The Broadband Infrared Emission Spectrum of the Exoplanet TrES-3

TL;DR

This study uses Spitzer observations to measure the infrared emission of exoplanet TrES-3, revealing it lacks a temperature inversion and has a nearly circular orbit, challenging some expectations about highly irradiated planets.

Contribution

First infrared emission spectrum of TrES-3 showing no temperature inversion, highlighting other factors influencing atmospheric structure.

Findings

No temperature inversion detected in TrES-3 atmosphere.

Orbit of TrES-3 is consistent with being circular.

Infrared emission measurements align with models without inversion layers.

Abstract

We use the Spitzer Space Telescope to estimate the dayside thermal emission of the exoplanet TrES-3 integrated in the 3.6, 4.5, 5.8, and 8.0 micron bandpasses of the Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) instrument. We observe two secondary eclipses and find relative eclipse depths of 0.00346 +/- 0.00035, 0.00372 +/- 0.00054, 0.00449 +/- 0.00097, and 0.00475 +/- 0.00046, respectively in the 4 IRAC bandpasses. We combine our results with the earlier K band measurement of De Mooij et al. (2009), and compare them with models of the planetary emission. We find that the planet does not require the presence of an inversion layer in the high atmosphere. This is the first very strongly irradiated planet that does not have a temperature inversion, which indicates that stellar or planetary characteristics other than temperature have an important impact on temperature inversion. De Mooij & Snellen (2009) also detected a possible slight offset in the timing of the secondary eclipse in K band. However, based on our 4 Spitzer channels, we place a 3sigma upper limit of |ecos(w)| < 0.0056 where e is the planets orbital eccentricity and w is the longitude of the periastron. This result strongly indicates that the orbit is circular, as expected from tidal circularization theory.