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Title: THE BROADBAND INFRARED EMISSION SPECTRUM OF THE EXOPLANET TrES-3

Journal Article · · Astrophysical Journal
; ; ;  [1]; ;  [2];  [3];  [4]
  1. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden St., Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States)
  2. Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Peyton Hall Rm. 105, Princeton, NJ 08544-1001 (United States)
  3. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, 8800 Greenbelt Road, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771 (United States)
  4. Lowell Observatory, 1400 West Mars Hill Road, Flagstaff, AZ 86001 (United States)

We use the Spitzer Space Telescope to estimate the dayside thermal emission of the exoplanet TrES-3 integrated in the 3.6, 4.5, 5.8, and 8.0 {mu}m bandpasses of the Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) instrument. We observe two secondary eclipses and find relative eclipse depths of 0.00346 +- 0.00035, 0.00372 +- 0.00054, 0.00449 +- 0.00097, and 0.00475 +- 0.00046, respectively, in the four IRAC bandpasses. We combine our results with the earlier K-band measurement of De Mooij et al., and compare them with models of the planetary emission. We find that the planet does not require the presence of an inversion layer in the high atmosphere. This is the first very strongly irradiated planet that does not have a temperature inversion, which indicates that stellar or planetary characteristics other than temperature have an important impact on temperature inversion. De Mooij and Snellen also detected a possible slight offset in the timing of the secondary eclipse in the K band. However, based on our four Spitzer channels, we place a 3sigma upper limit of |ecos(omega)| < 0.0056, where e is the planet's orbital eccentricity and omega is the longitude of the periastron. This result strongly indicates that the orbit is circular, as expected from tidal circularization theory.

OSTI ID:
21394366
Journal Information:
Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 711, Issue 1; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/711/1/374; ISSN 0004-637X
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English