The GROUSE project III: Ks-band observations of the thermal emission from WASP-33b

TL;DR

This study measures the Ks-band secondary eclipse of WASP-33b, a hot Jupiter transiting an A-type star, using ground-based observations, revealing a brightness temperature consistent with rapid re-radiation and low albedo.

Contribution

First Ks-band eclipse measurement of WASP-33b, demonstrating the feasibility and challenges of ground-based infrared observations of bright, pulsating host stars.

Findings

Eclipse detected at 12-sigma level with a depth of 0.244%.

Brightness temperature of 3270 K aligns with rapid re-radiation models.

Highlighting the importance of sufficient out-of-eclipse baseline for accurate measurements.

Abstract

In recent years, day-side emission from about a dozen hot Jupiters has been detected through ground-based secondary eclipse observations in the near-infrared. These near-infrared observations are vital for determining the energy budgets of hot Jupiters, since they probe the planet's spectral energy distribution near its peak. The aim of this work is to measure the Ks-band secondary eclipse depth of WASP-33b, the first planet discovered to transit an A-type star. This planet receives the highest level of irradiation of all transiting planets discovered to date. Furthermore, its host-star shows pulsations and is classified as a low-amplitude delta-Scuti. As part of our GROUnd-based Secondary Eclipse (GROUSE) project we have obtained observations of two separate secondary eclipses of WASP-33b in the Ks-band using the LIRIS instrument on the William Herschel Telescope (WHT). The telescope was significantly defocused to avoid saturation of the detector for this bright star (K~7.5). To increase the stability and the cadence of the observations, they were performed in staring mode. We collected a total of 5100 and 6900 frames for the first and the second night respectively, both with an average cadence of 3.3 seconds. On the second night the eclipse is detected at the 12-sigma level, with a measured eclipse depth of 0.244+0.027-0.020 %. This eclipse depth corresponds to a brightness temperature of 3270+115-160 K. The measured brightness temperature on the second night is consistent with the expected equilibrium temperature for a planet with a very low albedo and a rapid re-radiation of the absorbed stellar light. For the other night the short out-of-eclipse baseline prevents good corrections for the stellar pulsations and systematic effects, which makes this dataset unreliable for eclipse depth measurements. This demonstrates the need of getting a sufficient out-of-eclipse baseline.