Bibiana Prinoth (moved!)

Is this really me catching up to TODAY?

For the fifth paper of my #MonthOfArXiv (IT’S FROM TODAY!!), I chose a paper studying the planet MASCARA-4 b. If you are intrigued by that name, I recommend reading yesterday’s thread about MASCARA-1 b.

The title of the paper is “Detection of rubidium and samarium in the atmosphere of the ultra-hot Jupiter MASCARA-4 b” and was written by Jiang and collaborators.

Let’s check it out! 👇🏼🧵

🔗 https://arxiv.org/abs/2304.04948

#challenge #PaperThread

Detection of rubidium and samarium in the atmosphere of the ultra-hot Jupiter MASCARA-4b

Ultra-hot Jupiters (UHJs) possess the most extreme environments among various types of exoplanets, making them ideal laboratories to study the chemical composition and kinetics properties of exoplanet atmosphere with high-resolution spectroscopy (HRS). It has the advantage of resolving the tiny Doppler shift and weak signal from exoplanet atmosphere and has helped to detect dozens of heavy elements in UHJs including KELT-9b, WASP-76b, WASP-121b. MASCARA-4b is a 2.8-day UHJ with an equilibrium temperature of $\sim2250$ K, which is expected to contain heavy elements detectable with VLT. In this letter, we present a survey of atoms/ions in the atmosphere of the MASCARA-4b, using the two VLT/ESPRESSO transits data. Cross-correlation analyses are performed on the obtained transmission spectra at each exposure with the template spectra generated by petitRADTRANS for atoms/ions from element Li to U. We confirm the previous detection of Mg, Ca, Cr and Fe and report the detection of Rb, Sm, Ti+ and Ba+ with peak signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) $>$ 5. We report a tentative detection of Sc+, with peak SNRs $\sim$6 but deviating from the estimated position. The most interesting discovery is the first-time detection of elements Rb and Sm in an exoplanet. Rb is an alkaline element like Na and K, while Sm is the first lanthanide series element and is by far the heaviest one detected in exoplanets. Detailed modeling and acquiring more data are required to yield abundance ratios of the heavy elements and to understand better the common presence of them in UHJ's atmospheres.

arXiv.org
Apr 12, 2023 at 8:20pmWeb
Show threadBibiana Prinoth (moved!)Apr 12, 2023

This is again a paper very much in my field, so if you are new here, please give the following thread a read first. It will give you a few hints important for ultra-hot Jupiters (tidal locking, temperature regimes, chemistry, etc.)

https://astrodon.social/@bibianaprinoth/110179601619149567

Bibiana Prinoth (@[email protected])

Paper No. 2 for today! For the third paper of my #MonthOfArXiv I have chosen a paper from my own field. I hope that I can give you a personal flavour, because it is about an important mechanism. Hooked? Follow me! 👇🏼🧵 The title of the paper is “The PEPSI Exoplanet Transit Survey. III: The detection of Fe I, Cr I and Ti I in the atmosphere of MASCARA-1 b through high-resolution emission spectroscopy” and was written by Scandariato et al. 🔗 https://arxiv.org/abs/2304.03328 #challenge #PaperThread

Astrodon - The Astro Community
Show threadBibiana Prinoth (moved!)Apr 12, 2023
Now that we are ready, let’s check out our target. The planet up for discussion is the ultra-hot Jupiter MASCARA-4 b. It orbits in roughly 3 days around its host star and at first sight, it might be a very “standard” ultra-hot Jupiter to me: 1.6 Jupiter masses, 1.5 Jupiter radii. Perfect for a transit observation?
Show threadBibiana Prinoth (moved!)Apr 12, 2023
Well, I wasn’t the only one to say this. The authors went on a deep dive for heavy elements in the atmosphere of the planet (using the cross-correlation technique, for the experts here). It has become a bit of a trend to find the heaviest metals in the atmospheres of these hot planets. The study analysed two transit time-series of MASCARA-4 b, obtained with the ESPRESSO spectrograph on the VLT in 2020.
Show threadBibiana Prinoth (moved!)Apr 12, 2023

They detect a couple of elements that had previously been detected in the atmosphere of this planet (Mg, Ca, Cr and Fe), but they also land a few first:

Newly detected for this planet (but previously on other planets), they detect Ti+, Ba+ and Sc+ (tentatively).

Their own FIRST firsts: They detect, for the first time, Rb (rubidium) and Sm (samarium).
Rb is an alkali metal, while Sm is an element of the lanthanide series (so pretty heavy).

Fig. 7 of Jiang+ 2023

Show threadBibiana Prinoth (moved!)Apr 12, 2023

The authors conclude the paper with a call to the theorists: “It is the right time to call for detailed atmospheric modelling to understand how these atoms and ions are populated at high altitudes.”

-- Personally, I wonder very much about the origin of Rb and Sm as I have never heard of them before. Anyone some ideas? I wonder further: What are these elements telling us about formation? I leave this here with more questions than answers, … feel free to discuss below 👇🏼

Hope you enjoyed it! 🤗