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Published March 10, 2014 | Submitted + Published
Journal Article Open

A Systematic Retrieval Analysis of Secondary Eclipse Spectra. II. A Uniform Analysis of Nine Planets and their C to O Ratios

Abstract

Secondary eclipse spectroscopy provides invaluable insights into the temperatures and compositions of exoplanetary atmospheres. We carry out a systematic temperature and abundance retrieval analysis of nine exoplanets (HD 189733b, HD 209458b, HD 149026b, GJ436b, WASP-12b, WASP-19b, WASP-43b, TrES-2b, and TrES-3b) observed in secondary eclipse using a combination of space- and ground-based facilities. Our goal with this analysis is to provide a consistent set of temperatures and compositions from which self-consistent models can be compared and to probe the underlying processes that shape these atmospheres. This paper is the second in a three part series of papers exploring the retrievability of temperatures and abundances from secondary eclipse spectra and the implications of these results for the chemistry of exoplanet atmospheres. In this investigation we present a catalogue of temperatures and abundances for H_2O, CH_4, CO, and CO_2. We find that our temperatures and abundances are generally consistent with those of previous studies, although we do not find any statistically convincing evidence for super-solar C to O ratios (e.g., solar C/O falls in the 1σ confidence intervals in eight of the nine planets in our sample). Furthermore, within our sample we find little evidence for thermal inversions over a wide range of effective temperatures (with the exception of HD 209458b), consistent with previous investigations. The lack of evidence for inversions for most planets in our sample over such a wide range of effective temperatures provides additional support for the hypothesis that TiO is unlikely to be the absorber responsible for the formation of these inversions.

Additional Information

© 2014 American Astronomical Society. Received 2013 September 26; accepted 2014 January 21; published 2014 February 14. We thank Jonathan Fortney, Rob Zellum, Xi Zhang, Nikku Madahusudhan, Caroline Morely, and Jonathan Frain for insightful conversations. This research was supported in part by an NAI Virtual Planetary Laboratory grant from the University of Washington to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and California Institute of Technology.

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Published - 0004-637X_783_2_70.pdf

Submitted - 1309.6663.pdf

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