2023MNRAS.521.5636A -
Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc., 521, 5636-5644 (2023/June-1)
LRG-BEASTS: evidence for clouds in the transmission spectrum of HATS-46 b.
AHRER E., WHEATLEY P.J., GANDHI S., KIRK J., KING G.W., LOUDEN T. and WELBANKS L.
Abstract (from CDS):
We have performed low-resolution ground-based spectroscopy of HATS-46 b in transmission, using the EFOSC2 instrument on the ESO New Technology Telescope (NTT). HATS-46 b is a highly inflated exoplanet that is a prime target for transmission spectroscopy, having a Jupiter-like radius (0.95 RJup) but a much lower mass (0.16 MJup). It orbits a G-type star with a 4.7 d period, giving an equilibrium temperature of 1100 K. We observed one transit of HATS-46 b with the NTT, with the time-series spectra covering a wavelength range of 3900-9000 Å at a resolution (R) of ∼380. We achieved a remarkably precise transmission spectrum of 1.03 × photon noise, with a median uncertainty of 357 ppm for ∼200 Å-wide bins, despite the relative faintness of the host star with Vmag = 13.6. The transmission spectrum does not show strong absorption features and retrievals favour a cloudy model, ruling out a clear atmosphere with 3.0σ confidence. We also place a conservative upper limit on the sodium abundance under the alternative scenario of a clear atmosphere. This is the eighth planet in the LRG-BEASTS (Low-Resolution Ground-Based Exoplanet Atmosphere Survey using Transmission Spectroscopy) survey, which uses 4 m-class telescopes such as the NTT to obtain low-resolution transmission spectra of hot Jupiters with precisions of around one atmospheric scale height.
Abstract Copyright:
© 2023 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: HATS-46 b
VizieR on-line data:
<Available at CDS (J/MNRAS/521/5636): lc.dat>
Simbad objects:
10
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