2022MNRAS.510.4857A -
Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc., 510, 4857-4871 (2022/March-2)
LRG-BEASTS: Sodium absorption and Rayleigh scattering in the atmosphere of WASP-94A b using NTT/EFOSC2.
AHRER E., WHEATLEY P.J., KIRK J., GANDHI S., KING G.W. and LOUDEN T.
Abstract (from CDS):
We present an optical transmission spectrum for WASP-94A b, the first atmospheric characterization of this highly-inflated hot Jupiter. The planet has a reported radius of 1.72+0.06–0.05 RJup, a mass of only 0.456+0.032–0.036 MJup, and an equilibrium temperature of 1508 ± 75 K. We observed the planet transit spectroscopically with the EFOSC2 instrument on the ESO New Technology Telescope (NTT) at La Silla, Chile: the first use of NTT/EFOSC2 for transmission spectroscopy. We achieved an average transit-depth precision of 128 ppm for bin widths of ∼200 Å. This high precision was achieved in part by linking Gaussian Process hyperparameters across all wavelength bins. The resulting transmission spectrum, spanning a wavelength range of 3800-7140 Å, exhibits a sodium absorption with a significance of 4.9σ, suggesting a relatively cloud-free atmosphere. The sodium signal may be broadened, with a best-fitting width of 78–32+67 Å in contrast to the instrumental resolution of 27.2 ± 0.2 Å. We also detect a steep slope in the blue end of the transmission spectrum, indicating the presence of Rayleigh scattering in the atmosphere of WASP-94A b. Retrieval models show evidence for the observed slope to be super-Rayleigh and potential causes are discussed. Finally, we find narrow absorption cores in the CaII H&K lines of WASP-94A, suggesting the star is enshrouded in gas escaping the hot Jupiter.
Abstract Copyright:
© 2022 The Author(s) Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Astronomical Society
Journal keyword(s):
methods: observational - techniques: spectroscopic - planets and satellites: atmospheres - planets and satellites: individual: WASP-94A b
VizieR on-line data:
<Available at CDS (J/MNRAS/510/4857): lc.dat>
Simbad objects:
19
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