THE OPTICAL AND NEAR-INFRARED TRANSMISSION SPECTRUM OF THE SUPER-EARTH GJ 1214b: FURTHER EVIDENCE FOR A METAL-RICH ATMOSPHERE

By J. Bean, J. D'esert, P. Kabáth, B. Stalder, Sara Seager, Eliza Miller-Ricci Kempton, Z. K. Berta, Derek Homeier, S. Walsh, A. Seifahrt. 2011

164 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We present an investigation of the transmission spectrum of the 6.5 M⊕ planet GJ 1214b based on new ground-based observations of transits of the planet in the optical and near-infrared, and on previously published data. Observations with the VLT + FORS and Magellan + MMIRS using the technique of multi-object spectroscopy with wide slits yielded new measurements of the planet's transmission spectrum from 0.61 to 0.85 μm, and in the J, H, and K atmospheric windows. We also present a new measurement based on narrow-band photometry centered at 2.09 μm with the VLT + HAWKI. We combined these data with results from a reanalysis of previously published FORS data from 0.78 to 1.00 μm using an improved data reduction algorithm, and previously reported values based on Spitzer data at 3.6 and 4.5 μm. All of the data are consistent with a featureless transmission spectrum for the planet. Our K-band data are inconsistent with the detection of spectral features at these wavelengths reported by Croll and collaborators at the level of 4.1σ. The planet's atmosphere must either have at least 70% H2O by mass or optically thick high-altitude clouds or haze to be consistent with the data.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/a3a275f78df2601b71e25d48912c5d9d6babbd1f

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In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. Jon Fortney
2. N. Madhusudhan
3. A. Showman
4. Sara Seager
5. M. Line
6. D. Deming
7. H. Knutson
8. D. Charbonneau

In Instrumentation

1. Jon Fortney
2. N. Madhusudhan
3. A. Showman
4. M. Line
5. H. Knutson
6. Sara Seager
7. D. Charbonneau
8. D. Deming

Citations in the corpus

• SPECTROSCOPIC EVIDENCE FOR A TEMPERATURE INVERSION IN THE DAYSIDE ATMOSPHERE OF HOT JUPITER WASP-33b (2015, methodology): “Several existing instruments can enable observations in this bandpass, including HST WFC3 G102 grism spectroscopy in the ∼ 0.8-1.15 µm range (Sing et al. 2014), and ground-based spectroscopy and/or photometry in the ∼0.7-1.2 µm range (e.g. Bean et al. 2011; Föhring et al. 2013; Chen et al. 2014).”
• 3.6 AND 4.5 μm PHASE CURVES AND EVIDENCE FOR NON-EQUILIBRIUM CHEMISTRY IN THE ATMOSPHERE OF EXTRASOLAR PLANET HD 189733b (2012, background): “Current studies of the atmospheres of low-mass planets such as GJ 1214b (Bean et al. 2010, 2011; Berta et al. 2012; Désert et al. 2011b) and GJ 436b (e.g., Stevenson et al. 2010; Beaulieu et al. 2011; Knutson et al. 2011) focus almost exclusively on systems with M star primaries, as the lower…”
• HOW TO DISTINGUISH BETWEEN CLOUDY MINI-NEPTUNES AND WATER/VOLATILE-DOMINATED SUPER-EARTHS (2013, background): “An initial finding of a difference in the transit depths between the J and Ks band by Croll et al. (2011) could not be confirmed by Bean et al. (2011).”
• BULK COMPOSITION OF GJ 1214b AND OTHER SUB-NEPTUNE EXOPLANETS (2013, background): “So far, several groups have obtained data at different wavelengths leading to a rough spectrum of GJ 1214b. Bean et al. (2010, 2011); Désert et al. (2011); Crossfield et al. (2011); Berta et al. (2011); Fraine et al. (2013) have all suggested a water-dominated atmosphere or hazes to explain the…”
• HAZMAT. I. THE EVOLUTION OF FAR-UV AND NEAR-UV EMISSION FROM EARLY M STARS (2014, background): “Observations of exoplanet transit transmission spectroscopy (Bean et al. 2011; Kreidberg et al. 2014) are showing that hazes in planets around M dwarfs might in fact be quite common, probably generated by the star’s UV.”
• TRANSMISSION SPECTROSCOPY OF THE HOT JUPITER WASP-12b FROM 0.7 TO 5 μm (2013, methodology): “The observations were similar to the multi-object spectroscopy observations pioneered by Bean et al. (2010, 2011, 2013) and used by Gibson et al. (2013).”
• INFRARED TRANSMISSION SPECTROSCOPY OF THE EXOPLANETS HD 209458b AND XO-1b USING THE WIDE FIELD CAMERA-3 ON THE HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE (2013, background): “The transmittance spectra of super-Earths should be detectable using multiple visits (Bean et al. 2010, 2011; Kriedeberg et al. 2013), even for high molecular weight atmospheres.”
• HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE NEAR-IR TRANSMISSION SPECTROSCOPY OF THE SUPER-EARTH HD 97658B (2014, background): “GJ 1214b is currently the only one of these three systems with a well-characterized transmission spectrum, which is flat and featureless across a broad range of wavelengths (e.g., Bean et al. 2010, 2011; Désert et al. 2011; Berta et al. 2012; Kreidberg et al. 2014).”
• TRANSIT DETECTION IN THE MEarth SURVEY OF NEARBY M DWARFS: BRIDGING THE CLEAN-FIRST, SEARCH-LATER DIVIDE (2012, background): “…& Seager 2010; Nettelmann et al. 2011; Menou 2012; Miller-Ricci Kempton et al. 2012) and for observational studies, both from the ground (e.g. Bean et al. 2010, 2011; Carter et al. 2011; Berta et al. 2011; Kundurthy et al. 2011; Croll et al. 2011; Crossfield et al. 2011; de Mooij et al.…”
• HOW THERMAL EVOLUTION AND MASS-LOSS SCULPT POPULATIONS OF SUPER-EARTHS AND SUB-NEPTUNES: APPLICATION TO THE KEPLER-11 SYSTEM AND BEYOND (2012, unknown): “One possible solution to the composition problem is to obtain multi-wavelength transmission spectra, as has been done for GJ 1214b (Bean et al. 2011; Désert et al. 2011; Croll et al. 2011).”
• A FRAMEWORK FOR CHARACTERIZING THE ATMOSPHERES OF LOW-MASS LOW-DENSITY TRANSITING PLANETS (2013, background): “Many additional observations from the ground (Bean et al. 2011; Carter et al. 2011; Croll et al. 2011; Crossfield et al. 2011; de Mooij et al. 2012; Narita et al. 2013a, 2013b; Teske et al. 2013) and from space (Désert et al. 2011; Berta et al. 2012a; Fraine et al. 2013) have for the most part…”
• ATMOSPHERIC RETRIEVAL FOR SUPER-EARTHS: UNIQUELY CONSTRAINING THE ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION WITH TRANSMISSION SPECTROSCOPY (2012, background): “GJ 1214b is a good example: In the past, 1 or 2 transits were observed at different wavelengths by various observers with the goal to characterize the atmosphere (Bean et al. 2010, 2011; Croll et al. 2011; Berta et al. 2012).”
• The minimum-mass extrasolar nebula: in situ formation of close-in super-Earths (2012, background): “Such measurements have been made of GJ 1214b, from wavelengths λ = 0.6 µm to 5 µm (Bean et al. 2010; Désert et al. 2011; Croll et al. 2011; Bean et al. 2011; Berta et al. 2012; de Mooij et al. 2012).”
• THE FLAT TRANSMISSION SPECTRUM OF THE SUPER-EARTH GJ1214b FROM WIDE FIELD CAMERA 3 ON THE HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE (2011, background): “For the sake of placing the WFC3 transmission spectrum in the context of other observations of GJ1214b, we also display it alongside the published transmission spectra from the VLT (Bean et al. 2010, 2011), CFHT (Croll et al. 2011), Magellan (Bean et al. 2011), and Spitzer (Désert et al. 2011a) in ”
• NEAR-INFRARED METALLICITIES, RADIAL VELOCITIES, AND SPECTRAL TYPES FOR 447 NEARBY M DWARFS (2013, background): “…radius of an M dwarf is also favorable for follow-up studies of an orbiting planet’s atmosphere with transmission or occultation techniques and nearby mid M dwarfs are bright enough in the NIR for precise spec- troscopic studies (e.g. Bean et al. 2011; Crossfield et al. 2011; Berta et al. 2012).”