Detection of Na, K and H$_2$O in the hazy atmosphere of WASP-6b. (arXiv:1911.12628v1 [astro-ph.EP])
<a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Carter_A/0/1/0/all/0/1">Aarynn L. Carter</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Nikolov_N/0/1/0/all/0/1">Nikolay Nikolov</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Sing_D/0/1/0/all/0/1">David K. Sing</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Alam_M/0/1/0/all/0/1">Munazza K. Alam</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Goyal_J/0/1/0/all/0/1">Jayesh M. Goyal</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Mikal_Evans_T/0/1/0/all/0/1">Thomas Mikal-Evans</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Wakeford_H/0/1/0/all/0/1">Hannah R. Wakeford</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Henry_G/0/1/0/all/0/1">Gregory W. Henry</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Morrell_S/0/1/0/all/0/1">Sam Morrell</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Lopez_Morales_M/0/1/0/all/0/1">Mercedes López-Morales</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Smalley_B/0/1/0/all/0/1">Barry Smalley</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Lavvas_P/0/1/0/all/0/1">Panayotis Lavvas</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Barstow_J/0/1/0/all/0/1">Joanna K. Barstow</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Munoz_A/0/1/0/all/0/1">Antonio García Muñoz</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Wilson_P/0/1/0/all/0/1">Paul A. Wilson</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Gibson_N/0/1/0/all/0/1">Neale P. Gibson</a>
We present new observations of the transmission spectrum of the hot Jupiter
WASP-6b both from the ground with the Very Large Telescope (VLT) FOcal Reducer
and Spectrograph (FORS2) from 0.45-0.83 $mu$m, and space with the Transiting
Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) from 0.6-1.0 $mu$m and the Hubble Space
Telescope (HST) Wide Field Camera 3 from 1.12-1.65 $mu$m. Archival data from
the HST Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) and Spitzer is also
reanalysed on a common Gaussian process framework, of which the STIS data show
a good overall agreement with the overlapping FORS2 data. We also explore the
effects of stellar heterogeneity on our observations and its resulting
implications towards determining the atmospheric characteristics of WASP-6b.
Independent of our assumptions for the level of stellar heterogeneity we detect
Na I, K I and H$_2$O absorption features and constrain the elemental oxygen
abundance to a value of [O/H] $simeq -0.9pm0.3$ relative to solar. In
contrast, we find that the stellar heterogeneity correction can have
significant effects on the retrieved distributions of the [Na/H] and [K/H]
abundances, primarily through its degeneracy with the sloping optical opacity
of scattering haze species within the atmosphere. Our results also show that
despite this presence of haze, WASP-6b remains a favourable object for future
atmospheric characterisation with upcoming missions such as the James Webb
Space Telescope.
We present new observations of the transmission spectrum of the hot Jupiter
WASP-6b both from the ground with the Very Large Telescope (VLT) FOcal Reducer
and Spectrograph (FORS2) from 0.45-0.83 $mu$m, and space with the Transiting
Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) from 0.6-1.0 $mu$m and the Hubble Space
Telescope (HST) Wide Field Camera 3 from 1.12-1.65 $mu$m. Archival data from
the HST Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) and Spitzer is also
reanalysed on a common Gaussian process framework, of which the STIS data show
a good overall agreement with the overlapping FORS2 data. We also explore the
effects of stellar heterogeneity on our observations and its resulting
implications towards determining the atmospheric characteristics of WASP-6b.
Independent of our assumptions for the level of stellar heterogeneity we detect
Na I, K I and H$_2$O absorption features and constrain the elemental oxygen
abundance to a value of [O/H] $simeq -0.9pm0.3$ relative to solar. In
contrast, we find that the stellar heterogeneity correction can have
significant effects on the retrieved distributions of the [Na/H] and [K/H]
abundances, primarily through its degeneracy with the sloping optical opacity
of scattering haze species within the atmosphere. Our results also show that
despite this presence of haze, WASP-6b remains a favourable object for future
atmospheric characterisation with upcoming missions such as the James Webb
Space Telescope.
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