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Title: HST Rotational Spectral Mapping Of Two L-Type Brown Dwarfs: Variability In And Out Of Water Bands Indicates High-Altitude Haze Layers

Abstract

We present time-resolved near-infrared spectroscopy of two L5 dwarfs, 2MASS J18212815+1414010 and 2MASS J15074759-1627386, observed with the Wide Field Camera 3 instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). We study the wavelength dependence of rotation-modulated flux variations between 1.1 μm and 1.7 μm. We find that the water absorption bands of the two L5 dwarfs at 1.15 μm and 1.4 μm vary at similar amplitudes as the adjacent continuum. This differs from the results of previous HST observations of L/T transition dwarfs, in which the water absorption at 1.4 μm displays variations of about half of the amplitude at other wavelengths. We find that the relative amplitude of flux variability out of the water band with respect to that in the water band shows a increasing trend from the L5 dwarfs toward the early T dwarfs. We utilize the models of Saumon & Marley (2008) and find that the observed variability of the L5 dwarfs can be explained by the presence of spatially varying high-altitude haze layers above the condensate clouds. Therefore, our observations show that the heterogeneity of haze layers - the driver of the variability - must be located at very low pressures, where even the water opacitymore » is negligible. In the near future, the rotational spectral mapping technique could be utilized for other atomic and molecular species to probe different pressure levels in the atmospheres of brown dwarfs and exoplanets and uncover both horizontal and vertical cloud structures.« less

Authors:
 [1];  [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [7];  [8];  [9];  [10];  [11];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [12]
+ Show Author Affiliations
  1. Univ. of Arizona, Tucson, AZ (United States)
  2. NASA Ames Research Center (ARC), Moffett Field, Mountain View, CA (United States)
  3. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
  4. Univ. of California, Santa Cruz, CA (United States)
  5. Max Planck Inst. for Astronomy, Heidelberg (Germany)
  6. Univ. of Montreal, Quebec (Canada)
  7. Space Telescope Inst., Baltimore, MD (United States)
  8. Western Univ. London, ON (Canada)
  9. Univ. of California, San Diego, CA (United States)
  10. Imperial College, London (United Kingdom)
  11. California Inst. of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States)
  12. State Univ. of New York (SUNY), Stony Brook, NY (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE
OSTI Identifier:
1239266
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-14-27992
Journal ID: ISSN 2041-8213
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC52-06NA25396
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
The Astrophysical Journal. Letters (Online)
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Name: The Astrophysical Journal. Letters (Online); Journal Volume: 798; Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 2041-8213
Publisher:
Institute of Physics (IOP)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS

Citation Formats

Yang, Hao, Apai, Dániel, Marley, Mark S., Saumon, Didier, Morley, Caroline V., Buenzli, Esther, Artigau, Étienne, Radigan, Jacqueline, Metchev, Stanimir, Burgasser, Adam J., Mohanty, Subhanjoy, Lowrance, Patrick J., Showman, Adam P., Karalidi, Theodora, Flateau, Davin, and Heinze, Aren N. HST Rotational Spectral Mapping Of Two L-Type Brown Dwarfs: Variability In And Out Of Water Bands Indicates High-Altitude Haze Layers. United States: N. p., 2014. Web. doi:10.1088/2041-8205/798/1/L13.
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Yang, Hao, Apai, Dániel, Marley, Mark S., Saumon, Didier, Morley, Caroline V., Buenzli, Esther, Artigau, Étienne, Radigan, Jacqueline, Metchev, Stanimir, Burgasser, Adam J., Mohanty, Subhanjoy, Lowrance, Patrick J., Showman, Adam P., Karalidi, Theodora, Flateau, Davin, & Heinze, Aren N. HST Rotational Spectral Mapping Of Two L-Type Brown Dwarfs: Variability In And Out Of Water Bands Indicates High-Altitude Haze Layers. United States. https://doi.org/10.1088/2041-8205/798/1/L13
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Yang, Hao, Apai, Dániel, Marley, Mark S., Saumon, Didier, Morley, Caroline V., Buenzli, Esther, Artigau, Étienne, Radigan, Jacqueline, Metchev, Stanimir, Burgasser, Adam J., Mohanty, Subhanjoy, Lowrance, Patrick J., Showman, Adam P., Karalidi, Theodora, Flateau, Davin, and Heinze, Aren N. Wed . "HST Rotational Spectral Mapping Of Two L-Type Brown Dwarfs: Variability In And Out Of Water Bands Indicates High-Altitude Haze Layers". United States. https://doi.org/10.1088/2041-8205/798/1/L13. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1239266.
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@article{osti_1239266,
title = {HST Rotational Spectral Mapping Of Two L-Type Brown Dwarfs: Variability In And Out Of Water Bands Indicates High-Altitude Haze Layers},
author = {Yang, Hao and Apai, Dániel and Marley, Mark S. and Saumon, Didier and Morley, Caroline V. and Buenzli, Esther and Artigau, Étienne and Radigan, Jacqueline and Metchev, Stanimir and Burgasser, Adam J. and Mohanty, Subhanjoy and Lowrance, Patrick J. and Showman, Adam P. and Karalidi, Theodora and Flateau, Davin and Heinze, Aren N.},
abstractNote = {We present time-resolved near-infrared spectroscopy of two L5 dwarfs, 2MASS J18212815+1414010 and 2MASS J15074759-1627386, observed with the Wide Field Camera 3 instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). We study the wavelength dependence of rotation-modulated flux variations between 1.1 μm and 1.7 μm. We find that the water absorption bands of the two L5 dwarfs at 1.15 μm and 1.4 μm vary at similar amplitudes as the adjacent continuum. This differs from the results of previous HST observations of L/T transition dwarfs, in which the water absorption at 1.4 μm displays variations of about half of the amplitude at other wavelengths. We find that the relative amplitude of flux variability out of the water band with respect to that in the water band shows a increasing trend from the L5 dwarfs toward the early T dwarfs. We utilize the models of Saumon & Marley (2008) and find that the observed variability of the L5 dwarfs can be explained by the presence of spatially varying high-altitude haze layers above the condensate clouds. Therefore, our observations show that the heterogeneity of haze layers - the driver of the variability - must be located at very low pressures, where even the water opacity is negligible. In the near future, the rotational spectral mapping technique could be utilized for other atomic and molecular species to probe different pressure levels in the atmospheres of brown dwarfs and exoplanets and uncover both horizontal and vertical cloud structures.},
doi = {10.1088/2041-8205/798/1/L13},
journal = {The Astrophysical Journal. Letters (Online)},
number = 1,
volume = 798,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed Dec 17 00:00:00 EST 2014},
month = {Wed Dec 17 00:00:00 EST 2014}
}
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https://doi.org/10.1088/2041-8205/798/1/L13
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