Water, Methane, and Carbon Dioxide Present in the Dayside Spectrum of the Exoplanet HD 209458b
- Author(s)
- Mark Swain, Giovanna Tinetti, Rainer Kuschnig
- Abstract
Using the NICMOS instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope, we have measured the dayside spectrum of HD 209458b between 1.5 and 2.5 ?m. The emergent spectrum is dominated by features due to the presence of methane (CH4) and water vapor (H2O), with smaller contributions from carbon dioxide (CO2). Combining this near-infrared spectrum with existing mid-infrared measurements shows the existence of a temperature inversion and confirms the interpretation of previous photometry measurements. We find a family of plausible solutions for the molecular abundance and detailed temperature profile. Observationally resolving the ambiguity between abundance and temperature requires either (1) improved wavelength coverage or spectral resolution of the dayside emission spectrum or (2) a transmission spectrum where abundance determinations are less sensitive to the temperature structure.
- Organisation(s)
- Department of Astrophysics
- External organisation(s)
- California Institute of Technology (Caltech), University College London
- Journal
- The Astrophysical Journal: an international review of astronomy and astronomical physics
- Volume
- 704
- Pages
- 1616-1621
- No. of pages
- 6
- ISSN
- 0004-637X
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/704/2/1616
- Publication date
- 2009
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 103003 Astronomy
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/dc993072-fc0b-4770-b78b-42d2b7a49a21