A CRIRES-search for H3+ emission from the hot Jupiter atmosphere of HD 209458 b

TL;DR

This study used high-resolution infrared spectroscopy to search for H3+ emission from the atmosphere of exoplanet HD 209458 b, setting upper limits and discussing future observational prospects.

Contribution

First attempt to detect H3+ emission from HD 209458 b using CRIRES, establishing upper emission limits and analyzing observational challenges.

Findings

No H3+ emission signatures detected.

Emission limits are 8.32E18 W and 5.34E18 W for two lines.

Future instruments could detect emissions down to 1E15 W.

Abstract

Close-in extrasolar giant planets are expected to cool their thermospheres by producing H3+ emission in the near-infrared (NIR), but simulations predict H3+ emission intensities that differ in the resulting intensity by several orders of magnitude. We want to test the observability of H3+ emission with CRIRES at the Very Large Telescope (VLT), providing adequate spectral resolution for planetary atmospheric lines in NIR spectra. We search for signatures of planetary H3+ emission in the L` band, using spectra of HD 209458 obtained during and after secondary eclipse of its transiting planet HD 209458 b. We searched for H3+ emission signatures in spectra containing the combined light of the star and, possibly, the planet. With the information on the ephemeris of the transiting planet, we derive the radial velocities at the time of observation and search for the emission at the expected line positions and search for planetary signals and use a shift and add technique combining all observed spectra taken after sec. eclipse to calculate an upper emission limit. We do not find signatures of atmospheric H3+ emission in the spectra containing the combined light of HD 209458 and planet b. We calculate the emission limit for the H3+ line at 3953.0 nm (Q(1, 0)) to be 8.32 E18W and a limit of 5.34E18 W for the line at 3985.5 nm (Q(3, 0)). Comparing our emission limits to the theoretical predictions suggests that we lack 1 to 3 magnitudes of sensitivity to measure H3+ emission in our target object. We show that under more favorable weather conditions the data quality can be improved significantly, reaching 5 E16W for star-planet systems that are close to Earth. We estimate that pushing the detection limit down to 1E15W will be possible with ground-based observations with future instrumentation, for example, the E-ELT.