# On The Feasibility of Exomoon Detection Via Exoplanet Phase Curve Spectral Contrast

## TL;DR

This paper investigates the potential for detecting exomoons through spectral contrast in exoplanet phase curves, highlighting the challenges and conditions under which such detection might be feasible with current or future telescopes.

## Contribution

It provides a parameter survey showing the difficulty of detecting exomoons via phase curves and identifies conditions like tidal heating that could make detection possible with advanced instruments.

## Key findings

- Most exomoon signals are undetectable with current observations.
- Detection requires photometric precision of 10 ppm or better.
- Self-luminous moons could be detectable at wavelengths > a few microns.

## Abstract

An exoplanet-exomoon system presents a superposition of phase curves to observers - the dominant component varies according to the planetary period, and the lesser varies according to both the planetary and the lunar period. If the spectra of the two bodies differs significantly, then it is likely there are wavelength regimes where the contrast between the moon and planet is significantly larger. In principle, this effect could be used to isolate periodic oscillations in the combined phase curve. Being able to detect the exomoon component would allow a characterisation of the exomoon radius, and potentially some crude atmospheric data. We run a parameter survey of combined exoplanet-exomoon phase curves, which show that for most sets of planet-moon parameters, the lunar component of the phase curve is undetectable to current state-of-the-art transit observations. Even with future transit survey missions, measuring the exomoon signal will most likely require photometric precision of 10 parts per million or better. The only exception to this is if the moon is strongly tidally heated or in some way self-luminous. In this case, measurements of the phase curve at wavelengths greater than a few microns can be dominated by the lunar contribution. Instruments like the James Webb Space Telescope and its successors are needed to make this method feasible.