Exoplanet atmospheres at high resolution through a modest-size telescope. Fe II in MASCARA-2b and KELT-9b with FIES on the Nordic Optical Telescope
Abstract
Ground-based, high-resolution spectrographs are providing us with an unprecedented view of the dynamics and chemistry of the atmospheres of planets outside the Solar System. While there are a large number of stable and precise high-resolution spectrographs on modest-size telescopes, it is the spectrographs at observatories with apertures larger than 3.5 m that dominate the atmospheric follow-up of exoplanets. In this work we explore the potential of characterising exoplanetary atmospheres with FIES, a high-resolution spectrograph at the 2.56 m Nordic Optical Telescope. We observed two transits of MASCARA-2 b (also known as KELT-20 b) and one transit of KELT-9 b to search for atomic iron, a species that has recently been discovered in both neutral and ionised forms in the atmospheres of these ultra-hot Jupiters using large telescopes. Using a cross-correlation method, we detect a signal of Fe II at the 4.5σ and 4.0σ level in the transits of MaSCARA-2 b. We also detect Fe II in the transit of KELT-9 b at the 8.5σ level. Although we do not find any significant Doppler shift in the signal of MASCARA-2 b, we do measure a moderate blueshift (3-6 km s−1) of the feature in KELT-9 b, which might be a manifestation of high-velocity winds transporting Fe II from the planetary dayside to the nightside. Our work demonstrates the feasibility of investigating exoplanet atmospheres with FIES, and it potentially unlocks a wealth of additional atmosphere detections with this and other high-resolution spectrographs mounted on similar-size telescopes.
- Publication:
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Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Pub Date:
- June 2022
- DOI:
- 10.1051/0004-6361/202142787
- arXiv:
- arXiv:2203.04969
- Bibcode:
- 2022A&A...662A..51B
- Keywords:
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- instrumentation: spectrographs;
- planets and satellites: atmospheres;
- planets and satellites: gaseous planets;
- Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics;
- Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 9 pages, 6 figures, accepted to A&