NEAR-INFRARED THERMAL EMISSION FROM TrES-3b: A Ks-BAND DETECTION AND AN H-BAND UPPER LIMIT ON THE DEPTH OF THE SECONDARY ECLIPSE
- Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Toronto, 50 St. George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 3H4 (Canada)
- Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 (United States)
- Departement de Physique, Universite de Montreal, C.P. 6128 Succ. Centre-Ville, Montreal, QC H3C 3J7 (Canada)
- Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Corporation, 65-1238 Mamalahoa Highway, Kamuela, HI 96743 (United States)
We present H- and Ks-band photometry bracketing the secondary eclipse of the hot Jupiter TrES-3b using the Wide-field Infrared Camera on the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. We detect the secondary eclipse of TrES-3b with a depth of 0.133{sup +0.018}{sub -0.016}% in the Ks band (8{sigma})-a result that is in sharp contrast to the eclipse depth reported by de Mooij and Snellen. We do not detect its thermal emission in the H band, but place a 3{sigma} limit of 0.051% on the depth of the secondary eclipse in this band. A secondary eclipse of this depth in Ks requires very efficient day-to-nightside redistribution of heat and nearly isotropic reradiation, a conclusion that is in agreement with longer wavelength, mid-infrared Spitzer observations. Our 3{sigma} upper limit on the depth of our H-band secondary eclipse also argues for very efficient redistribution of heat and suggests that the atmospheric layer probed by these observations may be well homogenized. However, our H-band upper limit is so constraining that it suggests the possibility of a temperature inversion at depth, or an absorbing molecule, such as methane, that further depresses the emitted flux at this wavelength. The combination of our near-infrared measurements and those obtained with Spitzer suggests that TrES-3b displays a near-isothermal dayside atmospheric temperature structure, whose spectrum is well approximated by a blackbody. We emphasize that our strict H-band limit is in stark disagreement with the best-fit atmospheric model that results from longer wavelength observations only, thus highlighting the importance of near-infrared observations at multiple wavelengths, in addition to those returned by Spitzer in the mid-infrared, to facilitate a comprehensive understanding of the energy budgets of transiting exoplanets.
- OSTI ID:
- 21455104
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 718, Issue 2; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/718/2/920; ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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