Understanding Stellar Contamination in Exoplanet Transmission Spectra as an Essential Step in Small Planet Characterization
Abstract
Transmission spectroscopy during planetary transits is expected to be a major source of information on the atmospheres of small (approximately Earth-sized) exoplanets in the next two decades. This technique, however, is intrinsically affected by stellar spectral contamination caused by the fact that stellar photo- and chromospheres are not perfectly homogeneous. Such stellar contamination will often reach or exceed the signal introduced by the planetary spectral features. Finding effective methods to correct stellar contamination -- or at least to quantify its possible range -- for the most important exoplanets is a necessary step for our understanding of exoplanet atmospheres. This will require significantly deepening our understanding of stellar heterogeneity, which is currently limited by the available data.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1803.08708,
title = {Understanding Stellar Contamination in Exoplanet Transmission Spectra as an Essential Step in Small Planet Characterization},
author = {Dániel Apai and Benjamin V. Rackham and Mark S. Giampapa and Daniel Angerhausen and Johanna Teske and Joanna Barstow and Ludmila Carone and Heather Cegla and Shawn D. Domagal-Goldman and Néstor Espinoza and Helen Giles and Michael Gully-Santiago and Raphaelle Haywood and Renyu Hu and Andres Jordan and Laura Kreidberg and Michael Line and Joe Llama and Mercedes López-Morales and Mark S. Marley and Julien de Wit},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1803.08708},
year = {2018}
}
Comments
White paper submitted to the NAS Committee on Exoplanet Science Strategy