Detection of an Extrasolar Planet Atmosphere
Open accessAbstract
We report high-precision spectrophotometric observations of four planetary transits of HD 209458, in the region of the sodium resonance doublet at 589.3 nm. We find that the photometric dimming during transit in a bandpass centered on the sodium feature is deeper by (2.32 ± 0.57) × 10 -4 relative to simultaneous observations of the transit in adjacent bands. We interpret this additional dimming as absorption from sodium in the planetary atmosphere, as recently predicted from several theoretical modeling efforts. Our model for a cloudless planetary atmosphere with a solar abundance of sodium in atomic form predicts more sodium absorption than we observe. There are several possibilities that may account for this reduced amplitude, including reaction of atomic sodium into molecular gases and/or condensates, photoionization of sodium by the stellar flux, a low primordial abundance of sodium, and the presence of clouds high in the atmosphere.
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Transit spectroscopy has been used to identify sodium and water in the atmosphere of extrasolar gas giants.
“This technique has been used to identify sodium and water in the atmosphere of extrasolar gas giants (Charbonneau et al., 2002; Kreidberg et al., 2014b).”
From The Astrobiology Primer v2.0 (2016) · cites this paper as Charbonneau et al., 2002
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Detection of Planetary Transits Across a Sun-like Star
Charbonneau, D., Brown, T. M., Latham, D. W., & Mayor, M. (2000) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.1086/312457 · Cited by 1,415 · see citing works
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An extended upper atmosphere around the extrasolar planet HD209458b
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Guillot, T. (2005) · Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences · doi:10.1146/annurev.earth.32.101802.120325 · Cited by 524 · see citing works
WASP-1b and WASP-2b: two new transiting exoplanets detected with SuperWASP and SOPHIE
Cameron, A. C., Bouchy, F., Hebrard, G., Maxted, P., Pollacco, D., Pont, F., Skillen, I., Smalley, B., Street, R. A., West, R. G., et al. (2007) · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2006.11350.x · Cited by 292 · see citing works
Spectral Evolution of an Earth‐like Planet
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WASP-17b: AN ULTRA-LOW DENSITY PLANET IN A PROBABLE RETROGRADE ORBIT
Anderson, D. R., Hellier, C., Gillon, M., Triaud, A. H. M. J., Smalley, B., Hebb, L., Cameron, A. C., Maxted, P. F. L., Queloz, D., West, R. G., et al. (2010) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.1088/0004-637x/709/1/159 · Cited by 208 · see citing works
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“This technique has been used to identify sodium and water in the atmosphere of extrasolar gas giants (Charbonneau et al., 2002; Kreidberg et al., 2014b).”
Transit Detectability of Ring Systems around Extrasolar Giant Planets
Barnes, J. W., & Fortney, J. J. (2004) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.1086/425067 · Cited by 132 · see citing works
On Detecting Biospheres from Chemical Thermodynamic Disequilibrium in Planetary Atmospheres
Krissansen-Totton, J., Bergsman, D. S., & Catling, D. C. (2016) · Astrobiology · doi:10.1089/ast.2015.1327 · Cited by 132 · see citing works
A search for transiting planets in the <i>β</i> Pictoris system
Mol Lous, M., Weenk, E., Kenworthy, M. A., Zwintz, K., & Kuschnig, R. (2018) · Astronomy & Astrophysics · doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201731941 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
- Authors
- Charbonneau, D., Brown, T. M., Noyes, R. W., & Gilliland, R. L.
- Affiliations
- California Institute of Technology (US)
- NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research (US)
- Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian (US)
- Space Telescope Science Institute (US)
- Venue
- The Astrophysical Journal
- Publisher
- American Astronomical Society
- Published
- 2002-03-20
- Volume
- 568
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 377-384
- ISSN
- 0004-637X (ISSN-L)
- 1538-4357
- OpenAlex
- W2096390283
- Cited by
- 1,346
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 27 · 2025: 31 · 2024: 57 · 2023: 61 · 2022: 55 · 2021: 55 · 2020: 100 · 2019: 57 · 2018: 76 · 2017: 70 · 2016: 65 · 2015: 64 · 2014: 60 · 2013: 57 · 2012: 54
- FWCI
- 29.17
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- The Astrophysical Journal (publishedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
- Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard (DASH) (Harvard University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- CERN Document Server (European Organization for Nuclear Research) (submittedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation (NAS 5-26555)
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NAG510854, NAS 526555, 526555)
- Space Telescope Science Institute (NAS5- 26555, 5-26555, 26555)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Instrumentation › Astronomy and Astrophysical Research
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Astro and Planetary Science
- Keywords
- HD 209458, exoplanet atmospheres, sodium uptake, planetary transits, transit photometry, photoionization
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