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arXiv 1309.7894astro-ph.EP
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系外行星大气中非均匀云的推断

Inference of Inhomogeneous Clouds in an Exoplanet Atmosphere

Brice-Olivier Demory, Julien de Wit, Nikole Lewis, Jonathan Fortney, Andras Zsom, Sara Seager, Heather Knutson, Kevin Heng, Nikku Madhusudhan, Michael Gillon, T… 展开作者

Brice-Olivier Demory, Julien de Wit, Nikole Lewis, Jonathan Fortney, Andras Zsom, Sara Seager, Heather Knutson, Kevin Heng, Nikku Madhusudhan, Michael Gillon, Thomas Barclay, Jean-Michel Desert, Vivien Parmentier, Nicolas B. Cowan

摘要:

我们对热木星开普勒-7b进行了新的可见光和红外观测,以确定其大气特性。我们的分析使我们能够1)改进开普勒-7b的相对较大的几何尺寸Ag=0.35+-0.02,2)对开普勒-7b的热发射设置上限,这在斯皮策带通中仍然未被检测到,3)报告开普勒光学相位曲线的西移。我们认为,开普勒-7 b的可见光通量不能是由于热发射或瑞利散射从H2分子。因此,我们得出结论,高海拔,光学反射云位于西从亚恒星点存在于其大气中。我们发现,硅酸盐为基础的云组成是一个可能的候选人。开普勒-7b具有几种特性,可能使其特别适合在高层大气中形成云。这些包括避免云冷阱的热深层大气,非常低的表面重力以抑制云沉降,以及允许硅酸盐云在开普勒探测的可见大气中潜在形成的行星平衡温度。我们的分析不仅提供了开普勒-7b上光学厚云的证据,而且还产生了系外行星大气中的第一张云图。

英文摘要:

We present new visible and infrared observations of the hot Jupiter Kepler-7b to determine its atmospheric properties. Our analysis allows us to 1) refine Kepler-7b's relatively large geometric albedo of Ag=0.35+-0.02, 2) place upper limits on Kepler-7b thermal emission that remains undetected in both Spitzer bandpasses and 3) report a westward shift in the Kepler optical phase curve. We argue that Kepler-7b's visible flux cannot be due to thermal emission or Rayleigh scattering from H2 molecules. We therefore conclude that high altitude, optically reflective clouds located west from the substellar point are present in its atmosphere. We find that a silicate-based cloud composition is a possible candidate. Kepler-7b exhibits several properties that may make it particularly amenable to cloud formation in its upper atmosphere. These include a hot deep atmosphere that avoids a cloud cold trap, very low surface gravity to suppress cloud sedimentation, and a planetary equilibrium temperature in a range that allows for silicate clouds to potentially form in the visible atmosphere probed by Kepler. Our analysis does not only present evidence of optically thick clouds on Kepler-7b but also yields the first map of clouds in an exoplanet atmosphere.

机构、总结、中文摘要均由AI分析而来,可能存在错误,请以论文正文为准。

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