Cloud Atlas: High-contrast Time-resolved Observations of Planetary-mass Companions

Directly imaged planetary-mass companions offer unique opportunities in atmospheric studies of exoplanets. They share characteristics of both brown dwarfs and transiting exoplanets, and therefore are critical for connecting atmospheric characterizations for these objects. Rotational phase mapping is...

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Veröffentlicht in:The Astronomical journal 2019-03, Vol.157 (3), p.128
Hauptverfasser: Zhou, Yifan, Apai, Dániel, Lew, Ben W. P., Schneider, Glenn, Manjavacas, Elena, Bedin, Luigi R., Cowan, Nicolas B., Marley, Mark S., Radigan, Jacqueline, Karalidi, Theodora, Lowrance, Patrick J., Miles-Páez, Paulo A., Metchev, Stanimir, Burgasser, Adam J.
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Sprache:eng
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Zusammenfassung:Directly imaged planetary-mass companions offer unique opportunities in atmospheric studies of exoplanets. They share characteristics of both brown dwarfs and transiting exoplanets, and therefore are critical for connecting atmospheric characterizations for these objects. Rotational phase mapping is a powerful technique to constrain the condensate cloud properties in ultra-cool atmospheres. Applying this technique to directly imaged planetary-mass companions will be extremely valuable for constraining cloud models in low mass and surface-gravity atmospheres and for determining the rotation rate and angular momentum of substellar companions. Here, we present Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera 3 near-infrared time-resolved photometry for three planetary-mass companions, AB Pic B, 2M0122B, and 2M1207b. Using two-roll differential imaging and hybrid point-spread function modeling, we achieve sub-percent photometric precision for all three observations. We find tentative modulations (
ISSN:0004-6256
1538-3881
1538-3881
DOI:10.3847/1538-3881/ab037f