Journal
MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
Volume 446, Issue 1, Pages 1071-1082Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stu2149
Keywords
methods: data analysis; methods: observational; techniques: spectroscopic; planets and satellites: atmospheres; planets and satellites: individual: WASP-12b, HD 189733b, HD 209458b
Categories
Funding
- Northern Ireland Department of Employment and learning
- STFC [ST/L000709/1]
- Ramon y Cajal fellowship [RYC-2010-05762]
- Spanish MINECO [AYA2012-38700]
- STFC [ST/L000709/1, ST/K006126/1, ST/M001970/1, ST/K005758/1, ST/L000733/1, ST/M002012/1, ST/J000027/1, ST/J001589/1, ST/H008527/1, ST/M003515/1, ST/I001719/1] Funding Source: UKRI
- Science and Technology Facilities Council [ST/L000733/1, ST/J001589/1, ST/J000027/1, ST/M003515/1, ST/I001719/1, ST/M001970/1, ST/M002012/1, ST/K006126/1, ST/L000709/1, ST/H008527/1] Funding Source: researchfish
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We report on a pilot study of a novel observing technique, defocused transmission spectroscopy, and its application to the study of exoplanet atmospheres using ground-based platforms. Similar to defocused photometry, defocused transmission spectroscopy has an added advantage over normal spectroscopy in that it reduces systematic errors due to flat-fielding, point spread function variations, slit-jaw imperfections and other effects associated with ground-based observations. For one of the planetary systems studied, WASP-12b, we report a tentative detection of additional Na absorption of 0.12 +/- 0.03[+0.03] per cent during transit using a 2 angstrom wavelength mask. After consideration of a systematic that occurs mid-transit, it is likely that the true depth is actually closer to 0.15 per cent. This is a similar level of absorption reported in the atmosphere of HD 209458b (0.135 +/- 0.017 per cent; Snellen et al. 2008). Finally, we outline methods that will improve the technique during future observations, based on our findings from this pilot study.
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