Transiting Exoplanet Studies and Community Targets for JWST's Early Release Science Program
Abstract
The James Webb Space Telescope will revolutionize transiting exoplanet atmospheric science due to its capability for continuous, long-duration observations and its larger collecting area, spectral coverage, and spectral resolution compared to existing space-based facilities. However, it is unclear precisely how well JWST will perform and which of its myriad instruments and observing modes will be best suited for transiting exoplanet studies. In this article, we describe a prefatory JWST Early Release Science (ERS) program that focuses on testing specific observing modes to quickly give the community the data and experience it needs to plan more efficient and successful future transiting exoplanet characterization programs. We propose a multi-pronged approach wherein one aspect of the program focuses on observing transits of a single target with all of the recommended observing modes to identify and understand potential systematics, compare transmission spectra at overlapping and neighboring wavelength regions, confirm throughputs, and determine overall performances. In our search for transiting exoplanets that are well suited to achieving these goals, we identify 12 objects (dubbed "community targets") that meet our defined criteria. Currently, the most favorable target is WASP-62b because of its large predicted signal size, relatively bright host star, and location in JWST's continuous viewing zone. Since most of the community targets do not have well-characterized atmospheres, we recommend initiating preparatory observing programs to determine the presence of obscuring clouds/hazes within their atmospheres. Measurable spectroscopic features are needed to establish the optimal resolution and wavelength regions for exoplanet characterization. Other initiatives from our proposed ERS program include testing the instrument brightness limits and performing phase-curve observations.(Abridged)
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1602.08389,
title = {Transiting Exoplanet Studies and Community Targets for JWST's Early Release Science Program},
author = {Kevin B. Stevenson and Nikole K. Lewis and Jacob L. Bean and Charles Beichman and Jonathan Fraine and Brian M. Kilpatrick and J. E. Krick and Joshua D. Lothringer and Avi M. Mandell and Jeff A. Valenti and Eric Agol and Daniel Angerhausen and Joanna K. Barstow and Stephan M. Birkmann and Adam Burrows and David Charbonneau and Nicolas B. Cowan and Nicolas Crouzet and Patricio E. Cubillos and S. M. Curry and Paul A. Dalba and Julien de Wit and Drake Deming and Jean-Michel Desert and Rene Doyon and Diana Dragomir and David Ehrenreich and Jonathan J. Fortney and Antonio Garcia Munoz and Neale P. Gibson and John E. Gizis and Thomas P. Greene and Joseph Harrington and Kevin Heng and Tiffany Kataria and Eliza M. -R. Kempton and Heather Knutson and Laura Kreidberg and David Lafreniere and Pierre-Olivier Lagage and Michael R. Line and Mercedes Lopez-Morales and Nikku Madhusudhan and Caroline V. Morley and Marco Rocchetto and Everett Schlawin and Evgenya L. Shkolnik and Avi Shporer and David K. Sing and Kamen O. Todorov and Gregory S. Tucker and Hannah R. Wakeford},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1602.08389},
year = {2016}
}
Comments
This is a white paper that originated from an open discussion at the Enabling Transiting Exoplanet Science with JWST workshop held November 16 - 18, 2015 at STScI (http://www.stsci.edu/jwst/science/exoplanets). Accepted for publication in PASP