Laboratory Simulation of Haze/Aerosol formation in warm and hot Jupiters
Abstract
During the transit of an exoplanet across its host star, transmitted starlight through exoplanet atmosphere is absorbed and scattered, and the recorded transit spectra reveal important chemical information. There are many detected exoplanets in which hazes/aerosols obscure the incident photons, and consequently, fewer photons are transmitted through the atmosphere, contributing to a flat/nearly flat transit spectrum. Here, we have carried out two complementary approaches to address haze formation. First, laboratory simulations of haze condensation in exoplanet atmospheres are carried out using an electric discharge tube. A mixture of likely gas species (i.e. H2, He, H2O, CH4, N2 and H2S) is inserted into a glass manifold on a vacuum line, at a pressure ~100-10 mbar, and depending on the exoplanet category (e.g., warm or hot Jupiters), the temperature is set. Applying a few kilovolts produces plasma in the discharge tube, and as a result, particles are formed. We use spectroscopic ellipsometry to measure the optical constants (complex refractive index) of the collected laboratory hazes. Then, chemical characterization is made using RBS (Rutherford Backscattering Spectroscopy) and XPS (X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy). Second, we developed a transit modeling code by which the transit spectra are generated using observational and laboratory data as an input. The model accounts for Mie scattering from haze particles in the vis-NIR spectral region, and Rayleigh scattering which comes from gases and particles (effective in UV-vis). The measured refractive indexes (real and imaginary part) describe the absorption and scattering in the vis-NIR transmission region, and, by generating transit spectra close to the observed ones from exoplanets, constraints on atmospheric chemical characterization can be revealed. Our laboratory results show that haze particles formed in the presence of water and with the solar C/O ratio = 0.5. The other outcome of our experiment is that sulfur (from H2S) contributes to particle formation at 800K. Chemical characterization and elemental analysis of the produced haze particles are in progress.
- Publication:
-
AAS/Division for Planetary Sciences Meeting Abstracts #48
- Pub Date:
- October 2016
- Bibcode:
- 2016DPS....4812205G