4.6 Article

Detecting H2O with CRIRES+: WASP-20b

Journal

ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS
Volume 667, Issue -, Pages -

Publisher

EDP SCIENCES S A
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/202244383

Keywords

planets and satellites: atmospheres; planets and satellites: individual: WASP-20b; techniques: spectroscopic; methods: data analysis

Funding

  1. European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union [724427]
  2. project FOUR ACES [200021_200726]
  3. Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF)
  4. SNSF [ST/T000406/1]
  5. UK Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) [ANR-20-CE49-0009: SOUND]
  6. french state: CNES, Programme National de Planetologie (PNP)
  7. ANR
  8. [679030/WHIPLASH]
  9. Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR) [ANR-20-CE49-0009] Funding Source: Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR)

Ask authors/readers for more resources

This study analyzed the transmission spectra of the hot Saturn WASP-20b using the upgraded CRIRES+ spectrograph. The aim was to detect the signatures of H2O and CO in the atmosphere. The results tentatively detected molecular absorption from water vapor with signal-to-noise ratios of 4.2 and 4.7 using 1D and 3D models, respectively. The findings agree with the expected results in the literature.
Context. Infrared spectroscopy over a wide spectral range and at the highest resolving powers (R > 70 000) has proved to be one of the leading techniques to unveil the atmospheric composition of dozens of exoplanets. The recently upgraded spectrograph CRIRES instrument at the Very Large Telescope (CRIRES+) was operative for a first science verification in September 2021, and its new capabilities in atmospheric characterization were ready to be tested. Aims. We analyzed transmission spectra of the hot Saturn WASP-20b in the K band (1981-2394 nm) that were acquired with CRIRES+ with the aim to detect the signature of H2O and CO. Methods. We used a principal component analysis to remove dominant time-dependent contaminating sources such as telluric bands and the stellar spectrum. We extracted the planet spectrum by cross-correlating observations with 1D and 3D synthetic spectra, without circulation. Results. We present the tentative detection of molecular absorption from water vapor at a signal-to-noise ratio equal to 4.2 and 4.7 by using only H2O 1D and 3D models, respectively. The peak of the cross-correlation function occurred at the same rest-frame velocity for both model types (V-rest = -1 +/- 1 km s(-1) ) and at the same projected orbital velocity of the planet, but with different error bands (1D model: K-p = 131 (+18)(-29) k ms(-1); 3D: K-p = 131 (+23)(-39) km s(-1)). Our results agree with the result expected in the literature (132.9 +/- 2.7 km(-1)). Conclusions. Although the observational conditions were not ideal and we had problems with the pipeline in calibrating and reducing our raw data set, we obtained the first tentative detection of water in the atmosphere of WASP-20b. We suggest a deeper analysis and additional observations to confirm our results and unveil the presence of CO.

Authors

I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.

Reviews

Primary Rating

4.6
Not enough ratings

Secondary Ratings

Novelty
-
Significance
-
Scientific rigor
-
Rate this paper

Recommended

No Data Available
No Data Available