Measuring the composition of the atmosphere of the hot Jupiter Tau Boötis b more precisely than ever, an iREx-led team of astronomers provides a better understanding of giant exoplanets.
Artistic rendition of the exoplanet Tau Boötis b and its host star, Tau Boötis. Credit : ESO/L. Calçada.
Using the SPIRou spectropolarimeter on the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope in Hawaii, a team led by Stefan Pelletier, a PhD student at Université de Montréal’s Institute for Research on Exoplanets (iREx), studied the atmosphere of the gas giant exoplanet Tau Boötis b, a scorching hot world that takes a mere three days to orbit its host star.
Their detailed analysis, presented in a paper published today in the Astronomical Journal, shows that the atmosphere of the gaseous planet contains carbon monoxide, as expected, but surprisingly no water, a molecule that was thought to be prevalent and should have been easily detectable with SPIRou.
Tau Boötis b is a planet that is 6.24 times more massive than Jupiter and eight times closer to its parent star than Mercury is to the Sun. Located only 51 light-years from Earth and 40 per cent more massive than the Sun, its star, Tau Boötis, is one of the brightest known planet-bearing stars, and is visible to the naked eye in the Boötes constellation.
Tau Boötis b was one of the first exoplanets ever discovered, in 1996, thanks to the radial velocity method, which detects the slight back-and-forth motion of a star generated by the gravitational tug of its planet. Its atmosphere had been studied a handful of times before, but never with an instrument as powerful as SPIRou to reveal its molecular content.
Searching for water
Assuming Tau Boötis b formed in a protoplanetary disk with a composition similar to that of our Solar System, models show that water vapour should be present in large quantities in its atmosphere. It should thus have been easy to detect with an instrument such as SPIRou.
“We expected a strong detection of water, with maybe a little carbon monoxide,” explained Pelletier. “We were, however, surprised to find the opposite: carbon monoxide, but no water.”
The team worked hard to make sure the results could not be attributed to problems with the instrument or the analysis of the data.
“Once we convinced ourselves the content of water was indeed much lower than expected on Tau Boötis b, we were able to start searching for formation mechanisms that could explain this,” said Pelletier.
Studying hot Jupiters to better understand Jupiter and Saturn
“Hot Jupiters like Tau Boötis b offer an unprecedented opportunity to probe giant planet formation”, said co-author Björn Benneke, an astrophysics professor and Pelletier’s PhD supervisor at UdeM. “The composition of the planet gives clues as to where and how this giant planet formed.”
The key to revealing the formation location and mechanism of giant planets is imprinted in their molecular atmospheric composition. The extreme temperature of hot Jupiters allows most molecules in their atmospheres to be in gaseous form, and therefore detectable with current instruments. Astronomers can thus precisely measure the content of their atmospheres.
“In our Solar System, Jupiter and Saturn are really cold,” said Benneke. “Some molecules such as water are frozen and hidden deep in their atmospheres; thus, we have a very poor knowledge of their abundance. Studying hot Jupiters provides a way to better understand our own giant planets. The low amount of water on Tau Boötis b could mean that our own Jupiter is also drier than we had previously thought.”
SPIRou: a unique instrument
Tau Boötis b is one of the first planets studied with the new SPIRou instrument since it was recently put into service at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. This instrument was developed by researchers from several scientific institutions including UdeM.
“This spectropolarimeter can analyze the planet’s thermal light — the light emitted by the planet itself — in an unprecedentedly large range of colours, and with a resolution that allows for the identification of many molecules at once: water, carbon monoxide, methane, etc.” said co-author and iREx researcher Neil Cook, an expert on the SPIRou instrument.
The team spent 20 hours observing the exoplanet with SPIRou between April 2019 and June 2020.
“We measured the abundance of all major molecules that contain either carbon or oxygen,” said Pelletier. “Since they are the two most abundant elements in the universe, after hydrogen and helium, that gives us a very complete picture of the content of the atmosphere.”
Like most planets, Tau Boötis b does not pass in front of its star as it orbits around it, from Earth’s point of view. However, the study of exoplanet atmospheres has mostly been limited to “transiting” planets – those that cause periodic dips in the light of their star when they obscure part of their light.
“It is the first time that we get such precise measurements on the atmospheric composition of a non-transiting exoplanet,” said PhD student Caroline Piaulet, a co-author of the study.
“This work opens the door to studying in detail the atmospheres of a large number of exoplanets, even those that do not transit their star.”
A composition similar to Jupiter
Through their analysis, Pelletier and his colleagues were able to conclude that Tau Boötis b’s atmospheric composition has roughly five times as much carbon as that found in the Sun, quantities similar to that measured for Jupiter.
This may be a suggest that hot Jupiters could form much further from their host star, at distances that are similar to the giant planets in our Solar System, and have simply experienced a different evolution, which included a migration towards the star.
“According to what we found for Tau Boötis b, it would seem that, at least composition-wise, hot Jupiters may not be so different from our own Solar System giant planets after all,” concluded Pelletier.
Funding was provided by the the Technologies for Exo-Planetary Science (TEPS) CREATE program, the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Nature et technologies (FRQNT), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the Trottier Family Foundation and the French National Research Agency (ANR).
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
