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The High Optical Resolution Spectrograph (HORuS) is a new high-resolution echelle spectrograph available on the 10.4 m Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC). We report on the first HORuS observations of a transit of the super-Earth planet 55 Cnc e. We investigate the presence of Na I and H$alpha$ in its transmission spectrum and explore the capabilities of HORuS for planetary transmission spectroscopy. Our methodology leads to residuals in the difference spectrum between the in-transit and out-of-transit spectra for the Na I doublet lines of (3.4 $pm$ 0.4) $times$ 10$^{-4}$, which sets an upper limit to the detection of line absorption from the planetary atmosphere that is one order of magnitude more stringent that those reported in the literature. We demonstrate that we are able to reach the photon-noise limit in the residual spectra using HORuS to a degree that we would be able to easily detect giant planets with larger atmospheres. In addition, we modelled the structure, chemistry and transmission spectrum of 55 Cnc e using state-of-the-art open source tools.
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We present Rossiter-McLaughlin observations of the transiting super-Earth 55 Cnc e collected during six transit events between January 2012 and November 2013 with HARPS and HARPS-N. We detect no radial-velocity signal above 35 cm/s (3-sigma) and confine the stellar v sin i to 0.2 +/- 0.5 km/s. The star appears to be a very slow rotator, producing a very low amplitude Rossiter-McLaughlin effect. Given such a low amplitude, the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect of 55 Cnc e is undetected in our data, and any spin-orbit angle of the system remains possible. We also performed Doppler tomography and reach a similar conclusion. Our results offer a glimpse of the capacity of future instrumentation to study low amplitude Rossiter-McLaughlin effects produced by super-Earths.
We report the first ground-based detections of the shallow transit of the super-Earth exoplanet 55 Cnc e using a 2-meter-class telescope. Using differential spectrophotometry, we observed one transit in 2013 and another in 2014, with average spectral resolutions of ~700 and ~250, spanning the Johnson BVR photometric bands. We find a white-light planet-to-star radius ratio of 0.0190 -0.0027+0.0023 from the 2013 observations and 0.0200 -0.0018+0.0017 from the 2014 observations. The two datasets combined results in a radius ratio of 0.0198 -0.0014+0.0013. These values are all in agreement with previous space-based results. Scintillation noise in the data prevents us from placing strong constraints on the presence of an extended hydrogen-rich atmosphere. Nevertheless, our detections of 55 Cnc e in transit demonstrate that moderate-size telescopes on the ground will be capable of routine follow-up observations of super-Earth candidates discovered by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) around bright stars. We expect it will be also possible to place constraints on the atmospheric characteristics of those planets by devising observational strategies to minimize scintillation noise.
55 Cnc e is a transiting super-Earth (radius $1.88rm,R_oplus$ and mass $8rm, M_oplus$) orbiting a G8V host star on a 17-hour orbit. Spitzer observations of the planets phase curve at 4.5 $mu$m revealed a time-varying occultation depth, and MOST optical observations are consistent with a time-varying phase curve amplitude and phase offset of maximum light. Both broadband and high-resolution spectroscopic analyses are consistent with either a high mean molecular weight atmosphere or no atmosphere for planet e. A long term photometric monitoring campaign on an independent optical telescope is needed to probe the variability in this system. We seek to measure the phase variations of 55 Cnc e with a broadband optical filter with the 30 cm effective aperture space telescope CHEOPS and explore how the precision photometry narrows down the range of possible scenarios. We observed 55 Cnc for 1.6 orbital phases in March of 2020. We designed a phase curve detrending toolkit for CHEOPS photometry which allows us to study the underlying flux variations of the 55 Cnc system. We detected a phase variation with a full-amplitude of $72 pm 7$ ppm but do not detect a significant secondary eclipse of the planet. The shape of the phase variation resembles that of a piecewise-Lambertian, however the non-detection of the planetary secondary eclipse, and the large amplitude of the variations exclude reflection from the planetary surface as a possible origin of the observed phase variations. They are also likely incompatible with magnetospheric interactions between the star and planet but may imply that circumplanetary or circumstellar material modulate the flux of the system. Further precision photometry of 55 Cnc from CHEOPS will measure variations in the phase curve amplitude and shape over time this year.
Transmission spectroscopy is a promising tool for the atmospheric characterization of transiting exoplanets. Because the planetary signal is faint, discrepancies have been reported regarding individual targets. We investigate the dependence of the estimated transmission spectrum on deviations of the orbital parameters of the star-planet system that are due to the limb-darkening effects of the host star. We describe how the uncertainty on the orbital parameters translates into an uncertainty on the planetary spectral slope. We created synthetic transit light curves in seven different wavelength bands, from the near-ultraviolet to the near-infrared, and fit them with transit models parameterized by fixed deviating values of the impact parameter $b$. Our simulations show a wavelength-dependent offset that is more pronounced at the blue wavelengths where the limb-darkening effect is stronger. This offset introduces a slope in the planetary transmission spectrum that becomes steeper with increasing $b$ values. Variations of $b$ by positive or negative values within its uncertainty interval introduce positive or negative slopes, thus the formation of an error envelope. The amplitude from blue optical to near-infrared wavelength for a typical uncertainty on $b$ corresponds to one atmospheric pressure scale height and more. This impact parameter degeneracy is confirmed for different host types; K stars present prominently steeper slopes, while M stars indicate features at the blue wavelengths. We demonstrate that transmission spectra can be hard to interpret, basically because of the limitations in defining a precise impact parameter value for a transiting exoplanet. This consequently limits a characterization of its atmosphere.
Orbiting a bright, nearby star the 55 Cnc system offers a rare opportunity to study a multiplanet system that has a wide range of planetary masses and orbital distances. Using two decades of photometry and spectroscopy data, we have measured the rotation of the host star and its solar-like magnetic cycle. Accounting for this cycle in our velocimetric analysis of the system allows us to revise the properties of the outermost giant planet and its four planetary companions. The innermost planet 55 Cnc e is an unusually close-in super-Earth, whose transits have allowed for detailed follow-up studies. Recent observations favor the presence of a substantial atmosphere yet its composition, and the nature of the planet, remain unknown. We combined our derived planet mass (Mp = 8.0+-0.3 Mearth) with refined measurement of its optical radius derived from HST/STIS observations (Rp = 1.88+-0.03 Rearth over 530-750nm) to revise the density of 55 Cnc e (rho = 6.7+-0.4 g cm-3). Based on these revised properties we have characterized possible interiors of 55 Cnc e using a generalized Bayesian model. We confirm that the planet is likely surrounded by a heavyweight atmosphere, contributing a few percents of the planet radius. While we cannot exclude the presence of a water layer underneath the atmosphere, this scenario is unlikely given the observations of the planet across the entire spectrum and its strong irradiation. Follow-up observations of the system in photometry and in spectroscopy over different time-scales are needed to further investigate the nature and origin of this iconic super-Earth.
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