HST/WFC3 transit observation of GJ1214b

DOI

Capitalizing on the observational advantage offered by its tiny M dwarf host, we present Hubble Space Telescope/Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) grism measurements of the transmission spectrum of the super-Earth exoplanet GJ1214b. These are the first published WFC3 observations of a transiting exoplanet atmosphere. After correcting for a ramp-like instrumental systematic, we achieve nearly photon-limited precision in these observations, finding the transmission spectrum of GJ1214b to be flat between 1.1 and 1.7{mu}m. Inconsistent with a cloud-free solar composition atmosphere at 8.2{sigma}, the measured achromatic transit depth most likely implies a large mean molecular weight for GJ1214b's outer envelope. A dense atmosphere rules out bulk compositions for GJ1214b that explain its large radius by the presence of a very low density gas layer surrounding the planet. High-altitude clouds can alternatively explain the flat transmission spectrum, but they would need to be optically thick up to 10 mbar or consist of particles with a range of sizes approaching 1 {mu}m in diameter.

Identifier
DOI http://doi.org/10.26093/cds/vizier.17470035
Source https://dc.g-vo.org/rr/q/lp/custom/CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/747/35
Related Identifier https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/ApJ/747/35
Related Identifier http://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/ApJ/747/35
Metadata Access http://dc.g-vo.org/rr/q/pmh/pubreg.xml?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=oai_b2find&identifier=ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/747/35
Provenance
Creator Berta Z.K.; Charbonneau D.; Desert J.-M.; Miller-Ricci Kempton E.,McCullough P.R.; Burke C.J.; Fortney J.J.; Irwin J.; Nutzman P.; Homeier D.
Publisher CDS
Publication Year 2013
Rights https://cds.unistra.fr/vizier-org/licences_vizier.html
OpenAccess true
Contact CDS support team <cds-question(at)unistra.fr>
Representation
Resource Type Dataset; AstroObjects
Discipline Astrophysics and Astronomy; Natural Sciences; Observational Astronomy; Physics; Solar System Astronomy; Stellar Astronomy