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http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12386/31421
Title: | Nightside condensation of iron in an ultrahot giant exoplanet | Authors: | Ehrenreich, David Lovis, Christophe Allart, Romain Zapatero Osorio, María Rosa Pepe, Francesco CRISTIANI, Stefano Rebolo, Rafael Santos, Nuno C. BORSA, Francesco Demangeon, Olivier Dumusque, Xavier González Hernández, Jonay I. Casasayas-Barris, Núria Ségransan, Damien Sousa, Sérgio Abreu, Manuel Adibekyan, Vardan Affolter, Michael Allende Prieto, Carlos Alibert, Yann Aliverti, Matteo Alves, David Amate, Manuel Avila, Gerardo BALDINI, Veronica Bandy, Timothy Benz, Willy BIANCO, ANDREA Bolmont, Émeline Bouchy, François Bourrier, Vincent Broeg, Christopher Cabral, Alexandre CALDERONE, GIORGIO Pallé, Enric Cegla, H. M. CIRAMI, ROBERTO Coelho, João M. P. Conconi, Paolo CORETTI, Igor Cumani, Claudio CUPANI, Guido Dekker, Hans DELABRE, BERNARD ALEXIS Deiries, Sebastian D'ODORICO, Valentina DI MARCANTONIO, Paolo Figueira, Pedro Fragoso, Ana Genolet, Ludovic Genoni, Matteo Génova Santos, Ricardo Hara, Nathan Hughes, Ian Iwert, Olaf Kerber, Florian Knudstrup, Jens LANDONI, Marco Lavie, Baptiste Lizon, Jean-Louis Lendl, Monika Lo Curto, Gaspare Maire, Charles Manescau, Antonio Martins, C. J. A. P. Mégevand, Denis Mehner, Andrea MICELA, Giuseppina Modigliani, Andrea MOLARO, Paolo Monteiro, Manuel Monteiro, Mario Moschetti, Manuele Müller, Eric Nunes, Nelson OGGIONI, LUCA Oliveira, António PARIANI, Giorgio Pasquini, Luca PORETTI, Ennio Rasilla, José Luis REDAELLI, EDOARDO MARIA ALBERTO RIVA, Marco Santana Tschudi, Samuel Santin, Paolo Santos, Pedro Segovia Milla, Alex Seidel, Julia V. Sosnowska, Danuta SOZZETTI, Alessandro Spanò, Paolo Suárez Mascareño, Alejandro Tabernero, Hugo Tenegi, Fabio Udry, Stéphane ZANUTTA, Alessio ZERBI, Filippo Maria |
Issue Date: | 2020 | Journal: | NATURE | Number: | 580 | Issue: | 7805 | First Page: | 597 | Abstract: | Ultrahot giant exoplanets receive thousands of times Earth's insolation<SUP>1,2</SUP>. Their high-temperature atmospheres (greater than 2,000 kelvin) are ideal laboratories for studying extreme planetary climates and chemistry<SUP>3-5</SUP>. Daysides are predicted to be cloud-free, dominated by atomic species<SUP>6</SUP> and much hotter than nightsides<SUP>5,7,8</SUP>. Atoms are expected to recombine into molecules over the nightside<SUP>9</SUP>, resulting in different day and night chemistries. Although metallic elements and a large temperature contrast have been observed<SUP>10-14</SUP>, no chemical gradient has been measured across the surface of such an exoplanet. Different atmospheric chemistry between the day-to-night (`evening') and night-to-day (`morning') terminators could, however, be revealed as an asymmetric absorption signature during transit<SUP>4,7,15</SUP>. Here we report the detection of an asymmetric atmospheric signature in the ultrahot exoplanet WASP-76b. We spectrally and temporally resolve this signature using a combination of high-dispersion spectroscopy with a large photon-collecting area. The absorption signal, attributed to neutral iron, is blueshifted by -11 ± 0.7 kilometres per second on the trailing limb, which can be explained by a combination of planetary rotation and wind blowing from the hot dayside<SUP>16</SUP>. In contrast, no signal arises from the nightside close to the morning terminator, showing that atomic iron is not absorbing starlight there. We conclude that iron must therefore condense during its journey across the nightside. | URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12386/31421 | URL: | https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2107-1 https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/85083779045 |
ISSN: | 0028-0836 | DOI: | 10.1038/s41586-020-2107-1 | Bibcode ADS: | 2020Natur.580..597E | Fulltext: | open |
Appears in Collections: | 1.01 Articoli in rivista |
Files in This Item:
File | Description | Size | Format | |
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2003.05528.pdf | preprint | 6.04 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
ehrenreich2020_article.pdf | [Administrators only] | 1.46 MB | Adobe PDF | |
ehrenreich2020_methods.pdf | [Administrators only] | 9.76 MB | Adobe PDF |
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