Reduced Activity And Large Particles From the Disintegrating Planet Candidate KIC 12557548b

Abstract

The intriguing exoplanet candidate KIC 12557548b is believed to have a comet-like tail of dusty debris trailing a small rocky planet. The tail of debris scatters up to 1.3% of the stellar light in the Kepler observatory's bandpass (0.42 um to 0.9 um). Observing the tail's transit depth at multiple wavelengths can reveal the composition and particle size of the debris, constraining the makeup and lifetime of the sub-Mercury planet. Early dust particle size predictions from the scattering of the comet-like tail pointed towards a dust size of ~0.1 um for silicate compositions. These small particles would produce a much deeper optical transit depth than near-infrared transit depth. We measure a transmission spectrum for KIC 12557548b using the SpeX spectrograph (covering 0.8 um to 2.4 um) simultaneously with the MORIS imager taking r' (0.63 um) photometry on the Infrared Telescope Facility for eight nights and one night in H band (1.63 um) using the Wide-Field IR Camera at the Palomar 200-inch telescope. The infrared spectra are plagued by systematic errors, but we argue that sufficient precision is obtained when using differential spectroscopic calibration when combining multiple nights. The average differential transmission spectrum is flat, supporting findings that KIC 12557548b's debris is likely composed of larger particles > ~0.5 um for pyroxene and olivine and > ~0.2 um for iron and corundum. The r' photometric transit depths are all below the average Kepler value, suggesting that the observations occurred during a weak period or that the mechanisms producing optical broadband transit depths are suppressed.

ApJ, accepted 14 pg, 14 figures

References in corpus (10)

• A disintegrating minor planet transiting a white dwarf
• Planet Hunters X. KIC 8462852 - Where's the Flux?
• The K2-ESPRINT Project. I. Discovery of the Disintegrating Rocky Planet K2-22b with a Cometary Head and Leading Tail
• Multiwavelength Observations of the Candidate Disintegrating sub-Mercury KIC 12557548b
• Evidence for the disintegration of KIC 12557548 b
• Near-infrared Thermal Emission Detections of a number of hot Jupiters and the Systematics of Ground-based Near-infrared Photometry
• Dusty tails of evaporating exoplanets. I. Constraints on the dust composition
• Direct evidence for an evolving dust cloud from the exoplanet KIC 12557548 b
• Characterization of the atmosphere of the hot Jupiter HAT-P-32Ab and the M-dwarf companion HAT-P-32B
• The Relation between the Transit Depths of KIC 12557548b & the Stellar Rotation Period

Cited by in corpus (13)

• Dusty tails of evaporating exoplanets. II. Physical modelling of the KIC 12557548b light curve
• Mysterious eclipses in the light-curve of KIC8462852: a possible explanation
• Inferring the Composition of Disintegrating Planet Interiors from Dust Tails with Future James Webb Space Telescope Observations
• Disintegrating Rocky Exoplanets
• A Large Ground-Based Observing Campaign of the Disintegrating Planet K2-22b
• Spectral Variability of Two Rapidly Rotating Brown Dwarfs: 2MASS J08354256-0819237 and 2MASS J18212815+1414010
• Search for gas from the disintegrating rocky exoplanet K2-22b
• Chromatic transit light curves of disintegrating rocky planets
• Back to "Normal" for the Disintegrating Planet Candidate KIC 12557548 b
• Light-curve analysis of KOI 2700b: the second extrasolar planet with a comet-like tail
• LBT Reveals Large Dust Particles and a High Mass Loss Rate for K2-22 b
• A Disintegrating Rocky World Shrouded in Dust and Gas: Mid-IR Observations of K2-22b using JWST
• Extrasolar enigmas: from disintegrating exoplanets to exoasteroids