Publications (36)
Transiting Exoplanets with JWST
S. Seager, D. Deming, J. A. Valenti
The era of exoplanet characterization is upon us. For a subset of exoplanets -- the transiting planets -- physical properties can be measured, including mass, radius, and atmospher…
Strong Limits on the Infrared Spectrum of HD 209458 b Near 2.2 Micron
L. J. Richardson, D. Deming, S. Seager
We present a brief summary of observations of the transiting extrasolar planet, HD 209458 b, designed to detect the secondary eclipse. We employ the method of `occultation spectros…
Osiris revisited: Confirming a solar metallicity and low C/O in HD 209458b
N. Bachmann, L. Kreidberg, P. Mollière +2
HD 209458b is the prototypical hot Jupiter and one of the best targets available for precise atmosphere characterisation. Now that spectra from both Hubble Space Telescope (HST) an…
HST hot Jupiter transmission spectral survey: evidence for aerosols and lack of TiO in the atmosphere of WASP-12b
D. K. Sing, A. Lecavelier des Etangs, J. J. Fortney +17
We present HST optical transmission spectra of the transiting hot Jupiter WASP-12b, taken with the STIS instrument. From the transmission spectra, we are able to decisively rule ou…
Alien Maps of an Ocean-Bearing World
N. B. Cowan, E. Agol, V. S. Meadows +8
[Abridged] To simulate the kinds of observations that will eventually be obtained for exoplanets, the Deep Impact spacecraft obtained light curves of Earth at seven wavebands spann…
On the Method to Infer an Atmosphere on a Tidally-Locked Super Earth Exoplanet and Upper limits to GJ 876d
S. Seager, D. Deming
We develop a method to infer or rule out the presence of an atmosphere on a tidally-locked hot super Earth. The question of atmosphere retention is a fundamental one, especially fo…
Marginalising instrument systematics in HST WFC3 transit lightcurves
H. R. Wakeford, D. K. Sing, T. Evans +2
Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) infrared observations at 1.1-1.7m probe primarily the HO absorption band at 1.4m, and has provided low resolutio…
Transit confirmation and improved stellar and planet parameters for the super-Earth HD 97658 b and its host star
V. Van Grootel, M. Gillon, D. Valencia +15
Super-Earths transiting nearby bright stars are key objects that simultaneously allow for accurate measurements of both their mass and radius, providing essential constraints on th…
An HST Optical to Near-IR Transmission Spectrum of the Hot Jupiter WASP-19b: Detection of Atmospheric Water and Likely Absence of TiO
C. M. Huitson, D. K. Sing, F. Pont +14
We measure the transmission spectrum of WASP-19b from 3 transits using low-resolution optical spectroscopy from the HST Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS). The STIS spectr…
An educated search for transiting habitable planets. Targetting M dwarfs with known transiting planets
M. Gillon, X. Bonfils, B. -O. Demory +3
Because the planets of a system form in a flattened disk, they are expected to share similar orbital inclinations at the end of their formation. The high-precision photometric moni…
Improved precision on the radius of the nearby super-Earth 55 Cnc e
M. Gillon, B. -O. Demory, B. Benneke +9
We report on new transit photometry for the super-Earth 55 Cnc e obtained with Warm Spitzer/IRAC at 4.5 microns. An individual analysis of these new data leads to a planet radius o…
Molecular Signatures in the Near Infrared Dayside Spectrum of HD 189733b
M. R. Swain, G. Vasisht, G. Tinetti +5
We have measured the dayside spectrum of HD 189733b between 1.5 and 2.5 microns using the NICMOS instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope. The emergent spectrum contains significan…
A time-dependent radiative model for the atmosphere of the eccentric transiting planets
N. Iro, D. Deming
We present a time-dependent radiative model for the atmosphere of the transiting planets that take into account the eccentricity of their orbit. We investigate the temporal tempera…
On the Dayside Thermal Emission of Hot Jupiters
S. Seager, L. J. Richardson, B. M. S. Hansen +3
We discuss atmosphere models of HD209458b in light of the recent day-side flux measurement of HD209458b's secondary eclipse by Spitzer-MIPS at 24 microns. In addition, we present a…
The climate of HD 189733b from fourteen transits and eclipses measured by Spitzer
E. Agol, N. B. Cowan, H. A. Knutson +4
We present observations of seven transits and seven eclipses of the transiting planet system HD 189733 taken with Spitzer IRAC at 8 microns. We use a new correction for the detecto…
The phase-dependent Infrared brightness of the extrasolar planet upsilon Andromedae b
J. Harrington, B. Hansen, S. Luszcz +5
The star upsilon Andromeda is orbited by three known planets, the innermost of which has an orbital period of 4.617 days and a mass at least 0.69 that of Jupiter. This planet is cl…
HST hot Jupiter Transmission Spectral Survey: A detection of Na and strong optical absorption in HAT-P-1b
N. Nikolov, D. K. Sing, F. Pont +16
We present an optical to near-infrared transmission spectrum of the hot Jupiter HAT-P-1b, based on HST observations, covering the spectral regime from 0.29 to 1.027μm with STIS, w…
Planet-Induced Stellar Pulsations in HAT-P-2's Eccentric System
J. de Wit, N. K. Lewis, H. A. Knutson +13
Extrasolar planets on eccentric short-period orbits provide a laboratory in which to study radiative and tidal interactions between a planet and its host star under extreme forcing…
Towards a Small Prototype Planet Finding Interferometer: The next step in planet finding and characterization in the infrared
W. C. Danchi, D. Deming, K. G. Carpenter +9
During the last few years, considerable effort has been directed towards large-scale (>> $1 Billion US) missions to detect and characterize earth-like planets around nearby stars,…
Discovery and Characterization of Transiting SuperEarths Using an All-Sky Transit Survey and Follow-up by the James Webb Space Telescope
D. Deming, S. Seager, J. Winn +9
Doppler and transit surveys are finding extrasolar planets of ever smaller mass and radius, and are now sampling the domain of superEarths (1-3 Earth radii). Recent results from th…
A short-period super-Earth orbiting the M2.5 dwarf GJ3634. Detection with Harps velocimetry and transit search with Spitzer photometry
X. Bonfils, M. Gillon, T. Forveille +12
We report on the detection of GJ3634b, a super-Earth of mass m sin i = 7.0 +/-0.9 Mearth and period P = 2.64561 +/- 0.00066 day. Its host star is a M2.5 dwarf, has a mass of 0.45+/…
HST hot-Jupiter transmission spectral survey: detection of potassium in WASP-31b along with a cloud deck and Rayleigh scattering
D. K. Sing, H. R. Wakeford, A. P. Showman +15
We present Hubble Space Telescope optical and near-IR transmission spectra of the transiting hot-Jupiter WASP-31b. The spectrum covers 0.3-1.7 m at a resolution 70, whic…
Hubble PanCET: An isothermal day-side atmosphere for the bloated gas-giant HAT-P-32Ab
N. Nikolov, D. K. Sing, J. Goyal +20
We present a thermal emission spectrum of the bloated hot Jupiter HAT-P-32Ab from a single eclipse observation made in spatial scan mode with the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) aboard…
Exoplanet Atmospheres
S. Seager, D. Deming
At the dawn of the first discovery of exoplanets orbiting sun-like stars in the mid-1990s, few believed that observations of exoplanet atmospheres would ever be possible. After the…
Hubble Space Telescope hot Jupiter Transmission Spectral Survey: detection of water in HAT-P-1b from Wide Field Camera 3 near-infrared spatial scan observations
H. R. Wakeford, D. K. Sing, D. Deming +13
We present Hubble Space Telescope near-infrared transmission spectroscopy of the transiting hot-Jupiter HAT-P-1b. We observed one transit with Wide Field Camera 3 using the G141 lo…
The Spitzer search for the transits of HARPS low-mass planets - II. Null results for 19 planets
M. Gillon, B. -O. Demory, C. Lovis +9
Short-period super-Earths and Neptunes are now known to be very frequent around solar-type stars. Improving our understanding of these mysterious planets requires the detection of…
Thermal Phase Variations of WASP-12b: Defying Predictions
N. B. Cowan, P. Machalek, B. Croll +5
[Abridged] We report Warm Spitzer full-orbit phase observations of WASP-12b at 3.6 and 4.5 micron. We are able to measure the transit depths, eclipse depths, thermal and ellipsoida…
The Importance of Phase in Nulling Interferometry and a Three Telescope Closure-Phase Nulling Interferometer Concept
W. C. Danchi, J. Rajagopal, M. Kuchner +2
We discuss the theory of the Bracewell nulling interferometer and explicitly demonstrate that the phase of the "white light" null fringe is the same as the phase of the bright outp…
A Spitzer Search for Transits of Radial Velocity Detected Super-Earths
J. A. Kammer, H. A. Knutson, A. W. Howard +9
Unlike hot Jupiters or other gas giants, super-Earths are expected to have a wide variety of compositions, ranging from terrestrial bodies like our own to more gaseous planets like…
Hubble PanCET: An extended upper atmosphere of neutral hydrogen around the warm Neptune GJ 3470 b
V. Bourrier, A. Lecavelier des Etangs, D. Ehrenreich +16
GJ 3470b is a warm Neptune transiting an M-dwarf star at the edge of the evaporation desert. It offers the possibility of investigating how low-mass, close-in exoplanets evolve und…
Water Vapor in the Spectrum of the Extrasolar Planet HD 189733b: 1. the Transit
P. R. McCullough, N. Crouzet, D. Deming +1
We report near-infrared spectroscopy of the gas giant planet HD 189733b in transit. We used the Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera 3 (HST WFC3) with its G141 grism covering 1…
The Galactic Exoplanet Survey Telescope (GEST)
D. P. Bennett, J. Bally, I. Bond +22
The Galactic Exoplanet Survey Telescope (GEST) will observe a 2 square degree field in the Galactic bulge to search for extra-solar planets using a gravitational lensing technique.…
Detection of a transit of the super-Earth 55 Cnc e with Warm Spitzer
B. -O. Demory, M. Gillon, D. Deming +12
We report on the detection of a transit of the super-Earth 55 Cnc e with warm Spitzer in IRAC's 4.5-micron band. Our MCMC analysis includes an extensive modeling of the systematic…
The Spitzer search for the transits of HARPS low-mass planets - I. No transit for the super-Earth HD 40307b
M. Gillon, D. Deming, B. -O. Demory +9
We have used Spitzer and its IRAC camera to search for the transit of the super-Earth HD 40307b. The transiting nature of the planet could not be firmly discarded from our first ph…
Search for a habitable terrestrial planet transiting the nearby red dwarf GJ 1214
M. Gillon, B. -O. Demory, N. Madhusudhan +12
High-precision eclipse spectrophotometry of transiting terrestrial exoplanets represents a promising path for the first atmospheric characterizations of habitable worlds and the se…
Evidence for disequilibrium chemistry from vertical mixing in hot Jupiter atmospheres. A comprehensive survey of transiting close-in gas giant exoplanets with warm-Spitzer/IRAC
C. Baxter, J-M. Désert, S-M. Tsai +10
[Abridged] Aims. We present a large atmospheric study of 49 gas giant exoplanets using infrared transmission photometry with Spitzer/IRAC at 3.6 and 4.5um. Methods. We uniformly an…