Observation of the full 12-hour-long transit of the exoplanet HD80606b. Warm-Spitzer photometry and SOPHIE spectroscopy

TL;DR

This study presents a detailed 12-hour transit observation of exoplanet HD80606b using Spitzer and SOPHIE, refining system parameters, detecting potential stellar spots, and measuring a significant spin-orbit misalignment, contributing to understanding planetary system evolution.

Contribution

First full 12-hour transit observation of HD80606b combining photometry and spectroscopy, providing refined parameters and insights into spin-orbit alignment and planetary evolution.

Findings

Refined planet-to-star radius ratio R_p/R_* = 0.1001 +/- 0.0006

Detected possible stellar spot feature in light curve

Measured spin-orbit angle lambda = 42 +/- 8 degrees

Abstract

We present new observations of a transit of the 111-day-period exoplanet HD80606b. Using the Spitzer Space Telescope and its IRAC camera on the post-cryogenic mission, we performed a 19-hour-long photometric observation of HD80606 that covers the full transit of 13-14 January 2010. We complement this photometric data by new spectroscopic observations that we simultaneously performed with SOPHIE at Haute-Provence Observatory. This provides radial velocity measurements of the first half of the transit that was previously uncovered with spectroscopy. This new data set allows the parameters of this singular planetary system to be significantly refined. We obtained a planet-to-star radius ratio R_p/R_* = 0.1001 +/- 0.0006 that is slightly lower than the one measured from previous ground observations. We detected a feature in the Spitzer light curve that could be due to a stellar spot. We also found a transit timing about 20 minutes earlier than the ephemeris prediction; this could be caused by actual TTVs due to an additional body in the system or by underestimated systematic uncertainties. The sky-projected angle between the spin-axis of HD80606 and the normal to the planetary orbital plane is found to be lambda = 42 +/- 8 degrees thanks to the fit of the Rossiter-McLaughlin anomaly. This allows scenarios with aligned spin-orbit to be definitively rejected. Over the twenty planetary systems with measured spin-orbit angles, a few of them are misaligned; this is probably the signature of two different evolution scenarios for misaligned and aligned systems, depending if they experienced or not gravitational interaction with a third body. As in the case of HD80606b, most of the planetary systems including a massive planet are tilted; this could be the signature of a separate evolution scenario for massive planets in comparison with Jupiter-mass planets.