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Hauptverfasser: Levine, W. Garrett, Vissapragada, Shreyas, Feinstein, Adina D., King, George W., Hernandez, Aleck, Corrales, Lia, Greklek-McKeon, Michael, Knutson, Heather A.
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2024
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Online-Zugang:https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.19177
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author Levine, W. Garrett
Vissapragada, Shreyas
Feinstein, Adina D.
King, George W.
Hernandez, Aleck
Corrales, Lia
Greklek-McKeon, Michael
Knutson, Heather A.
author_facet Levine, W. Garrett
Vissapragada, Shreyas
Feinstein, Adina D.
King, George W.
Hernandez, Aleck
Corrales, Lia
Greklek-McKeon, Michael
Knutson, Heather A.
contents Aeronomy, the study of Earth's upper atmosphere and its interaction with the local space environment, has long traced changes in the thermospheres of Earth and other solar system planets to solar variability in the X-ray and extreme ultraviolet (collectively, "XUV") bands. Extending comparative aeronomy to the short-period extrasolar planets may illuminate whether stellar XUV irradiation powers atmospheric outflows that change planetary radii on astronomical timescales. In recent years, near-infrared transit spectroscopy of metastable HeI has been a prolific tracer of high-altitude planetary gas. We present a case study of exoplanet aeronomy using metastable HeI transit observations from Palomar/WIRC and follow-up high-energy data from the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory that were taken within one month of the WASP-69 system, a K-type main sequence star with a well-studied hot Jupiter companion. Supplemented by archival data, we find that WASP-69's X-ray flux in 2023 was less than 50% of what was recorded in 2016 and that the metastable HeI absorption from WASP-69b was lower in 2023 versus past epochs from 2017-2019. Via atmospheric modeling, we show that this time-variable metastable HeI signal is in the expected direction given the observed change in stellar XUV, possibly stemming from WASP-69's magnetic activity cycle. Our results underscore the ability of multi-epoch, multi-wavelength observations to paint a cohesive picture of the interaction between an exoplanet's atmosphere and its host star.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2405_19177
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Exoplanet Aeronomy: A Case Study of WASP-69b's Variable Thermosphere
Levine, W. Garrett
Vissapragada, Shreyas
Feinstein, Adina D.
King, George W.
Hernandez, Aleck
Corrales, Lia
Greklek-McKeon, Michael
Knutson, Heather A.
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Aeronomy, the study of Earth's upper atmosphere and its interaction with the local space environment, has long traced changes in the thermospheres of Earth and other solar system planets to solar variability in the X-ray and extreme ultraviolet (collectively, "XUV") bands. Extending comparative aeronomy to the short-period extrasolar planets may illuminate whether stellar XUV irradiation powers atmospheric outflows that change planetary radii on astronomical timescales. In recent years, near-infrared transit spectroscopy of metastable HeI has been a prolific tracer of high-altitude planetary gas. We present a case study of exoplanet aeronomy using metastable HeI transit observations from Palomar/WIRC and follow-up high-energy data from the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory that were taken within one month of the WASP-69 system, a K-type main sequence star with a well-studied hot Jupiter companion. Supplemented by archival data, we find that WASP-69's X-ray flux in 2023 was less than 50% of what was recorded in 2016 and that the metastable HeI absorption from WASP-69b was lower in 2023 versus past epochs from 2017-2019. Via atmospheric modeling, we show that this time-variable metastable HeI signal is in the expected direction given the observed change in stellar XUV, possibly stemming from WASP-69's magnetic activity cycle. Our results underscore the ability of multi-epoch, multi-wavelength observations to paint a cohesive picture of the interaction between an exoplanet's atmosphere and its host star.
title Exoplanet Aeronomy: A Case Study of WASP-69b's Variable Thermosphere
topic Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.19177