Atmospheric dynamics and the variable transit of KELT-9 b

TL;DR

This study detects metal and hydrogen features in KELT-9 b's atmosphere, revealing dynamic behavior and possible flaring events that cause atmospheric expansion and high-velocity material ejection.

Contribution

It provides the first spectrally and temporally resolved detection of Mg I in KELT-9 b and models the atmosphere including planetary rotation and dynamic variability.

Findings

Detection of Mg I triplet at 7.8σ significance.

Evidence of atmospheric rotation with v_rot ≈ 8.2 km/s.

Observation of P-Cygni-like emission indicating high-velocity outflows.

Abstract

We present a spectrally and temporally resolved detection of the optical Mg I triplet at 7.8$\sigma$ in the extended atmosphere of the ultra-hot Jupiter KELT-9 b, adding to the list of detected metal species in the hottest gas giant currently known. Constraints are placed on the density and radial extent of the excited hydrogen envelope using simultaneous observations of H$\alpha$ and H$\beta$ under the assumption of a spherically symmetric atmosphere. We find that planetary rotational broadening of $v_\text{rot} = 8.2^{+0.6}_{-0.7}$ km s$^{-1}$ is necessary to reproduce the Balmer line transmission profile shapes, where the model including rotation is strongly preferred over the non-rotating model using a Bayesian information criterion comparison. The time-series of both metal line and hydrogen absorption show remarkable structure, suggesting that the atmosphere observed during this transit is dynamic rather than static. We detect a relative emission feature near the end of the transit which exhibits a P-Cygni-like shape, evidence of material moving at $\approx 50-100$ km s$^{-1}$ away from the planet. We hypothesize that the in-transit variability and subsequent P-Cygni-like profiles are due to a flaring event that caused the atmosphere to expand, resulting in unbound material being accelerated to high speeds by stellar radiation pressure. Further spectroscopic transit observations will help establish the frequency of such events.