My PhD partner-in-crime, Nicholas Borsato, recently got his first PhD-paper accepted and has written a short thread about it on the bird app.

As one of his co-authors, I want to make sure that this is also heard here, gotta toot loudly, right? So here comes a repost from Nic's thread + the artistic impression I made for his press release. No cuboid planets anymore, you see? πŸ€“

πŸ”— https://twitter.com/BorsatoNic/status/1649311003119693825

Nic Borsato on Twitter

β€œExciting news! My 1st paper is out: "The Mantis Network III: Expanding the limits of chemical searches within ultra-hot Jupiters." πŸͺπŸ”πŸ”­ New atomic & ionized species found in KELT-9b! Challenging journey but thrilled to share! #exoplanets #astrochemistry”

Twitter

RT borsatonic@twitter

"Exciting news! My 1st paper is out: "The Mantis Network III: Expanding the limits of chemical searches within ultra-hot Jupiters." πŸͺπŸ”πŸ”­ New atomic & ionized species found in KELT-9b! Challenging journey but thrilled to share!

We detected Ca, V, Ti, Cr, & Ni (atomic) and Sr, Ba, & Tb (ionized) in KELT-9b's atmosphere using HARPS-N & CARMENES spectrographs. Tb is the heaviest species ever detected on an exoplanet! πŸŒŸπŸ”­πŸ’« #exoplanets #astrochemistry "

RT borsatonic@twitter

"Built on previous studies, we combined observations for high S/N signals. Check out how our method improved Fe signal from 1 night vs. 4 nights of data! πŸ”§πŸŒŒπŸ“Š

#exoplanets #astrochemistry "

RT borsatonic@twitter

"We analyzed cross-correlation function aliases & found they can mislead detections. See this plot showing what they look like in data. πŸ“ˆπŸ” #exoplanets #astrochemistry #dataanalysis "

RT borsatonic@twitter

"Using our data-combining technique, we confirmed aliases & boosted sensitivity for new species detection. See how ionized Fe creates aliases in Mg & Ba detections. πŸ“ŠπŸ”¬ #exoplanets #astrochemistry #dataanalysis #spectroscopy "

RT borsatonic@twitter

"We ID'ed 3 heavy species in KELT-9b: Sr, Ba, & Tb (heaviest in exoplanet atmosphere). See the bright features in these plots! πŸŒŒπŸ”¬πŸ“Š #exoplanets #astrochemistry #discovery #spectroscopy "

RT borsatonic@twitter

"These detections give insights into planet formation & age determination. A crucial 1st step in deepening our understanding! 🌌🌍πŸ§ͺ

Paper available on arXiv, soon in Astronomy & Astrophysics! Read it: https://arxiv.org/abs/2304.04285 πŸ“šπŸ”­πŸŽ‰ #exoplanets #astrochemistry #planetformation #discovery #AstronomyAndAstrophysics "

#MonthOfArXiv

The Mantis Network III: Expanding the limits of chemical searches within ultra hot-Jupiters. New detections of Ca I, V I, Ti I, Cr I, Ni I, Sr II, Ba II, and Tb II in KELT-9 b

Cross-correlation spectroscopy is an invaluable tool in the study of exoplanets. However, aliasing between spectral lines makes it vulnerable to systematic biases. This work strives to constrain the aliases of the cross-correlation function to provide increased confidence in the detections of elements in the atmospheres of ultra-hot Jupiters (UHJs) observed with high-resolution spectrographs. We use a combination of archival transit observations of the UHJ KELT-9 b obtained with the HARPS-N and CARMENES spectrographs and show that it is possible to leverage each instrument's strengths to produce robust detections at substantially reduced signal-to-noise. Aliases that become present at low signal-to-noise regimes are constrained through a linear regression model. We confirm previous detections of H I, Na I, Mg I, Ca II, Sc II, Ti II, Cr II, Fe I, and Fe II, and detect eight new species Ca I, Cr I, Ni I, Sr II, Tb II at the 5$Οƒ$ level and Ti I, V I, Ba II above the 3$Οƒ$ level. Ionised terbium (Tb II) has never before been seen in an exoplanet atmosphere. We further conclude that a 5$Οƒ$ threshold may not provide a reliable measure of confidence when used to claim detections, unless the systematics in the cross-correlation function caused by aliases are taken into account.

arXiv.org