The Transit Light Curve Project. VIII. Six Occultations of the Exoplanet TrES-3

Abstract

We present photometry of the exoplanet host star TrES-3 spanning six occultations (secondary eclipses) of its giant planet. No flux decrements were detected, leading to 99%-confidence upper limits on the planet-to-star flux ratio of 0.00024, 0.0005, and 0.00086 in the i, z, and R bands respectively. The corresponding upper limits on the planet's geometric albedo are 0.30, 0.62, and 1.07. The upper limit in the i band rules out the presence of highly reflective clouds, and is only a factor of 2-3 above the predicted level of thermal radiation from the planet.

To appear in AJ [14 pages]

References in corpus (5)

• Atomic and Molecular Opacities for Brown Dwarf and Giant Planet Atmospheres
• The Transit Light Curve Project. VII. The Not-So-Bloated Exoplanet HAT-P-1b
• Thermal Emission from Transiting Very-Hot Jupiters: Prospects for Ground-based Detection at Optical Wavelengths
• First detection of polarized scattered light from an exoplanetary atmosphere
• The Transit Light Curve Project. VI. Three Transits of the Exoplanet TrES-2

Cited by in corpus (6)

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• Planetpol polarimetry of the exoplanet systems 55 Cnc and tau Boo
• Near-UV and optical observations of the transiting exoplanet TrES-3b
• Low albedos of hot to ultra-hot Jupiters in the optical to near-infrared transition regime
• Cloudy Atmosphere of the Extra-solar Planet HD189733b : A Possible Explanation of the Detected B-band Polarization
• Measuring accurate transit parameters