The Astrophysical Journal Letters (Jan 2024)
Debris Disks Can Contaminate Mid-infrared Exoplanet Spectra: Evidence for a Circumstellar Debris Disk around Exoplanet Host WASP-39
- Laura Flagg,
- Alycia J. Weinberger,
- Taylor J. Bell,
- Luis Welbanks,
- Giuseppe Morello,
- Diana Powell,
- Jacob L. Bean,
- Jasmina Blecic,
- Nicolas Crouzet,
- Peter Gao,
- Julie Inglis,
- James Kirk,
- Mercedes López-Morales,
- Karan Molaverdikhani,
- Nikolay Nikolov,
- Apurva V. Oza,
- Benjamin V. Rackham,
- Seth Redfield,
- Shang-Min Tsai,
- Ray Jayawardhana,
- Laura Kreidberg,
- Matthew C. Nixon,
- Kevin B. Stevenson,
- Jake D. Turner
Affiliations
- Laura Flagg
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy and Carl Sagan Institute, Cornell University , Ithaca, NY 14853, USA ; [email protected]
- Alycia J. Weinberger
- ORCiD
- Earth and Planets Laboratory, Carnegie Institution for Science , Washington, DC 20015, USA
- Taylor J. Bell
- ORCiD
- Bay Area Environmental Research Institute, NASA’s Ames Research Center , Moffett Field, CA 94035, USA; Space Science and Astrobiology Division, NASA’s Ames Research Center , Moffett Field, CA 94035, USA
- Luis Welbanks
- ORCiD
- School of Earth & Space Exploration, Arizona State University , Tempe, AZ 85257, USA
- Giuseppe Morello
- ORCiD
- Department of Space, Earth and Environment, Chalmers University of Technology , SE-412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden; Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) , 38205 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain; Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (IAA-CSIC) , Glorieta de la Astronomía s/n, 18008 Granada, Spain
- Diana Powell
- ORCiD
- Center for Astrophysics ∣ Harvard & Smithsonian , Cambridge, USA
- Jacob L. Bean
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, University of Chicago , USA
- Jasmina Blecic
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, New York University Abu Dhabi , Abu Dhabi, UAE; Center for Astro, Particle and Planetary Physics (CAP3), New York University Abu Dhabi , Abu Dhabi, UAE
- Nicolas Crouzet
- ORCiD
- Leiden Observatory, Leiden University , P.O. Box 9513, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands
- Peter Gao
- ORCiD
- Earth and Planets Laboratory, Carnegie Institution for Science , Washington, DC 20015, USA
- Julie Inglis
- ORCiD
- Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology , Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
- James Kirk
- ORCiD
- Imperial College London , UK
- Mercedes López-Morales
- ORCiD
- Center for Astrophysics ∣ Harvard & Smithsonian , Cambridge, USA
- Karan Molaverdikhani
- ORCiD
- Universitäts-Sternwarte , Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Scheinerstrasse 1, D-81679 München, Germany; Exzellenzcluster Origins , Boltzmannstraße 2, 85748 Garching, Germany
- Nikolay Nikolov
- ORCiD
- Space Telescope Science Institute , USA
- Apurva V. Oza
- ORCiD
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology , Pasadena, USA
- Benjamin V. Rackham
- ORCiD
- Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology , 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA; Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology , Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
- Seth Redfield
- ORCiD
- Astronomy Department and Van Vleck Observatory, Wesleyan University , Middletown, CT 06459, USA
- Shang-Min Tsai
- ORCiD
- University of California , Riverside, USA
- Ray Jayawardhana
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, Cornell University , Ithaca, NY 14853, USA; Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences, Johns Hopkins University , Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
- Laura Kreidberg
- ORCiD
- Max Planck Institute for Astronomy , Germany
- Matthew C. Nixon
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland , College Park, USA
- Kevin B. Stevenson
- ORCiD
- Johns Hopkins APL , Laurel, MD 20723, USA
- Jake D. Turner
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy and Carl Sagan Institute, Cornell University , Ithaca, NY 14853, USA ; [email protected]
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ad4649
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 969,
no. 1
p. L19
Abstract
The signal from a transiting planet can be diluted by astrophysical contamination. In the case of circumstellar debris disks, this contamination could start in the mid-infrared and vary as a function of wavelength, which would then change the observed transmission spectrum for any planet in the system. The MIRI/Low Resolution Spectrometer WASP-39b transmission spectrum shows an unexplained dip starting at ∼10 μ m that could be caused by astrophysical contamination. The spectral energy distribution displays excess flux at similar levels to that which are needed to create the dip in the transmission spectrum. In this Letter, we show that this dip is consistent with the presence of a bright circumstellar debris disk, at a distance of >2 au. We discuss how a circumstellar debris disk like that could affect the atmosphere of WASP-39b. We also show that even faint debris disks can be a source of contamination in MIRI exoplanet spectra.
Keywords
- Debris disks
- Exoplanet atmospheres
- Infrared spectroscopy
- Spectral energy distribution
- Circumstellar dust
- Exoplanet evolution
