Yuka Fujii

Probing the extreme planetary atmosphere of WASP-12b

We report near-infrared measurements of the terminator region transmission spectrum and dayside emission spectrum of the exoplanet WASP-12b obtained using the HST WFC3 instrument. The disk-average dayside brightness temperature averages about 2900 K, peaking to 3200 K around 1.46 μm. Both the dayside and terminator region spectra can be explained in terms of opacity due to the metal hydrides CrH and TiH together with a dayside temperature inversion with a deep tropopause. Although our measurements do not constrain the C/O ratio, the combination of TiH and high temperatures could imply the atmosphere of WASP-12b may be significantly metal poor. The dayside flux distribution reconstructed from the ingress light-curve shape shows indications of a hotspot. If located along the equatorial plane, the possible hot spot is near the sub-stellar point, indicating the radiative time scale may be shorter than the advection time scale. We also find the near-infrared primary eclipse light curve is consistent with small amounts of prolate distortion. The likely picture of WASP-12b that emerges is that this gas giant is powerfully influenced by the parent star to the extent that the planet’s dayside atmosphere is star-like in terms of temperature, opacity, and the relative importance of radiation over advection. As part of the calibration effort for these data, we conducted a detailed study of instrument systematics using 65 orbits of WFC3-IR grims observations. The instrument systematics are dominated by detector-related affects, which vary significantly depending on the detector readout mode. The 256×256 subarray observations of WASP-12 produced measurements within 15% of the photon-noise limit using a simple calibration approach. Residual systematics are estimated to be ≤70 parts per million.

Colors of a Second Earth: Estimating the fractional areas of ocean, land, and vegetation of Earth-like exoplanets

Characterizing the surfaces of rocky exoplanets via their scattered light will be an essential challenge in investigating their habitability and the possible existence of life on their surfaces. We present a reconstruction method for fractional areas of different surface types from the colors of an Earth-like exoplanet. We create mock light curves for Earth without clouds using empirical data. These light curves are fitted to an isotropic scattering model consisting of four surface types: ocean, soil, snow, and vegetation. In an idealized situation where the photometric errors are only photon shot noise, we are able to reproduce the fractional areas of those components fairly well. The results offer some hope for detection of vegetation via the distinct spectral feature of photosynthesis on Earth, known as the red edge. In our reconstruction method, Rayleigh scattering due to the atmosphere plays an important role, and for terrestrial exoplanets with an atmosphere similar to our Earth, it is possible to estimate the presence of oceans and an atmosphere simultaneously.

MAPPING EARTH ANALOGS FROM PHOTOMETRIC VARIABILITY: SPIN-ORBIT TOMOGRAPHY FOR PLANETS IN INCLINED ORBITS

Aiming at obtaining detailed information on the surface environment of Earth analogs, Kawahara & Fujii proposed an inversion technique of annual scattered light curves named spin-orbit tomography (SOT), which enables us to sketch a two-dimensional albedo map from annual variation of the disk-integrated scattered light, and demonstrated the method with a planet in a face-on orbit. We extend it to be applicable to general geometric configurations, including low-obliquity planets like the Earth in inclined orbits. We simulate light curves of the Earth in an inclined orbit in three photometric bands (0.4-0.5 μm, 0.6-0.7 μm, and 0.8-0.9 μm) and show that the distribution of clouds, snow, and continents is retrieved with the aid of the SOT. We also demonstrate the SOT by applying it to an upright Earth, a tidally locked Earth, and Earth analogs with ancient continental configurations. The inversion is model independent in the sense that we do not assume specific albedo models when mapping the surface, and hence applicable in principle to any kind of inhomogeneity. This method can potentially serve as a unique tool to investigate the exohabitats/exoclimes of Earth analogs.

Colors of a Second Earth. II. Effects of Clouds on Photometric Characterization of Earth-like Exoplanets

As a test bed for future investigations of directly imaged terrestrial exoplanets, we present the recovery of the surface components of the Earth from multi-band diurnal light curves obtained with the EPOXI spacecraft. We find that the presence and longitudinal distribution of ocean, soil, and vegetation are reasonably well reproduced by fitting the observed color variations with a simplified model composed of a priori known albedo spectra of ocean, soil, vegetation, snow, and clouds. The effect of atmosphere, including clouds, on light scattered from surface components is modeled using a radiative transfer code. The required noise levels for future observations of exoplanets are also determined. Our model-dependent approach allows us to infer the presence of major elements of the planet (in the case of the Earth, clouds, and ocean) with observations having signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) 10 in most cases and with high confidence if S/N 20. In addition, S/N 100 enables us to detect the presence of components other than ocean and clouds in a fairly model-independent way. Degradation of our inversion procedure produced by cloud cover is also quantified. While cloud cover significantly dilutes the magnitude of color variations compared with the cloudless case, the pattern of color changes remains. Therefore, the possibility of investigating surface features through light-curve fitting remains even for exoplanets with cloud cover similar to Earths.

Mapping Clouds and Terrain of Earth-like Planets from Photometric Variability: Demonstration with Planets in Face-on Orbits

We develop an inversion technique of annual scattered light curves to sketch a two-dimensional albedo map of exoplanets in face-on orbits. As a test bed for future observations of extrasolar terrestrial planets, we apply this mapping technique to simulated light curves of a mock Earth-twin at a distance of 10 pc in a face-on circular orbit. A primary feature in recovered albedo maps traces the annual mean distribution of clouds. To extract information of other surface types, we attempt to reduce the cloud signal by taking the difference of two bands. We find that the inversion of reflectivity difference between 0.8-0.9 and 0.4-0.5 μm bands roughly recovers the continental distribution, except for high latitude regions persistently covered with clouds and snow. The inversion of the reflectivity difference across the red edge (0.8-0.9 and 0.6-0.7 μm) emphasizes the vegetation features near the equator. The planetary obliquity and equinox can be estimated simultaneously with the mapping under the presence of clouds. We conclude that the photometric variability of the scattered light will be a powerful means for exploring the habitat of a second Earth.

TIDAL EVOLUTION OF THE SPIN-ORBIT ANGLE IN EXOPLANETARY SYSTEMS

The angle between the stellar spin and the planetary orbit axes (the spin-orbit angle) is supposed to carry valuable information concerning the initial condition of planetary formation and subsequent migration history. Indeed, current observations of the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect have revealed a wide range of spin-orbit misalignments for transiting exoplanets. We examine in detail the tidal evolution of a simple system comprising a Sun-like star and a hot Jupiter adopting the equilibrium tide and the inertial wave dissipation effects simultaneously. We find that the combined tidal model works as a very efficient realignment mechanism; it predicts three distinct states of the spin-orbit angle (i.e., parallel, polar, and antiparallel orbits) for a while, but the latter two states eventually approach the parallel spin-orbit configuration. The intermediate spin-orbit angles as measured in recent observations are difficult to obtain. Therefore the current model cannot reproduce the observed broad distribution of the spin-orbit angles, at least in its simple form. This indicates that the observed diversity of the spin-orbit angles may emerge from more complicated interactions with outer planets and/or may be the consequence of the primordial misalignment between the protoplanetary disk and the stellar spin, which requires future detailed studies.

Infrared Doppler instrument for the Subaru Telescope (IRD)

Because of their large numbers, red dwarfs may be the most abundant planet hosts in our Galaxy. In order to detect Earth-like planets around nearby red dwarfs (in particular late-M stars), it is crucial to conduct the precise radial velocity (RV) measurements at near-infrared wavelengths where these stars emit most of light. We report the development of the Infrared Doppler (IRD) spectrometer for the Subaru telescope. IRD is a fiber-fed, high-precision, near infrared spectrometer with a spectral resolution of R~70,000 covering from 0.97 to 1.75 μm. To achieve 1m/s RV measurement precision, we employ our original laser frequency comb of a wide-wavelength coverage as an extremely stable wavelength standard in the near-infrared. The spectrometer optics is composed of a new wide-pitch Echelle-grating and Volume-Phase Holographic gratings. To achieve ultimate thermal stability, very low thermal expansion ceramic is used for most of the optical components including the optical bench. The spectrometer will utilize a 4096×4096-pixel HgCdTe array.

Infrared Doppler instrument (IRD) for the Subaru telescope to search for Earth-like planets around nearby M-dwarfs

We report the current status of the Infrared Doppler (IRD) instrument for the Subaru telescope, which aims at detecting Earth-like planets around nearby M darwfs via the radial velocity (RV) measurements. IRD is a fiber-fed, near infrared spectrometer which enables us to obtain high-resolution spectrum (R~70000) from 0.97 to 1.75 μm. We have been developing new technologies to achieve 1m/s RV measurement precision, including an original laser frequency comb as an extremely stable wavelength standard in the near infrared. To achieve ultimate thermal stability, very low thermal expansion ceramic is used for most of the optical components including the optical bench.

Some inconvenient truths about biosignatures involving two chemical species on Earth-like exoplanets

Significance The search for life on planets outside our own solar system is among the most compelling quests that humanity has ever undertaken. An often suggested method of searching for signs of life on such planets involves looking for spectral signatures of strong chemical disequilibrium. This article introduces an important potential source of confusion associated with this method. Any exoplanet can host a moon that contaminates the planetary spectrum. In general, we will be unable to exclude the existence of a moon. By calculating the most optimistic spectral resolution in principle obtainable for Earth-like planets, we show that inferring a biosphere on an exoplanet might be beyond our reach in the foreseeable future. The detection of strong thermochemical disequilibrium in the atmosphere of an extrasolar planet is thought to be a potential biosignature. In this article we present a previously unidentified kind of false positive that can mimic a disequilibrium or any other biosignature that involves two chemical species. We consider a scenario where the exoplanet hosts a moon that has its own atmosphere and neither of the atmospheres is in chemical disequilibrium. Our results show that the integrated spectrum of the planet and the moon closely resembles that of a single object in strong chemical disequilibrium. We derive a firm limit on the maximum spectral resolution that can be obtained for both directly imaged and transiting planets. The spectral resolution of even idealized space-based spectrographs that might be achievable in the next several decades is in general insufficient to break the degeneracy. Both chemical species can only be definitively confirmed in the same object if absorption features of both chemicals can be unambiguously identified and their combined depth exceeds 100%.

Variability of Water and Oxygen Absorption Bands in the Disk-integrated Spectra of Earth

We study the variability of major atmospheric absorption features in the disk-integrated spectra of Earth with future application to Earth-analogs in mind, concentrating on the diurnal timescale. We first analyze observations of Earth provided by the EPOXI mission, and find 5%-20% fractional variation of the absorption depths of H2O and O2 bands, two molecules that have major signatures in the observed range. From a correlation analysis with the cloud map data from the Earth Observing Satellite (EOS), we find that their variation pattern is primarily due to the uneven cloud cover distribution. In order to account for the observed variation quantitatively, we consider a simple opaque cloud model, which assumes that the clouds totally block the spectral influence of the atmosphere below the cloud layer, equivalent to assuming that the incident light is completely scattered at the cloud top level. The model is reasonably successful, and reproduces the EPOXI data from the pixel-level EOS cloud/water vapor data. A difference in the diurnal variability patterns of H2O and O2 bands is ascribed to the differing vertical and horizontal distribution of those molecular species in the atmosphere. On Earth, the inhomogeneous distribution of atmospheric water vapor is due to the existence of its exchange with liquid and solid phases of H2O on the planets surface on a timescale short compared with atmospheric mixing times. If such differences in variability patterns were detected in spectra of Earth-analogs, it would provide the information on the inhomogeneous composition of their atmospheres.