Cynthia S. Froning

THE COSMIC ORIGINS SPECTROGRAPH

The Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) is a moderate-resolution spectrograph with unprecedented sensitivity that was installed into the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) in 2009 May, during HST Servicing Mission 4 (STS-125). We present the design philosophy and summarize the key characteristics of the instrument that will be of interest to potential observers. For faint targets, with flux F ? 1.0 ? 10?14?erg?cm?2?s?1 ??1, COS can achieve comparable signal to noise (when compared to Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph echelle modes) in 1%-2% of the observing time. This has led to a significant increase in the total data volume and data quality available to the community. For example, in the first 20 months of science operation (2009 September-2011 June) the cumulative redshift pathlength of extragalactic sight lines sampled by COS is nine times than sampled at moderate resolution in 19 previous years of Hubble observations. COS programs have observed 214 distinct lines of sight suitable for study of the intergalactic medium as of 2011 June. COS has measured, for the first time with high reliability, broad Ly? absorbers and Ne VIII in the intergalactic medium, and observed the He II reionization epoch along multiple sightlines. COS has detected the first CO emission and absorption in the UV spectra of low-mass circumstellar disks at the epoch of giant planet formation, and detected multiple ionization states of metals in extra-solar planetary atmospheres. In the coming years, COS will continue its census of intergalactic gas, probe galactic and cosmic structure, and explore physics in our solar system and Galaxy.

OBSERVATIONS OF MASS LOSS FROM THE TRANSITING EXOPLANET HD 209458b

Using the new Cosmic Origins Spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope, we obtained moderate-resolution, high signal/noise ultraviolet spectra of HD 209458 and its exoplanet HD 209458b during transit, both orbital quadratures, and secondary eclipse. We compare transit spectra with spectra obtained at non-transit phases to identify spectral features due to the exoplanets expanding atmosphere. We find that the mean flux decreased by 7.8% ± 1.3% for the C II 1334.5323 A and 1335.6854 A lines and by 8.2% ± 1.4% for the Si III 1206.500 A line during transit compared to non-transit times in the velocity interval –50 to +50 km s–1. Comparison of the C II and Si III line depths and transit/non-transit line ratios shows deeper absorption features near –10 and +15 km s–1 and less certain features near –40 and +30-70 km s–1, but future observations are needed to verify this first detection of velocity structure in the expanding atmosphere of an exoplanet. Our results for the C II lines and the non-detection of Si IV 1394.76 A absorption are in agreement with Vidal-Madjar et al., but we find absorption during transit in the Si III line contrary to the earlier result. The 8% ± 1% obscuration of the star during transit is far larger than the 1.5% obscuration by the exoplanets disk. Absorption during transit at velocities between –50 and +50 km s–1 in the C II and Si III lines requires high-velocity ion absorbers. Assuming hydrodynamic model values for the gas temperature and outflow velocity at the limb of the outflow as seen in the C II lines, we find mass-loss rates in the range (8-40)×1010 g s–1. These rates assume that the carbon abundance is solar, which is not the case for the giant planets in the solar system. Our mass-loss rate estimate is consistent with theoretical hydrodynamic models that include metals in the outflowing gas.

Metals in the Exosphere of the Highly Irradiated Planet WASP-12b

We present near-UV transmission spectroscopy of the highly irradiated transiting exoplanet WASP-12b, obtained with the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope. The spectra cover three distinct wavelength ranges: NUVA (2539-2580 angstrom), NUVB (2655-2696 angstrom), and NUVC (2770-2811 angstrom). Three independent methods all reveal enhanced transit depths attributable to absorption by resonance lines of metals in the exosphere of WASP-12b. Light curves of total counts in the NUVA and NUVC wavelength ranges show a detection at a 2.5 sigma level. We detect extra absorption in the Mg II lambda lambda 2800 resonance line cores at the 2.8 sigma level. The NUVA, NUVB, and NUVC light curves imply effective radii of 2.69 +/- 0.24 R-J, 2.18 +/- 0.18 R-J, and 2.66 +/- 0.22 R-J respectively, suggesting the planet is surrounded by an absorbing cloud which overfills the Roche lobe. We detect enhanced transit depths at the wavelengths of resonance lines of neutral sodium, tin, and manganese, and at singly ionized ytterbium, scandium, manganese, aluminum, vanadium, and magnesium. We also find the statistically expected number of anomalous transit depths at wavelengths not associated with any known resonance line. Our data are limited by photon noise, but taken as a whole the results are strong evidence for an extended absorbing exosphere surrounding the planet. The NUVA data exhibit an early ingress, contrary to model expectations; we speculate this could be due to the presence of a disk of previously stripped material.

NEAR-ULTRAVIOLET ABSORPTION, CHROMOSPHERIC ACTIVITY, AND STAR-PLANET INTERACTIONS IN THE WASP-12 SYSTEM*

Extended gas clouds have been previously detected surrounding the brightest known close-in transiting hot Jupiter exoplanets, HD 209458 b and HD 189733 b; we observed the distant but more extreme close-in hot Jupiter system, WASP-12, with Hubble Space Telescope (HST). Near-UV (NUV) transits up to three times deeper than the optical transit of WASP-12 b reveal extensive diffuse gas, extending well beyond the Roche lobe. The distribution of absorbing gas varies between visits. The deepest NUV transits are at wavelength ranges with strong stellar photospheric absorption, implying that the absorbing gas may have temperature and composition similar to those of the stellar photosphere. Our spectra reveal significantly enhanced absorption (greater than 3σ below the median) at ~200 individual wavelengths on each of two HST visits; 65 of these wavelengths are consistent between the two visits, using a strict criterion for velocity matching that excludes matches with velocity shifts exceeding ~20 km s–1. Excess transit depths are robustly detected throughout the inner wings of the Mg II resonance lines independently on both HST visits. We detected absorption in Fe II λ2586, the heaviest species yet detected in an exoplanet transit. The Mg II line cores have zero flux, emission cores exhibited by every other observed star of similar age and spectral type are conspicuously absent. WASP-12 probably produces normal Mg II profiles, but the inner portions of these strong resonance lines are likely affected by extrinsic absorption. The required Mg+ column is an order of magnitude greater than expected from the interstellar medium, though we cannot completely dismiss that possibility. A more plausible source of absorption is gas lost by WASP-12 b. We show that planetary mass loss can produce the required column. Our Visit 2 NUV light curves show evidence for a stellar flare. We show that some of the possible transit detections in resonance lines of rare elements may be due instead to non-resonant transitions in common species. We present optical observations and update the transit ephemeris.

The Inclination of the Soft X-Ray Transient A0620–00 and the Mass of its Black Hole

We analyze photometry of the soft X-ray transient A0620−00 spanning nearly 30 years, including previously published and previously unpublished data. Previous attempts to determine the inclination of A0620 using subsets of these data have yielded a wide range of measured values of i. Differences in the measured value of i have been due to changes in the shape of the light curve and uncertainty regarding the contamination from the disk. We give a new technique for estimating the disk fraction and find that disk light is significant in all light curves, even in the infrared. We also find that all changes in the shape and normalization of the light curve originate in a variable disk component. After accounting for this disk component, we find that all the data, including light curves of significantly different shapes, point to a consistent value of i. Combining results from many separate data sets, we find i = 51. 0 ± 0. 9, implying M = 6.6 ± 0.25 M� . Using our dynamical model and zero-disk stellar VIH magnitudes, we find d = 1.06 ± 0.12 kpc. Understanding the disk origin of nonellipsoidal variability may assist with making reliable determinations of i in other systems, and the fluctuations in disk light may provide a new observational tool for understanding the three-dimensional structure of the accretion disk.

Near-Infrared Spectroscopy of Low Mass X-ray Binaries : Accretion Disk Contamination and Compact Object Mass Determination in V404 Cyg and Cen X-4

We present near-infrared (NIR) broadband (0.80–2.42 µm) spectroscopy of two low mass X-ray binaries: V404 Cyg and Cen X-4. One important parameter required in the determination of the mass of the compact objects in these systems is the binary inclination. We can determine the inclination by modeling the ellipsoidal modulations of the Roche-lobe filling donor star, but the contamination of the donor star light from other components of the binary, particularly the accretion disk, must be taken into account. To this end, we determined the donor star contribution to the infrared flux by comparing the spectra of V404 Cyg and Cen X-4 to those of various field K-stars of known spectral type. For V404 Cyg, we determined that the donor star has a spectral type of K3 III. We determined the fractional donor contribution to the NIR flux in the H- and K-bands as 0.98 ± .05 and 0.97 ± .09, respectively. We remodeled the H-band light curve from Sanwal et al. (1996) after correcting for the donor star contribution to obtain a new value for the binary inclination. From this, we determined the mass of

AN HST/COS SURVEY OF THE LOW-REDSHIFT INTERGALACTIC MEDIUM. I. SURVEY, METHODOLOGY, AND OVERALL RESULTS*

We use high-quality, medium-resolution Hubble Space Telescope/Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (HST/COS) observations of 82 UV-bright active galactic nuclei (AGNs) at redshifts z(AGN) \textless 0.85 to construct the largest survey of the low-redshift intergalactic medium (IGM) to date: 5138 individual extragalactic absorption lines in H I and 25 different metal-ion species grouped into 2611 distinct redshift systems at z(abs) \textless 0.75 covering total redshift pathlengths Delta z(HI) = 21.7 and Delta z(O VI) = 14.5. Our semi-automated line-finding and measurement technique renders the catalog as objectively defined as possible. The cumulative column density distribution of H I systems can be parametrized dN (\textgreater N)/dz = C-14 (N/10(14) cm(-2))(-(beta-1)), with C-14 = 25 +/- 1 and beta = 1.65 +/- 0.02. This distribution is seen to evolve both in amplitude, C-14 infinity (1+z)(2.3 +/- 0.1), and slope beta(z) = 1.75-0.31 z for z \textless= 0.47. We observe metal lines in 418 systems, and find that the fraction of IGM absorbers detected in metals is strongly dependent on N-H I. The distribution of O VI absorbers appears to evolve in the same sense as the Ly alpha forest. We calculate contributions to Omega(b) from different components of the low-z IGM and determine the Ly alpha decrement as a function of redshift. IGM absorbers are analyzed via a two-point correlation function in velocity space. We find substantial clustering of H I absorbers on scales of Delta v = 50-300 km s(-1) with no significant clustering at Delta(v) greater than or similar to 1000 km s(-1). Splitting the sample into strong and weak absorbers, we see that most of the clustering occurs in strong, N-H I greater than or similar to 10(13.5) cm(-2), metal-bearing IGM systems. The full catalog of absorption lines and fully reduced spectra is available via the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST) as a high-level science product at http://archive.stsci.edu/prepds/igm/.

The Muscles Treasury Survey. I. Motivation and Overview

Ground- and space-based planet searches employing radial velocity techniques and transit photometry have detected thousands of planet-hosting stars in the Milky Way. With so many planets discovered, the next step toward identifying potentially habitable planets is atmospheric characterization. While the Sun-Earth system provides a good framework for understanding the atmospheric chemistry of Earth-like planets around solar-type stars, the observational and theoretical constraints on the atmospheres of rocky planets in the habitable zones (HZs) around low-mass stars (K and M dwarfs) are relatively few. The chemistry of these atmospheres is controlled by the shape and absolute flux of the stellar spectral energy distribution (SED), however, flux distributions of relatively inactive low-mass stars are poorly understood at present. To address this issue, we have executed a panchromatic (X-ray to mid-IR) study of the SEDs of 11 nearby planet-hosting stars, the Measurements of the Ultraviolet Spectral Characteristics of Low-mass Exoplanetary Systems (MUSCLES) Treasury Survey. The MUSCLES program consists visible observations from Hubble and ground-based observatories. Infrared and astrophysically inaccessible wavelengths (EUV and Lyalpha) are reconstructed using stellar model spectra to fill in gaps in the observational data. In this overview and the companion papers describing the MUSCLES survey, we show that energetic radiation (X-ray and ultraviolet) is present from magnetically active stellar atmospheres at all times for stars as late as M6. The emission line luminosities of C IV and Mg II are strongly correlated with band-integrated luminosities and we present empirical relations that can be used to estimate broadband FUV and XUV (is equivalent to X-ray + EUV) fluxes from individual stellar emission line measurements. We find that while the slope of the SED, FUV/NUV, increases by approximately two orders of magnitude form early K to late M dwarfs (approximately equal 0.01-1), the absolute FUV and XUV flux levels at their corresponding HZ distances are constant to within factors of a few, spanning the range 10-70 erg per (sq cm) s in the HZ. Despite the lack of strong stellar activity indicators in their optical spectra, several of the M dwarfs in our sample show spectacular UV flare emission in their light curves. We present an example with flare/quiescent ultraviolet flux ratios of the order of 100:1 where the transition region energy output during the flare is comparable to the total quiescent luminosity of the star E(sub flare)(UV) approximately 0.3 L(sub *) delta (t) (delta t = 1 s). Finally, we interpret enhanced L(line)/L(sub Bol) ratios for C IV and N V as tentative observational evidence for the interaction of planets with large planetary mass-to-orbital distance ratios (M(sub plan)/A(sub plan)) with the transition regions of their host stars.

COSMIC ORIGINS SPECTROGRAPH DETECTION OF Ne VIII TRACING WARM-HOT GAS TOWARD PKS 0405–123*

We report on the detection of Ne vm in the Hubble Space Telescope/Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) spectrum of the intervening absorption system at z = 0.495096 toward PKS 0405―123 (z em = 0.5726). The high signal-to-noise COS spectrum also covers absorption from H I, C III, O III, O IV, and O VI associated with this multiphase system. The Ne VIII is detected with high significance in both lines of the doublet, with integrated column densities of log N a (Ne VIII 770) = 13.96 ± 0.06 and log N a (Ne VIII 780) = 14.08 ± 0.07. We find the origin of Ne VIII consistent with collisionally ionized gas at T ∼ 5 × 10 5 K with a large baryonic column density of N(H) ∼ 10 19 ―10 20 cm ―2 . The metallicity in the Ne VIII gas phase is estimated to be [Ne/H] ∼ -0.6 ± 0.3 dex. The intermediate ions such as Cm, O III, O IV, and H I are consistent with photoionization in lower ionization gas at T ∼ 10 4 K. The O V and O VI in this absorber can have contributions from both the photoionized and collisionally ionized gas phases. The absorber is at |Δv| = 180 km s ―1 systematic velocity and ρ = 110h ―1 70 kpc projected separation from an M R = ―19.6 galaxy of extended morphology. The collisionally ionized gas at T ∼ 5 x 10 5 K detected in Ne VIII and O VI points to an origin in multiphase gas embedded in the hot halo of the galaxy, or in a nearby WHIM structure. The high-sensitivity UV spectroscopy afforded by COS has opened up new opportunities for discovering large reservoirs of missing baryons in the low-z universe through the detection of Ne vm systems.

Searching for Far-ultraviolet Auroral/Dayglow Emission from HD?209458b

We present recent observations from the HST -Cosmic Origins Spectrograph aimed at characterizing the auroral emission from the extrasolar planet HD209458b. We obtained medium-resolution (R ∼ 20,000) far-ultraviolet (1150 – 1700 Å) spectra at both the Phase 0.25 and Phase 0.75 quadrature positions as well as a stellar baseline measurement at secondary eclipse. This analysis includes a catalog of stellar emission lines and a star-subtracted spectrum of the planet. We present an emission model for planetary H2 emission, and compare this model to the planetary spectrum. No unambiguously identifiable atomic or molecular features are detected, and upper limits are presented for auroral/dayglow line strengths. An orbital velocity cross-correlation analysis finds a statistically significant (3.8 σ) feature at +15 (± 20) km s in the rest frame of the planet, at λ1582 Å. This feature is consistent with emission from H2 B – X (2 – 9) P(4) (λrest = 1581.11 Å), however the physical mechanism required to excite this transition is unclear. We compare limits on relative line strengths seen in the exoplanet spectrum with models of ultraviolet fluorescence to constrain the atmospheric column density of neutral hydrogen between the star and the planetary surface. These results support models of short period extrasolar giant planets with weak magnetic fields and extended atomic atmospheres. Subject headings: stars: planetary systems — stars: individual (HD209458) — stars: atmospheres — ultraviolet: stars