The GAPS Programme with HARPS-N at TNG XIX. Atmospheric Rossiter-McLaughlin effect and improved parameters of KELT-9b

TL;DR

This study uses high-resolution spectroscopy to refine the parameters of the KELT-9b exoplanet, detect an atmospheric Rossiter-McLaughlin effect caused by its atmosphere, and demonstrate the potential for similar observations on other ultra-hot Jupiters.

Contribution

The paper introduces the Atmospheric Rossiter-McLaughlin effect caused by planetary atmospheres and provides improved system parameters for KELT-9b using a novel RV analysis method.

Findings

Updated planetary mass to 2.88±0.35 M_Jup

Detected atmospheric Rossiter-McLaughlin effect caused by KELT-9b's atmosphere

Atmospheric extension measured up to 1.22±0.02 R_p

Abstract

In the framework of the GAPS project, we observed the planet-hosting star KELT-9 (A-type star, VsinI$\sim$110 km/s) with the HARPS-N spectrograph at the TNG. In this work we analyse the spectra and the extracted radial velocities (RVs), to constrain the physical parameters of the system and to detect the planetary atmosphere of KELT-9b. We extracted from the high-resolution optical spectra the mean stellar line profiles with an analysis based on the Least Square Deconvolution technique. Then, we computed the stellar RVs with a method optimized for fast rotators, by fitting the mean stellar line profile with a purely rotational profile instead of using a Gaussian function. The new spectra and analysis led us to update the orbital and physical parameters of the system, improving in particular the value of the planetary mass to $M_{\rm p}=2.88\pm0.35\,M_{\rm Jup}$. We discovered an anomalous in-transit RV deviation from the theoretical Rossiter-McLaughlin effect solution, calculated from the projected spin-orbit angle $\lambda=-85.78\pm0.46$ degrees measured with Doppler tomography. We prove that this deviation is caused by the planetary atmosphere of KELT-9b, thus we name this effect Atmospheric Rossiter-McLaughlin effect. By analysing the magnitude of the RV anomaly, we obtained information on the extension of the planetary atmosphere as weighted by the model used to retrieve the stellar mean line profiles, which is up to $1.22\pm0.02\,R_{\rm p}$. The Atmospheric Rossiter-McLaughlin effect will be observable for other exoplanets whose atmosphere has non-negligible correlation with the stellar mask used to retrieve the RVs, in particular ultra-hot Jupiters with iron in their atmosphere. The duration and amplitude of the effect will depend not only on the extension of the atmosphere, but also on the in-transit planetary RVs and on the projected rotational velocity of the parent star.