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IR STIG Seminar

Infrared Science and Technology Integration Group

DATE

Dec 07, 2021

TIME

1:00 pm EST

COMMUNITY

IR STIG

TYPE

Seminar

Spitzer's Exoplanet Legacy: Population Trends from Phase Curve Observations

Erin May (JHU APL)

During the warm mission, Spitzer observed phase curves of over 30 exoplanets, totaling over 5 dozen data sets between the 3.6 and 4.5 micron channels. Individually, each phase curve tells us about the atmosphere of a single planet: what the day and night side temperatures are, how heat is transported from the day to the night side, the necessity of winds to blow the hot spot away from the substellar point, if the planet is likely to have a cloudy night side, etc. While these single planet studies are useful and informative, the real exoplanet legacy for Spitzer is the unprecedented population study that can be done. Due to Spitzer's strong intrapixel systematics and differing data analysis methods between teams and planets, these population studies have, to date, been difficult. To truly study the population level trends explored with Spitzer we need a uniform data set, as well as advanced models to explain and predict trends. In this work, we present the analysis of 7 unpublished phase curves, a re-analysis of 1 additional phase curve, combined with our team's previous work on 2 additional planets. We explore trends in our newly analyzed data, and compare to previous literature values. This work is part of an ongoing effort to reanalyze all Spitzer phase curve data uniformly in order to unambiguously confirm predicted atmosphere trends in Hot Jupiters.

Short Bio: Erin May is a postdoctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (JHUAPL), prior to this she obtained her PhD from the University of Michigan in 2019. She is primarily interested in the observational characterization of exoplanets. Her work encompasses ground- and space-based observations as well as 3D modeling of exoplanetary atmospheres. Currently, her research is heavily focused on a uniform reanalysis of Spitzer phase curves to uncover underlying population level trends.

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An illustration of Sun-like star HD 181327 and its surrounding debris disk. The star is at top right. It is surrounded by a far larger debris disk that forms an incomplete ellpitical path and is cut off at right. There’s a huge cavity between the star and the disk. The debris disk is shown in shades of light gray. Toward the top and left, there are finer, more discrete points in a range of sizes. The disk appears hazier and smokier at the bottom. The star is bright white at center, with a hazy blue region around it. The background of space is black. The label Artist's Concept appears at lower left.