAIGN AND SEARCHING FOR A CIRCUMPLAN- ETARY DISK AROUND HD 106906B . 77 4.1 Understanding the GPIES contrast budget . 80 4.1.1 Raw and Final Contrast . 83 4.1.2 Comparing contrast to header values . 85 4.2 Direct imaging of an asymmetric debris disk in the HD 106906 planetary system . 89 4.2.1 Search for Additional Planets with GPI . 90 4.2.2 Optical Photometry of HD 106906b with HST . 91 4.2.3 Testing for a circumplanetary disk . 92 4.2.3.1 Radial profile of HD 106906b . 92 4.2.3.2 Origin of optical flux for HD 106906b . 95 4.2.3.3 Infrared Colors of HD 106906b . 97 4.2.4 Comparison to HD 15115 and Fomalhaut b . 103 5 CHARACTERIZING 51 ERI B FROM 1–5 µM: A PATCHY-CLOUD EXOPLANET . 105 5.1 Observations and Data Reduction . 107 viii CHAPTER Page 5.1.1 GPI K1 and K2 . 107 5.1.1.1 Spectral covariances . 111 5.1.2 Keck LP ................................................112 5.1.3 Keck MS ................................................113 5.2 Results . 115 5.2.1 Revised Stellar Photometry at J,H,KS . ..