CHEOPS finds KELT-1b darker than expected in visible light: Discrepancy between the CHEOPS and TESS eclipse depths

TL;DR

This study uses CHEOPS and other telescopes to analyze KELT-1b's dayside brightness, revealing a discrepancy between visible and infrared observations and challenging existing models of its reflectivity and cloud cover.

Contribution

First simultaneous multi-band analysis of KELT-1b's dayside spectrum combining CHEOPS, TESS, and other data, highlighting a significant discrepancy in visible light eclipse depths.

Findings

CHEOPS detects no significant eclipse, unlike TESS.

Discrepancy between CHEOPS and TESS geometric albedos.

Possible cloud variability explains the albedo differences.

Abstract

Recent TESS-based studies have suggested that the dayside of KELT-1b, a strongly-irradiated brown dwarf, is significantly brighter in visible light than what would be expected based on Spitzer observations in infrared. We observe eight eclipses of KELT-1b with CHEOPS (CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite) to measure its dayside brightness temperature in the bluest passband observed so far, and model the CHEOPS photometry jointly with the existing optical and NIR photometry from TESS, LBT, CFHT, and Spitzer. Our modelling leads to a self-consistent dayside spectrum for KELT-1b covering the CHEOPS, TESS, H , Ks, and Spitzer IRAC 3.6 and 4.5 ${\mu}$m bands, where our TESS, H , Ks, and Spitzer band estimates largely agree with the previous studies, but we discover a strong discrepancy between the CHEOPS and TESS bands. The CHEOPS observations yield a higher photometric precision than the TESS observations, but do not show a significant eclipse signal, while a deep eclipse is detected in the TESS band. The derived TESS geometric albedo of $0.36^{+0.12}_{-0.13}$ is difficult to reconcile with a CHEOPS geometric albedo that is consistent with zero because the two passbands have considerable overlap. Variability in cloud cover caused by the transport of transient nightside clouds to the dayside could provide an explanation for reconciling the TESS and CHEOPS geometric albedos, but this hypothesis needs to be tested by future observations.