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Article Dans Une Revue Science Année : 2017

HAT-P-26b: A Neptune-mass exoplanet with a well-constrained heavy element abundance

Résumé

A correlation between giant-planet mass and atmospheric heavy elemental abundance was first noted in the past century from observations of planets in our own Solar System and has served as a cornerstone of planet-formation theory. Using data from the Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes from 0.5 to 5 micrometers, we conducted a detailed atmospheric study of the transiting Neptune-mass exoplanet HAT-P-26b. We detected prominent H$_2$O absorption bands with a maximum base-to-peak amplitude of 525 parts per million in the transmission spectrum. Using the water abundance as a proxy for metallicity, we measured HAT-P-26b’s atmospheric heavy element content (4.8 $^{+21.5}_{-4.0}$ times solar). This likely indicates that HAT-P-26b’s atmosphere is primordial and obtained its gaseous envelope late in its disk lifetime, with little contamination from metal-rich planetesimals.

Dates et versions

hal-01834139 , version 1 (10-07-2018)

Identifiants

Citer

Hannah Wakeford, David Sing, Tiffany Kataria, Drake Deming, Nikolay Nikolov, et al.. HAT-P-26b: A Neptune-mass exoplanet with a well-constrained heavy element abundance. Science, 2017, 356 (6338), pp.628 - 631. ⟨10.1126/science.aah4668⟩. ⟨hal-01834139⟩
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