A Catalog of Spectra, Albedos, and Colors of Solar System Bodies for Exoplanet Comparison

TL;DR

This paper provides a comprehensive catalog of spectra, albedos, and colors of Solar System bodies to aid in the comparison and classification of exoplanets, facilitating better prioritization for follow-up observations.

Contribution

It introduces a reference set of spectra and albedos for 19 Solar System objects, including analysis of data contamination and color-based classification methods for exoplanets.

Findings

Catalog includes spectra and albedos for 19 Solar System bodies.

Identifies contaminated data in existing spectral datasets.

Proposes color-color diagrams to distinguish exoplanet types.

Abstract

We present a catalog of spectra and geometric albedos, representative of the different types of Solar System bodies, from 0.45 to 2.5 microns. We analyzed published calibrated, un-calibrated spectra, and albedos for Solar System objects and derived a set of reference spectra and reference albedo for 19 objects that are representative of the diversity of bodies in our Solar System. We also identified previously published data that appears contaminated. Our catalog provides a baseline for comparison of exoplanet observations to 19 bodies in our own Solar System, which can assist in the prioritization of exoplanets for time-intensive follow-up with next-generation Extremely Large Telescopes (ELTs) and space-based direct observation missions. Using high and low-resolution spectra of these Solar System objects, we also derive colors for these bodies and explore how a color-color diagram could be used to initially distinguish between rocky, icy, and gaseous exoplanets. We explore how the colors of Solar System analog bodies would change when orbiting different host stars. This catalog of Solar System reference spectra and albedos is available for download through the Carl Sagan Institute.