Empirically Constraining the Spectra of Stellar Surface Features Using Time-resolved Spectroscopy
Transmission spectroscopy is currently the technique best suited to study a wide range of planetary atmospheres, leveraging the filtering of a star’s light by a planet’s atmosphere rather than its own emission. However, as both a planet and its star contribute to the information encoded in a transmi...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2024-01-01
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| Series: | The Astrophysical Journal Letters |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ad1b5b |
| _version_ | 1797353209542475776 |
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| author | David Berardo Julien de Wit Benjamin V. Rackham |
| author_facet | David Berardo Julien de Wit Benjamin V. Rackham |
| author_sort | David Berardo |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Transmission spectroscopy is currently the technique best suited to study a wide range of planetary atmospheres, leveraging the filtering of a star’s light by a planet’s atmosphere rather than its own emission. However, as both a planet and its star contribute to the information encoded in a transmission spectrum, an accurate accounting of the stellar contribution is pivotal to enabling robust atmospheric studies. As current stellar models lack the required fidelity for such accounting, we investigate here the capability of time-resolved spectroscopy to yield high-fidelity, empirical constraints on the emission spectra of stellar surface heterogeneities (i.e., spots and faculae). Using TRAPPIST-1 as a test case, we simulate time-resolved JWST/NIRISS spectra and demonstrate that with a blind approach incorporating no physical priors, it is possible to constrain the photospheric spectrum to ≤0.5% and the spectra of stellar heterogeneities to within ≲10%, a precision that enables photon-limited (rather than model-limited) science. Now confident that time-resolved spectroscopy can propel the field in an era of robust high-precision transmission spectroscopy, we introduce a list of areas for future exploration to harness its full potential, including wavelength dependency of limb darkening and hybrid priors from stellar models as a means to further break the degeneracy between the position, size, and spectra of heterogeneities. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-08T13:27:50Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-bbca66a308d5494f9a32bbd6b2f869f9 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2041-8205 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-08T13:27:50Z |
| publishDate | 2024-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | The Astrophysical Journal Letters |
| spelling | doaj.art-bbca66a308d5494f9a32bbd6b2f869f92024-01-17T13:59:17ZengIOP PublishingThe Astrophysical Journal Letters2041-82052024-01-019611L1810.3847/2041-8213/ad1b5bEmpirically Constraining the Spectra of Stellar Surface Features Using Time-resolved SpectroscopyDavid Berardo0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6298-412XJulien de Wit1https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2415-2191Benjamin V. Rackham2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3627-1676Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology , Cambridge, MA 02139, USA ; berardo@mit.edu; Department of Physics and Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research , Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USADepartment of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology , Cambridge, MA 02139, USA ; berardo@mit.eduDepartment of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology , Cambridge, MA 02139, USA ; berardo@mit.eduTransmission spectroscopy is currently the technique best suited to study a wide range of planetary atmospheres, leveraging the filtering of a star’s light by a planet’s atmosphere rather than its own emission. However, as both a planet and its star contribute to the information encoded in a transmission spectrum, an accurate accounting of the stellar contribution is pivotal to enabling robust atmospheric studies. As current stellar models lack the required fidelity for such accounting, we investigate here the capability of time-resolved spectroscopy to yield high-fidelity, empirical constraints on the emission spectra of stellar surface heterogeneities (i.e., spots and faculae). Using TRAPPIST-1 as a test case, we simulate time-resolved JWST/NIRISS spectra and demonstrate that with a blind approach incorporating no physical priors, it is possible to constrain the photospheric spectrum to ≤0.5% and the spectra of stellar heterogeneities to within ≲10%, a precision that enables photon-limited (rather than model-limited) science. Now confident that time-resolved spectroscopy can propel the field in an era of robust high-precision transmission spectroscopy, we introduce a list of areas for future exploration to harness its full potential, including wavelength dependency of limb darkening and hybrid priors from stellar models as a means to further break the degeneracy between the position, size, and spectra of heterogeneities.https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ad1b5bExoplanetsStellar surfacesTransmission spectroscopyAstronomical techniques |
| spellingShingle | David Berardo Julien de Wit Benjamin V. Rackham Empirically Constraining the Spectra of Stellar Surface Features Using Time-resolved Spectroscopy The Astrophysical Journal Letters Exoplanets Stellar surfaces Transmission spectroscopy Astronomical techniques |
| title | Empirically Constraining the Spectra of Stellar Surface Features Using Time-resolved Spectroscopy |
| title_full | Empirically Constraining the Spectra of Stellar Surface Features Using Time-resolved Spectroscopy |
| title_fullStr | Empirically Constraining the Spectra of Stellar Surface Features Using Time-resolved Spectroscopy |
| title_full_unstemmed | Empirically Constraining the Spectra of Stellar Surface Features Using Time-resolved Spectroscopy |
| title_short | Empirically Constraining the Spectra of Stellar Surface Features Using Time-resolved Spectroscopy |
| title_sort | empirically constraining the spectra of stellar surface features using time resolved spectroscopy |
| topic | Exoplanets Stellar surfaces Transmission spectroscopy Astronomical techniques |
| url | https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ad1b5b |
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