Exoplanet-atmospheres at high spectral resolution: A CRIRES survey of hot-Jupiters

TL;DR

This paper discusses high-resolution spectroscopic observations of exoplanet atmospheres, revealing detailed atmospheric properties and dynamics, and introduces new observational strategies and data analysis techniques for studying hot Jupiters.

Contribution

It presents a large survey using CRIRES to detect molecules like CO, H2O, and CH4 in exoplanet atmospheres, advancing high-resolution atmospheric characterization.

Findings

Detection of carbon monoxide in HD209458b's atmosphere

Development of new observational strategies and data analysis techniques

Initiation of a large ESO program targeting multiple molecules in exoplanets

Abstract

Recently, we presented the detection of carbon monoxide in the transmission spectrum of extrasolar planet HD209458b, using CRIRES, the Cryogenic high-resolution Infrared Echelle Spectrograph at ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT). The high spectral resolution observations (R=100,000) provide a wealth of information on the planet's orbit, mass, composition, and even on its atmospheric dynamics. The new observational strategy and data analysis techniques open up a whole world of opportunities. We therefore started an ESO large program using CRIRES to explore these, targeting both transiting and non-transiting planets in carbon monoxide, water vapour, and methane. Observations of the latter molecule will also serve as a test-bed for METIS, the proposed mid-infrared imager and spectrograph for the European Extremely Large Telescope.