The First Near-infrared Transmission Spectrum of HIP 41378 f, A Low-mass Temperate Jovian World in a Multiplanet System
Name
Alam_2022_ApJL_927_L5.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
887.08 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
6a70257ab0816954819359676e922a4b
Author(s) • • • • • • • • •
Alam, Munazza K
Kirk, James
Dressing, Courtney D
López-Morales, Mercedes
Ohno, Kazumasa
Gao, Peter
Akinsanmi, Babatunde
Santerne, Alexandre
Grouffal, Salomé
Adibekyan, Vardan
Date Issued
March 1, 2022
Journal
The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Publisher
American Astronomical Society
Citation
Alam, Munazza K, Kirk, James, Dressing, Courtney D, López-Morales, Mercedes, Ohno, Kazumasa et al. 2022. "The First Near-infrared Transmission Spectrum of HIP 41378 f, A Low-mass Temperate Jovian World in a Multiplanet System." The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 927 (1).
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Abstract
We present a near-infrared transmission spectrum of the long-period (P = 542 days), temperate (T eq = 294 K) giant planet HIP 41378 f obtained with the Wide-Field Camera 3 instrument aboard the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). With a measured mass of 12 ± 3 M ⊕ and a radius of 9.2 ± 0.1 R ⊕, HIP 41378 f has an extremely low bulk density (0.09 ± 0.02 g cm−3). We measure the transit depth with a median precision of 84 ppm in 30 spectrophotometric channels with uniformly sized widths of 0.018 μm. Within this level of precision, the spectrum shows no evidence of absorption from gaseous molecular features between 1.1 and 1.7 μm. Comparing the observed transmission spectrum to a suite of 1D radiative-convective-thermochemical-equilibrium forward models, we rule out clear, low-metallicity atmospheres and find that the data prefer high-metallicity atmospheres or models with an additional opacity source, such as high-altitude hazes and/or circumplanetary rings. We explore the ringed scenario for HIP 41378 f further by jointly fitting the K2 and HST light curves to constrain the properties of putative rings. We also assess the possibility of distinguishing between hazy, ringed, and high-metallicity scenarios at longer wavelengths with the James Webb Space Telescope. HIP 41378 f provides a rare opportunity to probe the atmospheric composition of a cool giant planet spanning the gap in temperature, orbital separation, and stellar irradiation between the solar system giants, directly imaged planets, and the highly irradiated hot Jupiters traditionally studied via transit spectroscopy.
We present a near-infrared transmission spectrum of the long-period (P = 542 days), temperate (T eq = 294 K) giant planet HIP 41378 f obtained with the Wide-Field Camera 3 instrument aboard the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). With a measured mass of 12 ± 3 M ⊕ and a radius of 9.2 ± 0.1 R ⊕, HIP 41378 f has an extremely low bulk density (0.09 ± 0.02 g cm−3). We measure the transit depth with a median precision of 84 ppm in 30 spectrophotometric channels with uniformly sized widths of 0.018 μm. Within this level of precision, the spectrum shows no evidence of absorption from gaseous molecular features between 1.1 and 1.7 μm. Comparing the observed transmission spectrum to a suite of 1D radiative-convective-thermochemical-equilibrium forward models, we rule out clear, low-metallicity atmospheres and find that the data prefer high-metallicity atmospheres or models with an additional opacity source, such as high-altitude hazes and/or circumplanetary rings. We explore the ringed scenario for HIP 41378 f further by jointly fitting the K2 and HST light curves to constrain the properties of putative rings. We also assess the possibility of distinguishing between hazy, ringed, and high-metallicity scenarios at longer wavelengths with the James Webb Space Telescope. HIP 41378 f provides a rare opportunity to probe the atmospheric composition of a cool giant planet spanning the gap in temperature, orbital separation, and stellar irradiation between the solar system giants, directly imaged planets, and the highly irradiated hot Jupiters traditionally studied via transit spectroscopy.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ac559d