Publications (51)
Spitzer and z' Secondary Eclipse Observations of the Highly Irradiated Transiting Brown Dwarf KELT-1b
Thomas G. Beatty, Karen A. Collins, Jonathan Fortney +9
We present secondary eclipse observations of the highly irradiated transiting brown dwarf KELT-1b. These observations represent the first constraints on the atmospheric dynamics of…
An ultrahot gas-giant exoplanet with a stratosphere
Thomas M. Evans, David K. Sing, Tiffany Kataria +24
Infrared radiation emitted from a planet contains information about the chemical composition and vertical temperature profile of its atmosphere. If upper layers are cooler than low…
Planet Masses, Radii, and Orbits from NASA's K2 Mission
Andrew W. Howard, Evan Sinukoff, Sarah Blunt +50
We report the masses, sizes, and orbital properties of 86 planets orbiting 55 stars observed by NASA's K2 Mission with follow-up Doppler measurements by the HIRES spectrometer at t…
Spitzer Observations Confirm and Rescue the Habitable-Zone Super-Earth K2-18b for Future Characterization
Björn Benneke, Michael Werner, Erik Petigura +13
The recent detections of two transit events attributed to the super-Earth candidate K2-18b have provided the unprecedented prospect of spectroscopically studying a habitable-zone p…
NIMBUS: The Near-Infrared Multi-Band Ultraprecise Spectroimager for SOFIA
Michael W. McElwain, Avi Mandell, Bruce Woodgate +20
We present a new and innovative near-infrared multi-band ultraprecise spectroimager (NIMBUS) for SOFIA. This design is capable of characterizing a large sample of extrasolar planet…
A Clear View of a Cloudy Brown Dwarf Companion from High-Resolution Spectroscopy
Jerry W. Xuan, Jason Wang, Jean-Baptiste Ruffio +37
Direct imaging studies have mainly used low-resolution spectroscopy () to study the atmospheres of giant exoplanets and brown dwarf companions, but the presence of clo…
Spectroscopic Evidence for a Temperature Inversion in the Dayside Atmosphere of the Hot Jupiter WASP-33b
Korey Haynes, Avi M. Mandell, Nikku Madhusudhan +2
We present observations of two occultations of the extrasolar planet WASP-33b using the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) on the HST, which allow us to constrain the temperature structure…
A Systematic Retrieval Analysis of Secondary Eclipse Spectra II: A Uniform Analysis of Eight Planets and Their C to O Ratios
Michael R Line, Heather Knutson, Aaron Wolf +1
Secondary eclipse spectroscopy provides invaluable insights into the temperatures and compositions of exoplanetary atmospheres. We carry out a systematic temperature and abundance…
Towards Space-like Photometric Precision from the Ground with Beam-Shaping Diffusers
Gudmundur Stefansson, Suvrath Mahadevan, Leslie Hebb +21
We demonstrate a path to hitherto unachievable differential photometric precisions from the ground, both in the optical and near-infrared (NIR), using custom-fabricated beam-shapin…
HAT-P-26b: A Neptune-Mass Exoplanet with a Well Constrained Heavy Element Abundance
Hannah R. Wakeford, David K. Sing, Tiffany Kataria +11
A correlation between giant-planet mass and atmospheric heavy elemental abundance was first noted in the past century from observations of planets in our own Solar System, and has…
Masses, Revised Radii, and a Third Planet Candidate in the "Inverted" Planetary System Around TOI-1266
Ryan Cloutier, Michael Greklek-McKeon, Serena Wurmser +40
Is the population of close-in planets orbiting M dwarfs sculpted by thermally driven escape or is it a direct outcome of the planet formation process? A number of recent empirical…
PLATON II: New Capabilities And A Comprehensive Retrieval on HD 189733b Transit and Eclipse Data
Michael Zhang, Yayaati Chachan, Eliza M. -R. Kempton +3
Recently, we introduced PLanetary Atmospheric Tool for Observer Noobs (PLATON), a Python package that calculates model transmission spectra for exoplanets and retrieves atmospheric…
Eclipse Mapping with MIRI: 2D Map of HD 189733b from JWST MIRI LRS Observations
Maura Lally, Ryan Challener, Nikole Lewis +13
Observations and models of transiting hot Jupiter exoplanets indicate that atmospheric circulation features may cause large spatial flux contrasts across their daysides. Previous s…
An HST/STIS Optical Transmission Spectrum of Warm Neptune GJ 436b
Joshua D. Lothringer, Björn Benneke, Ian J. M. Crossfield +9
GJ 436b is a prime target for understanding warm Neptune exoplanet atmospheres and a target for multiple JWST GTO programs. Here, we report the first space-based optical transmissi…
Evaluating Climate Variability Of The Canonical Hot Jupiters Hd 189733b & Hd 209458b Through Multi-epoch Eclipse Observations
Brian M. Kilpatrick, Tiffany Kataria, Nikole K. Lewis +9
Here we present the analysis of multi-epoch secondary eclipse observations of HD 189733b and HD 209458b as a probe of temporal variability in the planetary climate using both Spitz…
Near-Infrared Emission Spectrum of WASP-103b using Hubble Space Telescope/Wide Field Camera 3
Kimberly M. S. Cartier, Thomas G. Beatty, Ming Zhao +8
We present here our observations and analysis of the dayside emission spectrum of the hot Jupiter WASP-103b. We observed WASP-103b during secondary eclipse using two visits of the…
Transiting Exoplanet Studies and Community Targets for JWST's Early Release Science Program
Kevin B. Stevenson, Nikole K. Lewis, Jacob L. Bean +49
The James Webb Space Telescope will revolutionize transiting exoplanet atmospheric science due to its capability for continuous, long-duration observations and its larger collectin…
Inference of Inhomogeneous Clouds in an Exoplanet Atmosphere
Brice-Olivier Demory, Julien de Wit, Nikole Lewis +11
We present new visible and infrared observations of the hot Jupiter Kepler-7b to determine its atmospheric properties. Our analysis allows us to 1) refine Kepler-7b's relatively la…
The dark and featureless surface of rocky exoplanet LHS 3844 b from JWST mid-infrared spectroscopy
Sebastian Zieba, Laura Kreidberg, Brandon P. Coy +13
JWST has opened a new era in the study of rocky exoplanets, enabling direct characterization of their surfaces with mid-infrared spectroscopy. Different types of rock have distinct…
High-resolution Infrared Spectrograph for Exoplanet Characterization with the Keck and Thirty Meter Telescopes
Dimitri Mawet, Michael Fitzgerald, Quinn Konopacky +46
HISPEC (High-resolution Infrared Spectrograph for Exoplanet Characterization) is a proposed diffraction-limited spectrograph for the W.M. Keck Observatory, and a pathfinder for the…
Spitzer Observations of Exoplanets Discovered with The Kepler K2 Mission
Charles Beichman, John Livingston, Michael Werner +14
We have used the {\it Spitzer Space Telescope} to observe two transiting planetary systems orbiting low mass stars discovered in the \Kepler \Ktwo mission. The system K2-3 (EPIC 20…
Spitzer Secondary Eclipses of the Dense, Modestly-irradiated, Giant Exoplanet HAT-P-20b Using Pixel-Level Decorrelation
Drake Deming, Heather Knutson, Joshua Kammer +13
HAT-P-20b is a giant exoplanet that orbits a metal-rich star. The planet itself has a high total density, suggesting that it may also have a high metallicity in its atmosphere. We…
Transits and secondary eclipses of HD 189733 with Spitzer
Eric Agol, Nicolas B. Cowan, James Bushong +4
We present limits on transit timing variations and secondary eclipse depth variations at 8 microns with the Spitzer Space Telescope IRAC camera. Due to the weak limb darkening in t…
Spitzer Transits of the Super-Earth GJ1214b and Implications for Its Atmosphere
Jonathan D. Fraine, Drake Deming, Michaël Gillon +7
We observed the transiting super-Earth exoplanet GJ1214b using Warm Spitzer at 4.5 microns wavelength during a 20-day quasi-continuous sequence in May 2011. The goals of our long o…
Observations of Extrasolar Planets During the non-Cryogenic Spitzer Space Telescope Mission
Drake Deming, Eric Agol, David Charbonneau +3
Precision infrared photometry from Spitzer has enabled the first direct studies of light from extrasolar planets, via observations at secondary eclipse in transiting systems. Curre…
Detection and Bulk Properties of the HR 8799 Planets with High Resolution Spectroscopy
Jason J. Wang, Jean-Baptiste Ruffio, Evan Morris +49
Using the Keck Planet Imager and Characterizer (KPIC), we obtained high-resolution (R35,000) -band spectra of the four planets orbiting HR 8799. We clearly detected \water…
A Near-Infrared Transmission Spectrum for the Warm Saturn HAT-P-12b
Michael R. Line, Heather Knutson, Drake Deming +2
We present a HST WFC3 transmission spectrum for the transiting exoplanet HAT-P-12b. This warm (1000 K) sub-Saturn-mass planet has a smaller mass and a lower temperature than the ho…
Warm Spitzer Photometry of the Transiting Exoplanets CoRoT-1 and CoRoT-2 at Secondary Eclipse
Drake Deming, Heather Knutson, Eric Agol +9
We measure secondary eclipses of the hot giant exoplanets CoRoT-1 at 3.6 and 4.5 microns, and CoRoT-2 at 3.6 microns, both using Warm Spitzer. We find that the Warm Spitzer mission…
Water Vapour Absorption in the Clear Atmosphere of an exo-Neptune
Jonathan Fraine, Drake Deming, Björn Benneke +6
Transmission spectroscopy to date has detected atomic and molecular absorption in Jupiter-sized exoplanets, but intense efforts to measure molecular absorption in the atmospheres o…
Forward and Inverse Modeling of the Emission and Transmission Spectrum of GJ 436b: Investigating Metal Enrichment, Tidal Heating, and Clouds
Caroline V. Morley, Heather Knutson, Michael Line +5
The Neptune-mass GJ 436b is one of the most-studied transiting exoplanets with repeated measurements of both its thermal emission and transmission spectra. We build on previous stu…
Exoplanetary Atmospheres
Nikku Madhusudhan, Heather Knutson, Jonathan Fortney +1
The study of exoplanetary atmospheres is one of the most exciting and dynamic frontiers in astronomy. Over the past two decades ongoing surveys have revealed an astonishing diversi…
Using Stellar Limb-Darkening to Refine the Properties of HD 209458b
Heather Knutson, David Charbonneau, Robert W. Noyes +2
We use multi-band photometry to refine estimates for the planetary radius and orbital inclination of the transiting planet system HD 209458. We gathered 1066 spectra over four dist…
Statistical Analysis of Hubble/WFC3 Transit Spectroscopy of Extrasolar Planets
Guangwei Fu, Drake Deming, Heather Knutson +3
Transmission spectroscopy provides a window to study exoplanetary atmospheres, but that window is fogged by clouds and hazes. Clouds and haze introduce a degeneracy between the str…
The development of HISPEC for Keck and MODHIS for TMT: science cases and predicted sensitivities
Quinn M. Konopacky, Ashley D. Baker, Dimitri Mawet +72
HISPEC is a new, high-resolution near-infrared spectrograph being designed for the W.M. Keck II telescope. By offering single-shot, R=100,000 between 0.98 - 2.5 um, HISPEC will ena…
WIRC+Pol: a low-resolution near-infrared spectropolarimeter
Samaporn Tinyanont, Maxwell A. Millar-Blanchaer, Ricky Nilsson +14
WIRC+Pol is a newly commissioned low-resolution (R~100), near-infrared (J and H band) spectropolarimetry mode of the Wide-field InfraRed Camera (WIRC) on the 200-inch Hale Telescop…
Highlights of Exoplanetary Science from Spitzer
Drake Deming, Heather Knutson
Observations of extrasolar planets were not projected to be a significant part of the Spitzer Space Telescope's mission when it was conceived and designed. Nevertheless, Spitzer wa…
A Systematic Retrieval Analysis of Secondary Eclipse Spectra I: A Comparison of Atmospheric Retrieval Techniques
Michael R. Line, Aaron Wolf, Xi Zhang +6
Spectra of exoplanet atmospheres provide us the opportunity to improve our understanding of these objects just as remote sensing in our own solar system has increased our understan…
Theoretical Spectral Models of the Planet HD 209458b with a Thermal Inversion and Water Emission Bands
Adam Burrows, Ivan Hubeny, Jano Budaj +2
We find that a theoretical fit to all the HD 209458b data at secondary eclipse requires that the dayside atmosphere of HD 209458b have a thermal inversion and a stratosphere. This…
The Young Substellar Companion ROXs 12 B: Near-Infrared Spectrum, System Architecture, and Spin-Orbit Misalignment
Brendan Bowler, Adam Kraus, Marta Bryan +8
ROXs 12 (2MASS J16262803-2526477) is a young star hosting a directly imaged companion near the deuterium-burning limit. We present a suite of spectroscopic, imaging, and time-serie…
The First Dedicated Survey of Atmospheric Escape from Planets Orbiting F Stars
Morgan Saidel, Shreyas Vissapragada, Heather Knutson +9
Hydrodynamic escape can strip the envelopes of close-in exoplanets, but most observations of atmospheric mass loss to date have been confined to planets orbiting K and M dwarfs. A…
Asteroseismology of the Nearby K-Dwarf Draconis using the Keck Planet Finder and TESS
Marc Hon, Daniel Huber, Yaguang Li +76
Asteroseismology of dwarf stars cooler than the Sun is very challenging due to the low amplitudes and rapid timescales of oscillations. Here, we present the asteroseismic detection…
The Super-Earth Opportunity - Search for Habitable Exoplanets in the 2020s
Renyu Hu, Charles A. Beichman, David Brain +23
The recent discovery of a staggering diversity of planets beyond the Solar System has brought with it a greatly expanded search space for habitable worlds. The Kepler exoplanet sur…
The Emergent 1.1-1.7 Micron Spectrum of the Exoplanet CoRoT-2b as Measured Using the Hubble Space Telescope
Ashlee Wilkins, Drake Deming, Nikku Madhusudhan +4
We have used Hubble/WFC3 and the G141 grism to measure the secondary eclipse of the transiting very hot Jupiter CoRoT-2b in the 1.1-1.7m spectral region. We find an eclipse dep…
Observations of Transiting Exoplanets with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (PASP), December 2014
Charles Beichman, Bjoern Benneke, Heather Knutson +44
This article summarizes a workshop held on March, 2014, on the potential of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to revolutionize our knowledge of the physical properties of exopl…
Spatially Resolved Modeling of Optical Albedos for a Sample of Six Hot Jupiters
Danica Adams, Tiffany Kataria, Natasha Batalha +2
Optical secondary eclipse measurements made by \emph{Kepler} reveal a diverse set of geometric albedos for hot Jupiters with equilibrium temperatures between K. The pre…
Spitzer/MIPS 24 micron Observations of HD 209458b: 3 eclipses, 2.5 transits, and a Phase Curve Corrupted by Instrumental Sensitivity Variations
Ian J. M. Crossfield, Heather Knutson, Jonathan Fortney +3
We report the results of an analysis of all Spitzer/MIPS 24 micron observations of HD 209458b, one of the touchstone objects in the study of irradiated giant planet atmospheres. Al…
Kepler-10c, a 2.2-Earth radius transiting planet in a multiple system
Francois Fressin, Guillermo Torres, Jean-Michel Desert +30
The Kepler Mission has recently announced the discovery of Kepler-10 b, the smallest exoplanet discovered to date and the first rocky planet found by the spacecraft. A second, 45-d…
Keys of a Mission to Uranus or Neptune, the Closest Ice Giants
Tristan Guillot, Jonathan Fortney, Emily Rauscher +26
Uranus and Neptune are the archetypes of "ice giants", a class of planets that may be among the most common in the Galaxy. They hold the keys to understand the atmospheric dynamics…
Spitzer Secondary Eclipses of Qatar-1b
Emily Garhart, Drake Deming, Avi Mandell +2
Previous secondary eclipse observations of the hot Jupiter Qatar-1b in the Ks band suggest that it may have an unusually high day side temperature, indicative of minimal heat redis…
Dynamical Constraints on the Core Mass of Hot Jupiter HAT-P-13b
Peter Buhler, Heather Knutson, Konstantin Batygin +4
HAT-P-13b is a Jupiter-mass transiting exoplanet that has settled onto a stable, short-period, and mildly eccentric orbit as a consequence of the action of tidal dissipation and pe…
Kepler 18-b, c, and d: A System Of Three Planets Confirmed by Transit Timing Variations, Lightcurve Validation, Spitzer Photometry and Radial Velocity Measurements
William D. Cochran, Daniel C. Fabrycky, Guillermo Torres +51
We report the detection of three transiting planets around a Sunlike star, which we designate Kepler-18. The transit signals were detected in photometric data from the Kepler satel…