Bibcode
Hooton, M. J.; de Mooij, Ernst J. W.; Watson, Christopher A.; Gibson, Neale P.; Galindo-Guil, Francisco J.; Clavero, R.; Merritt, Stephanie R.
Bibliographical reference
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 486, Issue 2, p.2397-2406
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6
2019
Citations
18
Refereed citations
17
Description
WASP-12b is one of the most well-studied transiting exoplanets, as its
highly inflated radius and its 1.1 d orbit around a G0-type star make it
an excellent target for atmospheric categorization through observation
during its secondary eclipse. We present two new secondary eclipse
observations of WASP-12b, acquired an year apart with the Wide Field
Camera on the Isaac Newton Telescope (INT) and the IO:O instrument on
the Liverpool Telescope (LT). These observations were conducted in the
i' band, a window expected to be dominated by titanium oxide features if
present in appreciable quantities in the upper atmosphere. We measured
eclipse depths that disagree with each other by ˜3σ (0.97
± 0.14 mmag on the INT and 0.44 ± 0.21 mmag on the LT), a
result that is mirrored in previous z' band secondary eclipse
measurements for WASP-12b. We explore explanations for these
disagreements, including systematic errors and variable thermal emission
in the dayside atmosphere of WASP-12b caused by temperature changes of a
few hundred Kelvin: a possibility we cannot rule out from our analysis.
Full-phase curves observed with TESS and CHEOPS have the potential to
detect similar atmospheric variability for WASP-12b and other optimal
targets, and a strategic, multitelescope approach to future ground-based
secondary eclipse observations is required to discriminate between
explanations involving storms and systematics.