Detection of Na in the atmosphere of the hot Jupiter HAT-P-55b

TL;DR

This study uses optical transmission spectroscopy to confirm the presence of sodium in the atmosphere of hot Jupiter HAT-P-55b, demonstrating the effectiveness of new analysis methods in detecting atmospheric constituents.

Contribution

The paper introduces a new pixel-based method for deriving transmission spectra and confirms sodium detection in HAT-P-55b's atmosphere with high significance.

Findings

Confirmed sodium (Na) detection at 5.5σ

Tentative magnesium hydride (MgH) detection at 3.4σ

Spectral analysis consistent with previous photometric observations

Abstract

The spectral signatures of optical absorbers, when combined with those of infrared molecules, play a critical role in constraining the cloud properties of exoplanet atmospheres. We aim to use optical transmission spectroscopy to confirm the tentative color signature previously observed by multiband photometry in the atmosphere of hot Jupiter HAT-P-55b. We observed a transit of HAT-P-55b with the OSIRIS spectrograph on the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC). We created two sets of spectroscopic light curves using the conventional band-integrated method and the newly proposed pixel-based method to derive the transmission spectrum. We performed Bayesian spectral retrieval analyses on the transmission spectrum to interpret the observed atmospheric properties. The transmission spectra derived from the two methods are consistent, both spectrally resolving the tentative color signature observed by MuSCAT2. The retrievals on the combined OSIRIS and MuSCAT2 transmission spectrum yield the detection of Na at 5.5$\sigma$ and the tentative detection of MgH at 3.4$\sigma$. The current optical-only wavelength coverage cannot constrain the absolute abundances of the atmospheric species. Space-based observations covering the molecular infrared bands or ground-based high-resolution spectroscopy are needed to further constrain the atmospheric properties of HAT-P-55b.