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Register a new userSpectrally resolved helium absorption from the extended atmosphere of a warm Neptune-mass exoplanet
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Stellar heating causes atmospheres of close-in exoplanets to expand and escape. These extended atmospheres are difficult to observe because their main spectral signature - neutral hydrogen at ultraviolet wavelengths - is strongly absorbed by interstellar medium. We report the detection of the near-infrared triplet of neutral helium in the transiting warm Neptune-mass exoplanet HAT-P-11b using ground-based, high-resolution observations. The helium feature is repeatable over two independent transits, with an average absorption depth of 1.08+/-0.05%. Interpreting absorption spectra with 3D simulations of the planets upper atmosphere suggests it extends beyond 5 planetary radii, with a large scale height and a helium mass loss rate =< 3x10^5 g/s. A net blue-shift of the absorption might be explained by high-altitude winds flowing at 3 km/s from day to night-side.
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Helium is the second-most abundant element in the Universe after hydrogen and is one of the main constituents of gas-giant planets in our Solar System. Early theoretical models predicted helium to be among the most readily detectable species in the atmospheres of exoplanets, especially in extended and escaping atmospheres. Searches for helium, however, have hitherto been unsuccessful. Here we report observations of helium on an exoplanet, at a confidence level of 4.5 standard deviations. We measured the near- infrared transmission spectrum of the warm gas giant WASP-107b and identified the narrow absorption feature of excited metastable helium at 10,833 angstroms. The amplitude of the feature, in transit depth, is 0.049 +/- 0.011 per cent in a bandpass of 98 angstroms, which is more than five times greater than what could be caused by nominal stellar chromospheric activity. This large absorption signal suggests that WASP-107b has an extended atmosphere that is eroding at a total rate of 10^10 to 3 x 10^11 grams per second (0.1-4 per cent of its total mass per billion years), and may have a comet-like tail of gas shaped by radiation pressure.
High resolution transit spectroscopy has proven to be a reliable technique for the characterization of the chemical composition of exoplanet atmospheres. Taking advantage of the broad spectral coverage of the CARMENES spectrograph, we initiated a survey aimed at characterizing a broad range of planetary systems. Here, we report our observations of three transits of tplanet with CARMENES in search of het absorption. On one of the nights, the He~{sc i} region was heavily contaminated by OH$^-$ telluric emission and, thus, it was not useful for our purposes. The remaining two nights had a very different signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) due to weather. They both indicate the presence of het absorption in the transmission spectrum of tplanet, although a statistically valid detection can only be claimed for the night with higher S/N. For that night, we retrieved a 1.5$pm$0.3% absorption depth, translating into a $R_p(lambda)/R_p = 1.15pm 0.14$ at this wavelength. Spectro-photometric light curves for this same night also indicate the presence of extra absorption during the planetary transit with a consistent absorption depth. The het absorption is modeled in detail using a radiative transfer code, and the results of our modeling efforts are compared to the observations. We find that the mass-loss rate, mlr, is confined to a range of 3,$times,10^{10}$,gs for $T$ = 6000,K to 10,$times,10^{10}$,gs for $T$ = 9000,K. We discuss the physical mechanisms and implications of the He~{sc i} detection in tplanet and put it in context as compared to similar detections and non-detections in other Neptune-size planets. We also present improved stellar and planetary parameter determinations based on our visible and near-infrared observations.
We present a transmission spectrum for the warm (500-600K) sub-Neptune HD3167c obtained using the Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera 3 infrared spectrograph. We combine these data, which span the 1.125-1.643 micron wavelength range, with broadband transit measurements made using Kepler/K2 (0.6-0.9 micron) and Spitzer/IRAC (4-5 micron). We find evidence for absorption by at least one of H2O, HCN, CO2, and CH4 (Bayes factor 7.4; 2.5-sigma significance), although the data precision does not allow us to unambiguously discriminate between these molecules. The transmission spectrum rules out cloud-free hydrogen-dominated atmospheres with metallicities <100x solar at >5.8-sigma confidence. In contrast, good agreement with the data is obtained for cloud-free models assuming metallicities >700x solar. However, for retrieval analyses that include the effect of clouds, a much broader range of metallicities (including subsolar) is consistent with the data, due to the degeneracy with cloud-top pressure. Self-consistent chemistry models that account for photochemistry and vertical mixing are presented for the atmosphere of HD3167c. The predictions of these models are broadly consistent with our abundance constraints, although this is primarily due to the large uncertainties on the latter. Interior structure models suggest the core mass fraction is >40%, independent of a rock or water core composition, and independent of atmospheric envelope metallicity up to 1000x solar. We also report abundance measurements for fifteen elements in the host star, showing that it has a very nearly solar composition.
GJ 3470b is a warm Neptune-size planet transiting a M dwarf star. Like the handful of other small exoplanets for which transmission spectroscopy has been obtained, GJ 3470b exhibits a flat spectrum in the near- and mid-infrared. Recently, a tentative detection of Rayleigh scattering in its atmosphere has been reported. This signal manifests itself as an observed increase of the planetary radius as a function of decreasing wavelength in the visible. We set out to verify this detection and observed several transits of this planet with the LCOGT network and the Kuiper telescope in four different bands (Sloan g, Sloan i, Harris B and Harris V). Our analysis reveals a strong Rayleigh scattering slope, thus confirming previous results. This makes GJ 3470b the smallest known exoplanet with a detection of Rayleigh scattering. We find that the most plausible scenario is a hydrogen/helium-dominated atmosphere covered by clouds which obscure absorption features in the infrared and hazes which give rise to scattering in the visible. Our results demonstrate the feasibility of exoplanet atmospheric characterization from the ground, even with meter-class telescopes.
Transmission spectroscopy to date has detected atomic and molecular absorption in Jupiter-sized exoplanets, but intense efforts to measure molecular absorption in the atmospheres of smaller (Neptune-sized) planets during transits have revealed only featureless spectra. From this it was concluded that the majority of small, warm planets evolve to sustain high mean molecular weights, opaque clouds, or scattering hazes in their atmospheres, obscuring our ability to observe the composition of these atmospheres. Here we report observations of the transmission spectrum of HAT-P-11b (~4 Earth radii) from the optical to the infrared. We detected water vapour absorption at 1.4 micrometre wavelength. The amplitude of the water absorption (approximately 250 parts-per- million) indicates that the planetary atmosphere is predominantly clear down to ~1 mbar, and sufficiently hydrogen-rich to exhibit a large scale height. The spectrum is indicative of a planetary atmosphere with an upper limit of ~700 times the abundance of heavy elements relative to solar. This is in good agreement with the core accretion theory of planet formation, in which gas giant planets acquire their atmospheres by directly accreting hydrogen-rich gas from the protoplanetary nebulae onto a large rocky or icy core.
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