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Ground-based near-UV observations of 15 transiting exoplanets: constraints on their atmospheres and no evidence for asymmetrical transits

2016; Oxford University Press; Volume: 459; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1093/mnras/stw574

1365-2966

Jake D. Turner, Kyle A. Pearson, Lauren I. Biddle, B. M. Smart, Robert T. Zellem, Johanna Teske, Kevin K. Hardegree-Ullman, Caitlin Griffith, Robin M. Leiter, I. Cates, Megan Nieberding, Carter-Thaxton W. Smith, Robert M. Thompson, R. Hofmann, M. Berube, Chi H. Nguyen, L. Small, B. Guvenen, L. J. Richardson, A. M. McGraw, B. A. Raphael, Benjamin E. Crawford, Amy Robertson, R. Tombleson, Timothy Carleton, A. P. M. Towner, A. Walker-LaFollette, J. Hume, Zachary Watson, Christen K. Jones, Matthew J. Lichtenberger, Shelby R. Hoglund, Kendall L. Cook, Cory A. Crossen, Curtis R. Jorgensen, James Romine, Alejandro R. Thompson, Christian F. Villegas, Ashley A. Wilson, B. Sanford, Joanna M. Taylor, Triana N. Henz,

Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies

Transits of exoplanets observed in the near-UV have been used to study the scattering properties of their atmospheres and possible star–planet interactions. We observed the primary transits of 15 exoplanets (CoRoT-1b, GJ436b, HAT-P-1b, HAT-P-13b, HAT-P-16b, HAT-P-22b, TrES-2b, TrES-4b, WASP-1b, WASP-12b, WASP-33b, WASP-36b, WASP-44b, WASP-48b, and WASP-77Ab) in the near-UV and several optical photometric bands to update their planetary parameters, ephemerides, search for a wavelength dependence in their transit depths to constrain their atmospheres, and determine if asymmetries are visible in their light curves. Here, we present the first ground-based near-UV light curves for 12 of the targets (CoRoT-1b, GJ436b, HAT-P-1b, HAT-P-13b, HAT-P-22b, TrES-2b, TrES-4b, WASP-1b, WASP-33b, WASP-36b, WASP-48b, and WASP-77Ab). We find that none of the near-UV transits exhibit any non-spherical asymmetries, this result is consistent with recent theoretical predictions by Ben-Jaffel et al. and Turner et al. The multiwavelength photometry indicates a constant transit depth from near-UV to optical wavelengths in 10 targets (suggestive of clouds), and a varying transit depth with wavelength in 5 targets (hinting at Rayleigh or aerosol scattering in their atmospheres). We also present the first detection of a smaller near-UV transit depth than that measured in the optical in WASP-1b and a possible opacity source that can cause such radius variations is currently unknown. WASP-36b also exhibits a smaller near-UV transit depth at 2.6σ. Further observations are encouraged to confirm the transit depth variations seen in this study.