Optical Observations of the Transiting Exoplanet GJ 1214b
Johanna K. Teske, Jake D. Turner, Matthias Mueller, Caitlin A., Griffith

TL;DR
This study presents optical transit observations of exoplanet GJ 1214b, aiming to constrain its atmospheric composition by analyzing wavelength-dependent transit depths, revealing potential for diverse atmospheric models including hazes and high-molecular-weight atmospheres.
Contribution
First optical multi-band transit observations of GJ 1214b that expand the understanding of its atmospheric spectrum and possible compositions.
Findings
Results are consistent with a flat optical spectrum within errors.
Observations allow for atmospheres with hazes or high-molecular-weight gases.
Data do not exclude a spectral slope indicating Rayleigh scattering.
Abstract
We observed nine primary transits of the super-Earth exoplanet GJ 1214b in several optical photometric bands from March to August 2012, with the goal of constraining the short-wavelength slope of the spectrum of GJ 1214b. Our observations were conducted on the Kuiper 1.55 m telescope in Arizona and the STELLA-I robotic 1.2 m telescope in Tenerife, Spain. From the derived light curves we extracted transit depths in R (0.65 {\mu}m), V (0.55 {\mu}m), and g' (0.475 {\mu}m) bands. Most previous observations of this exoplanet suggest a flat spectrum varying little with wavelength from the near-infrared to the optical, corresponding to a low-scale-height, high-molecular-weight atmosphere. However, a handful of observations around Ks band (~2.15 {\mu}m) and g-band (~0.46 {\mu}m) are inconsistent with this scenario and suggest a variation on a hydrogen- or water-dominated atmosphere that also…
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