Spi-OPS: Spitzer and CHEOPS confirm the near-polar orbit of MASCARA-1 b and reveal a hint of dayside reflection

TL;DR

This study combines CHEOPS and Spitzer data to precisely determine the near-polar orbit of MASCARA-1 b, analyze its atmospheric properties, and demonstrate a method to separate thermal emission from reflected light in phase curves.

Contribution

The paper introduces a joint analysis approach using CHEOPS and Spitzer data to accurately measure the spin-orbit angle and atmospheric characteristics of MASCARA-1 b, improving upon previous methods.

Findings

Confirmed near-polar orbit with $ ext{Psi}=72.1^{+2.5}_{-2.4}$ degrees.

Derived dayside temperature of approximately 3062 K and nightside temperature of 1720 K.

Estimated geometric, spherical, and Bond albedos for the planet.

Abstract

The light curves of tidally locked hot Jupiters transiting fast-rotating, early-type stars are a rich source of information about both the planet and star, with full-phase coverage enabling a detailed atmospheric characterisation of the planet. Although it is possible to determine the true spin-orbit angle $\Psi$, a notoriously difficult parameter to measure, from any transit asymmetry resulting from gravity darkening induced by the stellar rotation, the correlations that exist between the transit parameters have led to large disagreements in published values of $\Psi$ for some systems. We aimed to study these phenomena in the light curves of the ultra-hot Jupiter MASCARA-1 b. We obtained optical CHEOPS transit and occultation light curves of MASCARA-1 b, and analysed them jointly with a Spitzer/IRAC 4.5 $\mu$m full-phase curve. When fitting the CHEOPS and Spitzer transits together, the degeneracies are greatly diminished and return results consistent with previously published Doppler tomography. Placing priors informed by the tomography achieves even better precision, allowing a determination of $\Psi=72.1^{+2.5}_{-2.4}$ deg. From the occultations and phase variations, we derived dayside and nightside temperatures of $3062^{+66}_{-68}$ K and $1720\pm330$ K, respectively. In addition, we could separately derive geometric albedo $A_g=0.171^{+0.066}_{-0.068}$ and spherical albedo $A_s=0.266^{+0.097}_{-0.100}$ from the CHEOPS data, and Bond albedo $A_B=0.057^{+0.083}_{-0.101}$ from the Spitzer phase curve. Where possible, priors informed by Doppler tomography should be used when fitting transits of fast-rotating stars, though multi-colour photometry may also unlock an accurate measurement of $\Psi$. Our approach to modelling the phase variations at different wavelengths provides a template for how to separate thermal emission from reflected light in spectrally resolved JWST phase curves.