TITLE: Thermal Emission of Hot-Jupiters with Spitzer IRAC

SPEAKER: Dr. Pavel Machalek (STScI)

Friday 2009 July 10
2:00 pm Seminar 
NASA Ames Building N245 Room 215


ABSTRACT:

We estimate flux ratios of the extrasolar planets XO-1b, XO-2b and XO-3b 
to their host stars at 3.6, 4.5, 5.8 and 8.0 microns during their 
secondary eclipse with the IRAC on the Spitzer Space Telescope. The 
fluxes are compared with atmospheric models for the thermal emission 
from a Hot-Jupiter and used to deduce the presence of a thermal 
inversion layer in the upper atmosphere. A newly emerging correlation 
between the presence of a thermal inversion layer in the planetary 
atmosphere and stellar insolation of the planet is refined and secondary 
effects are studied.