2020AJ....160..100Y

We observed the 2019 January total lunar eclipse with the Hubble Space Telescope's STIS spectrograph to obtain the first near-UV (1700-3200 Å) observation of Earth as a transiting exoplanet. The observatories and instruments that will be able to perform transmission spectroscopy of exo-Earths are beginning to be planned, and characterizing the transmission spectrum of Earth is vital to ensuring that key spectral features (e.g., ozone, or O₃) are appropriately captured in mission concept studies. O₃ is photochemically produced from O₂, a product of the dominant metabolism on Earth today, and it will be sought in future observations as critical evidence for life on exoplanets. Ground-based observations of lunar eclipses have provided the Earth's transmission spectrum at optical and near-IR wavelengths, but the strongest O₃ signatures are in the near-UV. We describe the observations and methods used to extract a transmission spectrum from Hubble lunar eclipse spectra, and identify spectral features of O₃ and Rayleigh scattering in the 3000-5500 Å region in Earth's transmission spectrum by comparing to Earth models that include refraction effects in the terrestrial atmosphere during a lunar eclipse. Our near-UV spectra are featureless, a consequence of missing the narrow time span during the eclipse when near-UV sunlight is not completely attenuated through Earth's atmosphere due to extremely strong O₃ absorption and when sunlight is transmitted to the lunar surface at altitudes where it passes through the O₃ layer rather than above it.