How to determine an exomoon's sense of orbital motion

TL;DR

This paper proposes two novel methods to determine an exomoon's sense of orbital motion using upcoming telescope capabilities, one based on transit timing and the other on spectral distortions, enabling insights into moon origins.

Contribution

It introduces two new observational techniques for exomoon orbital sense determination, leveraging transit timing dichotomy and Rossiter-McLaughlin effect measurements.

Findings

Transit timing dichotomy can reveal exomoon orbital sense with 2-12 s precision for large moons.

Spectral distortions can measure the moon's orbital plane orientation with ~100 m/s RME amplitude.

Methods are feasible with the European Extremely Large Telescope for Earth-sized moons around nearby stars.

Abstract

We present two methods to determine an exomoon's sense of orbital motion (SOM), one with respect to the planet's circumstellar orbit and one with respect to the planetary rotation. Our simulations show that the required measurements will be possible with the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT). The first method relies on mutual planet-moon events during stellar transits. Eclipses with the moon passing behind (in front of) the planet will be late (early) with regard to the moon's mean orbital period due to the finite speed of light. This "transit timing dichotomy" (TTD) determines an exomoon's SOM with respect to the circumstellar motion. For the ten largest moons in the solar system, TTDs range between 2 and 12 s. The E-ELT will enable such measurements for Earth-sized moons around nearby stars. The second method measures distortions in the IR spectrum of the rotating giant planet when it is transited by its moon. This Rossiter-McLaughlin effect (RME) in the planetary spectrum reveals the angle between the planetary equator and the moon's circumplanetary orbital plane, and therefore unveils the moon's SOM with respect to the planet's rotation. A reasonably large moon transiting a directly imaged planet like beta Pic b causes an RME amplitude of almost 100 m/s, about twice the stellar RME amplitude of the transiting exoplanet HD209458b. Both new methods can be used to probe the origin of exomoons, that is, whether they are regular or irregular in nature.