Detection of CO absorption in the atmosphere of the hot Jupiter HD 189733b

TL;DR

This study used high-resolution spectroscopy and cross-correlation techniques to detect carbon monoxide in the atmosphere of the hot Jupiter HD 189733b, marking a significant step in exoplanet atmospheric characterization.

Contribution

It demonstrates that cross-correlation and chi^2-data modeling are more sensitive than deconvolution for detecting atmospheric molecules in exoplanets.

Findings

Detected CO absorption at 3.4 sigma confidence

Compared analysis methods and identified the most effective approach

Confirmed presence of CO in HD 189733b's atmosphere

Abstract

With time-series spectroscopic observations taken with the Near Infrared Spectrometer (NIRSPEC) at Keck II, we investigated the atmosphere of the close orbiting transiting extrasolar giant planet, HD 189733b. In particular, we intended to measure the dense absorption line forest around 2.3 micron, which is produced by carbon monoxide (CO). CO is expected to be present in the planetary atmosphere, although no detection of this molecule has been claimed yet. To identify the best suited data analysis method, we created artificial spectra of planetary atmospheres and analyzed them by three approaches found in the literature, the deconvolution method, data modeling via chi^2-minimization, and cross-correlation. As a result, we found that cross-correlation and chi^2-data modeling show systematically a higher sensitivity than the deconvolution method. We analyzed the NIRSPEC data with cross-correlation and detect CO absorption in the day-side spectrum of HD 189733b at the known planetary radial velocity semi-amplitude with 3.4 sigma confidence.