Spectrum and atmosphere models of irradiated transiting giant planets
Abstract
We show that a consistent fit to observed secondary eclipse data for several strongly irradiated transiting planets demands a temperature inversion (stratosphere) at altitude. Such a thermal inversion significantly influences the planet/star contrast ratios at the secondary eclipse, their wavelength dependences, and, importantly, the day-night flux contrast during a planetary orbit. The presence of the thermal inversion/stratosphere seems to roughly correlate with the stellar flux at the planet. Such temperature inversions might be caused by an upper-atmosphere absorber whose exact nature is still uncertain.
- Publication:
-
Transiting Planets
- Pub Date:
- February 2009
- DOI:
- 10.1017/S1743921308026458
- arXiv:
- arXiv:0807.3588
- Bibcode:
- 2009IAUS..253..239H
- Keywords:
-
- Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 7 pages, 3 figures. To appear in the Proceedings of the 253rd IAU Symposium: "Transiting Planets", May 2008, Cambridge, MA