Related papers: Exoplanet Transmission Spectroscopy using KMOS
Transmission spectroscopy of exoplanets is a tool to characterize rocky planets and explore their habitability. Using the Earth itself as a proxy, we model the atmospheric cross section as a function of wavelength, and show the effect of…
Measuring the albedo of an extrasolar planet provides insights into its atmospheric composition and its global thermal properties, including heat dissipation and weather patterns. Such a measurement requires very precise photometry of a…
We present ten high-precision light curves of four transits in the XO-1 planetary system, obtained using $u$, $g$, $r$, redshifted H$\alpha$, $I$ and $z$ filters. We use these to measure the physical properties, orbital ephemeris, and a…
We propose a new method for investigating atmospheric inhomogeneities in exoplanets through transmission spectroscopy. Our approach links chromatic variations in conventional transit model parameters (central transit time, total and full…
A high accuracy photometry algorithm is needed to take full advantage of the potential of the transit method for the characterization of exoplanets, especially in deep crowded fields. It has to reduce to the lowest possible level the…
We describe MIFS, a second generation integral-field spectrograph for the VLT, operating in the visible wavelength range. It combines a 1'x1' field of view with the improved spatial resolution provided by multi-conjugate adaptive optics and…
Optical transmission spectroscopy provides crucial constraints on the reference pressure levels and scattering properties for hot Jupiter atmospheres. For certain planets, where alkali atoms are detected in the atmosphere, their line…
We present a novel method for direct detection and characterization of exoplanets from space. This method uses four collecting telescopes, combined with phase chopping and a spectrometer, with observations on only a few baselines rather…
(Abridged) We observed one transit and one occultation of the hot Jupiter WASP-43b simultaneously in the g'r'i'z'JHK bands using the GROND instrument on the MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope. From the transit event, we have independently derived…
We report ground-based transmission spectroscopy of the highly irradiated and ultra-short period hot-Jupiter WASP-103b covering the wavelength range $\approx$ 400-600 nm using the FORS2 instrument on the Very Large Telescope. The light…
In the next decade, many optical surveys will aim to tackle the question of dark energy nature, measuring its equation of state parameter at the permil level. This requires trusting the photometric calibration of the survey with a precision…
We report Gemini-South GMOS observations of the exoplanet system WASP-29 during primary transit as a test case for differential spectrophotometry. We use the multi-object spectrograph to observe the target star and a comparison star…
The High Optical Resolution Spectrograph (HORuS) is a new high-resolution echelle spectrograph available on the 10.4 m Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC). We report on the first HORuS observations of a transit of the super-Earth planet 55 Cnc…
Transmission spectra of exoplanetary atmospheres have been used to infer the presence of clouds/hazes. Such inferences are typically based on spectral slopes in the optical deviant from gaseous Rayleigh scattering or low-amplitude spectral…
The James Webb Space Telescope will enable astronomers to obtain exoplanet spectra of unprecedented precision. Especially the MIRI instrument may shed light on the nature of the cloud particles obscuring planetary transmission spectra in…
We observed nine primary transits of the super-Earth exoplanet GJ 1214b in several optical photometric bands from March to August 2012, with the goal of constraining the short-wavelength slope of the spectrum of GJ 1214b. Our observations…
Rocky exoplanets are faint and difficult to observe due to their small size and low brightness compared to their host star. Despite this, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has allowed us new methods and opportunities to study them.…
Near-IR observations are important for the detection and characterization of exoplanets using the transit technique, either in surveys of large numbers of stars or for follow-up spectroscopic observations of individual planets. In a…
Broad-band exoplanet transit photometry can characterize the planetary atmosphere when observed at multiple selected filters. This observing technique can reveal gradients in the spectra of extrasolar planets, for example the slope of…
We present FORS2 (attached to ESO's Very Large Telescope) observations of the exoplanet WASP-17b during its primary transit, for the purpose of differential spectrophotometry analysis. We use the instrument in its Mask eXchange Unit (MXU)…