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Unveiling the atmospheres of giant exoplanets with an EChO-class mission

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Abstract

More than a thousand exoplanets have been discovered over the last decade. Perhaps more excitingly, probing their atmospheres has become possible. With current data we have glimpsed the diversity of exoplanet atmospheres that will be revealed over the coming decade. However, numerous questions concerning their chemical composition, thermal structure, and atmospheric dynamics remain to be answered. More observations of higher quality are needed. In the next years, the selection of a space-based mission dedicated to the spectroscopic characterization of exoplanets would revolutionize our understanding of the physics of planetary atmospheres. Such a mission was proposed to the ESA cosmic vision program in 2014. Our paper is therefore based on the planned capabilities of the Exoplanet Characterization Observatory (EChO), but it should equally apply to any future mission with similar characteristics. With its large spectral coverage (0.4 − 16 μm), high spectral resolution (λ/Δλ > 300 below 5 μm and λ/Δλ > 30 above 5 μm) and 1.5m mirror, a future mission such as EChO will provide spectrally resolved transit lightcurves, secondary eclipses lightcurves, and full phase curves of numerous exoplanets with an unprecedented signal-to-noise ratio. In this paper, we review some of today’s main scientific questions about gas giant exoplanets atmospheres, for which a future mission such as EChO will bring a decisive contribution.

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Notes

  1. We use EChO’s noise model introduced in [5]. In particular, we use a telescope effective area of 1.13 square meter, a detector quantum efficiency of 0.7, a duty-cycle of 0.8, and an optical throughput of 0.191 from 0.4 to 0.8 μm, 0.284 from 0.8 to 1.5 μm, 0.278 from 1.5 to 2.5 μm, 0.378 from 2.5 to 5 μm, 0.418 from 5 to 8.5 μm,0.418 from 8.5 to 11 μm, 0.326 from 11 to 16 μm.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire Lagrange, UMR7293, Université de Nice Sophia-Antipolis, CNRS, Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur, 06300, Nice, France

    Vivien Parmentier

  2. Department of Planetary Sciences, Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA

    Adam P. Showman

  3. Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, MIT, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA

    Julien de Wit

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  1. Vivien Parmentier
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  3. Julien de Wit
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Parmentier, V., Showman, A.P. & de Wit, J. Unveiling the atmospheres of giant exoplanets with an EChO-class mission. Exp Astron 40, 481–500 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10686-014-9395-0

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