Near-IR Direct Detection of Water Vapor in Tau Boötis b
Abstract
We use high dynamic range, high-resolution L-band spectroscopy to measure the radial velocity (RV) variations of the hot Jupiter in the τ Boötis planetary system. The detection of an exoplanet by the shift in the stellar spectrum alone provides a measure of the planet's minimum mass, with the true mass degenerate with the unknown orbital inclination. Treating the τ Boo system as a high flux ratio double-lined spectroscopic binary permits the direct measurement of the planet's true mass as well as its atmospheric properties. After removing telluric absorption and cross-correlating with a model planetary spectrum dominated by water opacity, we measure a 6σ detection of the planet at K_p = 111 ± 5 km s^(−1), with a 1σ upper limit on the spectroscopic flux ratio of 10^(−4). This RV leads to a planetary orbital inclination of i=45^(+3)_(-4)° and a mass of M_p = 5.90^(+0.35)_(-0.20)M_Jup. We report the first detection of water vapor in the atmosphere of a non-transiting hot Jupiter, τ Boo b.
Additional Information
© 2014 American Astronomical Society. Received 2013 October 15; accepted 2014 February 3; published 2014 February 24. The W. M. Keck Observatory is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California and NASA, and was made possible by the financial support of the W. M. Keck Foundation. A.C.L. and G.A.B. gratefully acknowledge support from the NSF GRFP and AAG programs, JAJ the generous grants from the David and Lucile Packard and Alfred P. Sloan Foundations, and C.F.B. support from the Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds, which is supported by the Pennsylvania State University, the Eberly College of Science, and the Pennsylvania Space Grant Consortium. Basic research in infrared astronomy at the Naval Research Laboratory is supported by 6.1 base funding. We thank Jacques Sauval for kindly providing a copy of his solar linelist. Finally, the authors wish to acknowledge the significant cultural role of the summit of Mauna Kea.Attached Files
Published - 2041-8205_783_2_L29.pdf
Submitted - 1402.0846v1.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 45267
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20140429-083510877
- NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
- David and Lucile Packard Foundation
- Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
- Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds
- Created
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2014-04-29Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-10Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences