Browsing by Subject "planets and satellites: general"

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An Alma Disk Mass for the Candidate Protoplanetary Companion to FW Tau
(2015-01) Kraus, Adam L.; Andrews, Sean M.; Bowler, Brendan P.; Herczeg, Gregory; Ireland, Michael J.; Liu, Michael C.; Metchev, Stanimir; Cruz, Kelle L.; Kraus, Adam L.
We present ALMA observations of the FW Tau system, a close binary pair of M5 stars with a wide-orbit (300 AU projected separation) substellar companion. The companion is extremely faint and red in the optical and near-infrared, but boasts a weak far-infrared excess and optical/near-infrared emission lines indicative of a primordial accretion disk of gas and dust. The component-resolved 1.3mm continuum emission is found to be associated only with the companion, with a flux (1.78 +/- 0.03 mJy) that indicates a dust mass of 1-2M(circle plus). While this mass reservoir is insufficient to form a giant planet, it is more than sufficient to produce an analog of the Kepler-42 exoplanetary system or the Galilean satellites. The mass and geometry of the disk-bearing FW Tau companion remains unclear. Near-infrared spectroscopy shows deep water bands that indicate a spectral type later than M5, but substantial veiling prevents a more accurate determination of the effective temperature (and hence mass). Both a disk-bearing "planetary-mass" companion seen in direct light or a brown dwarf tertiary viewed in light scattered by an edge-on disk or envelope remain possibilities.
HDO And SO2 Thermal Mapping On Venus II. The So2 Spatial Distribution Above And Within The Clouds
(2013-11) Encrenaz, T.; Greathouse, T. K.; Richter, M. J.; Lacy, J.; Widemann, T.; Bezard, B.; Fouchet, T.; deWitt, C.; Atreya, S. K.; Lacy, J.
Sulfur dioxide and water vapor, two key species of Venus photochemistry, are known to exhibit significant spatial and temporal variations above the cloud top. In particular, ground-based thermal imaging spectroscopy at high spectral resolution, achieved on Venus in January 2012, has shown evidence for strong SO2 variations on timescales shorter than a day. We have continued our observing campaign using the TEXES high-resolution imaging spectrometer at the NASA InfraRed Telescope Facility to map sulfur dioxide over the disk of Venus at two different wavelengths, 7 mu m (already used in the previous study) and 19 mu m. The 7 mu m radiation probes the top of the H2SO4 cloud, while the 19 mu m radiation probes a few kilometers below within the cloud. Observations took place on October 4 and 5, 2012. Both HDO and SO2 lines are identified in our 7-mu m spectra and SO2 is also easily identified at 19 mu m. The CO2 lines at 7 and 19 mu m are used to infer the thermal structure. An isothermal/inversion layer is present at high latitudes (above 60 N and S) in the polar collars, which was not detected in October 2012. The enhancement of the polar collar in October 2012 is probably due to the fact that the morning terminator is observed, while the January data probed the evening terminator. As observed in our previous run, the HDO map is relatively uniform over the disk of Venus, with a mean mixing ratio of about 1 ppm. In contrast, the SO2 maps at 19 mu m show intensity variations by a factor of about 2 over the disk within the cloud, less patchy than observed at the cloud top at 7 mu m. In addition, the SO2 maps seem to indicate significant temporal changes within an hour. There is evidence for a cutoff in the SO2 vertical distribution above the cloud top, also previously observed by SPICAV/SOIR aboard Venus Express and predicted by photochemical models.
A Short-Period Censor of Sub-Jupiter Mass Exoplanets With Low Density
(2011-02) Szabo, Gy M.; Kiss, L. L.; Szabo, Gy M.
Despite the existence of many short-period hot Jupiters, there is not one hot Neptune with an orbital period less than 2.5 days. Here, we discuss a cluster analysis of the currently known 106 transiting exoplanets to investigate a possible explanation for this observation. We find two distinct clusters in the mass-density space, one with hot Jupiters with a wide range of orbital periods (0.8-114 days) and a narrow range of planet radii (1.2 +/- 0.2 R-J) and another one with a mixture of super-Earths, hot Neptunes, and hot Jupiters, exhibiting a surprisingly narrow period distribution (3.7 +/- 0.8 days). These two clusters follow strikingly different distributions in the period-radius parameter plane. The branch of sub-Jupiter mass exoplanets is censored by the orbital period at the large-radius end: no planets with mass between 0.02 and 0.8 M-J or with radius between 0.25 and 1.0 R-J are known with P-orb < 2.5 days. This clustering is not predicted by current theories of planet Formation and evolution, which we also review briefly.