The spectroastrometric detectability of nearby Solar System-like exomoons

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: van Woerkom, Quirijn B., Kleisioti, Evangelia
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2024
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author van Woerkom, Quirijn B.
Kleisioti, Evangelia
author_facet van Woerkom, Quirijn B.
Kleisioti, Evangelia
contents Though efforts to detect them have been made with a variety of methods, no technique can claim a successful, confirmed detection of a moon outside the Solar System yet. Moon detection methods are restricted in capability to detecting moons of masses beyond what formation models would suggest, or they require surface temperatures exceeding what tidal heating simulations allow. We expand upon spectroastrometry, a method that makes use of the variation of the centre of light with wavelength as the result of an unresolved companion, which has previously been shown to be capable of detecting Earth-analogue moons around nearby exo-Jupiters, with the aim to place bounds on the types of moons detectable using this method. We derived a general, analytic expression for the spectroastrometric signal of a moon in any closed Keplerian orbit, as well as a new set of estimates on the noise due to photon noise, pointing inaccuracies, background and instrument noise, and a pixelated detector. This framework was consequently used to derive bounds on the temperature required for Solar System-like moons to be observable around super-Jupiters in nearby systems, with $ε$ Indi Ab as an archetype. We show that such a detection is possible with the ELT for Solar System-like moons of moderate temperatures (150-300 K) in line with existing literature on tidal heating, and that the detection of large (Mars-sized or greater) icy moons of temperatures such as those observed in our Solar System in the very nearest systems may be feasible.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2402_07517
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The spectroastrometric detectability of nearby Solar System-like exomoons
van Woerkom, Quirijn B.
Kleisioti, Evangelia
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Though efforts to detect them have been made with a variety of methods, no technique can claim a successful, confirmed detection of a moon outside the Solar System yet. Moon detection methods are restricted in capability to detecting moons of masses beyond what formation models would suggest, or they require surface temperatures exceeding what tidal heating simulations allow. We expand upon spectroastrometry, a method that makes use of the variation of the centre of light with wavelength as the result of an unresolved companion, which has previously been shown to be capable of detecting Earth-analogue moons around nearby exo-Jupiters, with the aim to place bounds on the types of moons detectable using this method. We derived a general, analytic expression for the spectroastrometric signal of a moon in any closed Keplerian orbit, as well as a new set of estimates on the noise due to photon noise, pointing inaccuracies, background and instrument noise, and a pixelated detector. This framework was consequently used to derive bounds on the temperature required for Solar System-like moons to be observable around super-Jupiters in nearby systems, with $ε$ Indi Ab as an archetype. We show that such a detection is possible with the ELT for Solar System-like moons of moderate temperatures (150-300 K) in line with existing literature on tidal heating, and that the detection of large (Mars-sized or greater) icy moons of temperatures such as those observed in our Solar System in the very nearest systems may be feasible.
title The spectroastrometric detectability of nearby Solar System-like exomoons
topic Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.07517