Article (Scientific journals)
Variability in the super-Earth 55 Cnc e
Demory, Brice-Olivier; Gillon, Michaël; Madhusudhan, Nikku et al.
2016In Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 455, p. 2018-2027
Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi
 

Files


Full Text
1505.00269v2.pdf
Author preprint (2.27 MB)
Download

All documents in ORBi are protected by a user license.

Send to



Details



Keywords :
techniques: photometric; stars: individual: 55 Cnc; infrared: planetary systems
Abstract :
[en] Considerable progress has been made in recent years in observations of atmospheric signatures of giant exoplanets, but processes in rocky exoplanets remain largely unknown due to major challenges in observing small planets. Numerous efforts to observe spectra of super-Earths, exoplanets with masses of 1-10 Earth masses, have thus far revealed only featureless spectra. In this paper, we report a 4σ detection of variability in the dayside thermal emission from the transiting super-Earth 55 Cancri e. Dedicated space-based monitoring of the planet in the mid-infrared over eight eclipses revealed the thermal emission from its dayside atmosphere varying by a factor of 3.7 between 2012 and 2013. The amplitude and trend of the variability are not explained by potential influence of star spots or by local thermal or compositional changes in the atmosphere over the short span of the observations. The possibility of large-scale surface activity due to strong tidal interactions possibly similar to Io, or the presence of circumstellar/circumplanetary material appear plausible and motivate future long-term monitoring of the planet.
Disciplines :
Space science, astronomy & astrophysics
Author, co-author :
Demory, Brice-Olivier;  Astrophysics Group, Cavendish Laboratory, J.J. Thomson Avenue, Cambridge CB3 0HE, UK
Gillon, Michaël  ;  Université de Liège - ULiège
Madhusudhan, Nikku;  Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 0HA, UK
Queloz, Didier;  Astrophysics Group, Cavendish Laboratory, J.J. Thomson Avenue, Cambridge CB3 0HE, UK)
Language :
English
Title :
Variability in the super-Earth 55 Cnc e
Publication date :
01 January 2016
Journal title :
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
ISSN :
0035-8711
eISSN :
1365-2966
Publisher :
Oxford University Press, Oxford, United Kingdom
Volume :
455
Pages :
2018-2027
Peer reviewed :
Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi
Available on ORBi :
since 21 May 2015

Statistics


Number of views
156 (9 by ULiège)
Number of downloads
134 (5 by ULiège)

Scopus citations®
 
98
Scopus citations®
without self-citations
81
OpenCitations
 
116

Bibliography


Similar publications



Contact ORBi