Tau Boo b: Hunting for reflected starlight

Abstract

Aims. We attempt to detect starlight reflected from the hot Jupiter orbiting the main-sequence star Tau Boo, in order to determine the albedo of the planetary atmosphere, the orbital inclination of the planetary system and the exact mass of the planetary companion. Methods. We analyze high-precision, high-resolution spectra, collected over two half nights using UVES at the VLT/UT2, by way of data synthesis. We interpret our data using two different atmospheric models for hot Jupiters. Results. Although a weak candidate signal appears near the most probable radial velocity amplitude, its statistical significance is insufficient for us to claim a detection. However, this feature agrees very well with a completely independently obtained result by another research group, which searched for reflected light from Tau Boo b. As a consequence of the non-detection of reflected light, we place upper limits to the planet-to-star flux ratio at the 99.9% significance level. For the most probable orbital inclination around i = 46 degrees, we can limit the relative reflected radiation to be less than 5.7 x 10^-5 for grey albedo. This implies a geometric albedo smaller than 0.40, assuming a planetary radius of 1.2 R_Jup .

7 pages

References in corpus (11)

• The Statistics of Albedo and Heat Recirculation on Hot Exoplanets
• HAT-P-1b: A Large-Radius, Low-Density Exoplanet Transiting one Member of a Stellar Binary
• The Very Low Albedo of an Extrasolar Planet: MOST Spacebased Photometry of HD 209458
• First Evidence of a Retrograde Orbit of Transiting Exoplanet HAT-P-7b
• Studying the atmosphere of the exoplanet HAT-P-7b via secondary eclipse measurements with EPOXI, Spitzer and Kepler
• Spin-orbit misalignment in the HD80606 planetary system
• Ground-based secondary eclipse detection of the very-hot Jupiter OGLE-TR-56b
• The secondary eclipse of the transiting exoplanet CoRoT-2b
• Ks-band detection of thermal emission and color constraints to CoRoT-1b: A low-albedo planet with inefficient atmospheric energy redistribution and a temperature inversion
• The secondary eclipse of CoRoT-1b
• HD 75289Ab revisited - Searching for starlight reflected from a hot Jupiter

Cited by in corpus (29)

• The signature of orbital motion from the dayside of the planet tau Bootis b
• The Statistics of Albedo and Heat Recirculation on Hot Exoplanets
• Weighing The Non-Transiting Hot Jupiter Tau BOO b
• The high albedo of the hot Jupiter Kepler-7b
• Exoplanet atmospheres with GIANO. I. Water in the transmission spectrum of HD 189733b
• Exoplanet atmospheres with GIANO II. Detection of molecular absorption in the dayside spectrum of HD 102195b
• Evidence for a spectroscopic direct detection of reflected light from 51 Peg b
• Multiple water band detections in the CARMENES near-infrared transmission spectrum of HD 189733 b
• The GAPS Programme with HARPS-N at TNG. VII. Putting exoplanets in the stellar context: magnetic activity and asteroseismology of $\tau$ Bootis A
• Water vapor detection in the transmission spectra of HD 209458 b with the CARMENES NIR channel
• A Uniform Search for Secondary Eclipses of Hot Jupiters in Kepler Q2 Lightcurves
• Photometric Phase Variations of Long-Period Eccentric Planets
• TESS observations of the WASP-121 b phase curve
• Black Mirror: The impact of rotational broadening on the search for reflected light from 51 Pegasi b with high resolution spectroscopy
• Searching for reflected light from $\tau$ Bootis b with high-resolution ground-based spectroscopy: Approaching the $10^{-5}$ contrast barrier
• On the Inclination Dependence of Exoplanet Phase Signatures
• Future Direct Spectroscopic Detection of Hot Jupiters with IGRINS
• Polarization of hot Jupiter systems: a likely detection of stellar activity and a possible detection of planetary polarization
• Reflected Light Phase Curves in the TESS Era
• Water observed in the atmosphere of τ Bootis Ab with CARMENES/CAHA
• Detection of planetary signals by reflected light of the host star using the autocorrelation of spectra
• A comparison of spectroscopic methods for detecting starlight scattered by transiting hot Jupiters, with application to Subaru data for HD 209458b and HD 189733b
• Recovering the colour-dependent albedo of exoplanets with high-resolution spectroscopy: from ESPRESSO to the ELT
• Using Independent Component Analysis to detect exoplanet reflection spectrum from composite spectra of exoplanetary binary systems
• High-resolution spectroscopic search for the thermal emission of the extrasolar planet HD 217107 b
• TESS Unveils the Full Phase Curve of WASP-19b
• Comprehensive analysis of TESS Full Orbital Phase Curve of WASP-121b
• Reflected light from giant planets in habitable zones: Tapping into the power of the Cross-Correlation Function
• A spectral differential approach to characterizing low-mass companions to late-type stars