[Abridged] Recently, there have been a series of detections of molecules in the atmospheres of extrasolar planets using high spectral resolution (R~100,000) observations, mostly using the CRyogenic high-resolution InfraRed Echelle Spectrograph (CRIRE
S) on the Very Large Telescope. These measurements are able to resolve molecular bands into individual absorption lines. Observing many lines simultaneously as their Doppler shift changes with time allows the detection of specific molecules in the atmosphere of the exoplanet. We performed simulations of high-resolution CRIRES observations of a planets thermal emission and transit between 1-5 micron and performed a cross-correlation analysis on these results to assess how well the planet signal can be extracted. We also simulated day-side and night-side spectra at high spectral resolution for planets with and without a day-side temperature inversion, based on the cases of HD 189733b and HD 209458b. Several small wavelength regions in the L-band promise to yield cross-correlation signals from the thermal emission of hot Jupiters that can exceed those of the current detections by up to a factor of 2-3 for the same integration time. For transit observations, the H-band is also attractive, with the H, K, and L-band giving cross-correlation signals of similar strength. High-resolution night-side spectra of hot Jupiters can give cross-correlation signals as high as the day-side, or even higher. We show that there are many new possibilities for high-resolution observations of exoplanet atmospheres that have expected planet signals at least as high as those already detected. Hence, high-resolution observations at well-chosen wavelengths and at different phases can improve our knowledge about hot Jupiter atmospheres significantly, already with currently available instrumentation.
We investigate the atmosphere of GJ1214b, a transiting super-Earth planet with a low mean density, by measuring its transit depth as a function of wavelength in the blue optical portion of the spectrum. It is thought that this planet is either a mini
-Neptune, consisting of a rocky core with a thick, hydrogen-rich atmosphere, or a planet with a composition dominated by water. Most observations favor a water-dominated atmosphere with a small scale-height, however, some observations indicate that GJ1214b could have an extended atmosphere with a cloud layer muting the molecular features. In an atmosphere with a large scale-height, Rayleigh scattering at blue wavelengths is likely to cause a measurable increase in the apparent size of the planet towards the blue. We observed the transit of GJ1214b in the B-band with the FOcal Reducing Spectrograph (FORS) at the Very Large Telescope (VLT) and in the g-band with both ACAM on the William Hershel Telescope (WHT) and the Wide Field Camera (WFC) at the Isaac Newton Telescope (INT). We find a planet-to-star radius ratio in the B-band of 0.1162+/-0.0017, and in the g-band 0.1180+/-0.0009 and 0.1174+/-0.0017 for the WHT & INT observations respectively. These optical data do not show significant deviations from previous measurements at longer wavelengths. In fact, a flat transmission spectrum across all wavelengths best describes the combined observations. When atmospheric models are considered a small scale-height water-dominated model fits the data best.
For extrasolar planets discovered using the radial velocity method, the spectral characterization of the host star leads to a mass-estimate of the star and subsequently of the orbiting planet. In contrast, if also the orbital velocity of the planet w
ould be known, the masses of both star and planet could be determined directly using Newtons law of gravity, just as in the case of stellar double-line eclipsing binaries. Here we report on the detection of the orbital velocity of extrasolar planet HD209458b. High dispersion ground-based spectroscopy during a transit of this planet reveals absorption lines from carbon monoxide produced in the planet atmosphere, which shift significantly in wavelength due to the change in the radial component of the planet orbital velocity. These observations result in a mass determination of the star and planet of 1.00+-0.22 Msun and 0.64+-0.09 Mjup respectively. A ~2 km/sec blueshift of the carbon monoxide signal with respect to the systemic velocity of the host star suggests the presence of a strong wind flowing from the irradiated dayside to the non-irradiated nightside of the planet within the 0.01-0.1 mbar atmospheric pressure range probed by these observations. The strength of the carbon monoxide signal suggests a CO mixing ratio of 1-3x10-3 in this planets upper atmosphere.
