English

Hot Rocks Survey IV: Emission from LTT 3780 b is consistent with a bare rock

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics 2025-08-21 v1

Abstract

It is an open question whether small planets around M dwarfs are able to maintain atmospheres. The Hot Rocks Survey aims to address this question by observing 9 rocky exoplanets orbiting M dwarfs with MIRI emission photometry to constrain the onset of atmospheres. In this paper, we present two MIRI F1500W (15μ\mum) eclipses of LTT 3780 b, an ultra-short period super-Earth (P=0.768P=0.768 d, R=1.325RR=1.325 \,R_\oplus, M=2.46MM = 2.46\,M_\oplus) that receives 111x Earth's instellation, the highest in the survey. We find a combined eclipse depth of 312±38312\pm38 ppm, which is consistent between different data reduction and analysis assumptions, bolstering our confidence in the eclipse detection. This eclipse depth is consistent with the thermal emission from a bare rock surface, with a dayside temperature of Td=114399+104T_d=1143^{+104}_{-99} K, 98±998\pm9 % of the maximum temperature predicted for a zero albedo, zero heat redistribution blackbody. We are able to confidently rule out CO2_2-based atmospheres down to 0.01 bar surface pressure to greater than 3σ\sigma (ruling out an approximately Mars-like atmosphere). We are unable to rule out a pure H2_2O 1 bar atmosphere, though we argue that this composition is unlikely on such a highly irradiated planet, nor O2_2 atmospheres due to the lack of features in the bandpass, though we can put constraints on CO2_2-mixture atmospheres. As a potential bare rock, we consider a variety of surface composition models, but are unable to distinguish between them. However, LTT 3780 b is an excellent target for follow-up JWST observations to determine its surface composition and rule out additional atmospheric compositions.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2508.14210,
  title  = {Hot Rocks Survey IV: Emission from LTT 3780 b is consistent with a bare rock},
  author = {Natalie H. Allen and Néstor Espinoza and Hannah Diamond-Lowe and João M. Mendonça and Brice-Olivier Demory and Amélie Gressier and Jegug Ih and Mark Fortune and Prune C. August and Måns Holmberg and Erik Meier Valdés and Merlin Zgraggen and Lars A. Buchhave and Adam J. Burgasser and Chloe Fisher and Neale P. Gibson and Kevin Heng and Jens Hoeijmakers and Daniel Kitzmann and Bibiana Prinoth and Alexander D. Rathcke and Brett M. Morris},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2508.14210},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

16 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in AJ