Issue |
A&A
Volume 514, May 2010
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | A23 | |
Number of page(s) | 7 | |
Section | Planets and planetary systems | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/200913627 | |
Published online | 04 May 2010 |
τ Boötis b: Hunting for reflected starlight*
1
Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, C/vía Láctea s/n, 38205 La Laguna, Spain e-mail: frodler@iac.es
2
Formerly at the Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, Königstuhl 17, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
3
Formerly at the Institut für Astronomie, Universität Wien, Türkenschanzstrasse 17, 1180 Vienna, Austria
Received:
9
November
2009
Accepted:
8
February
2010
Aims. We attempt to detect starlight reflected from the hot Jupiter orbiting the main-sequence star τ Boo, in order to determine the albedo of the planetary atmosphere, the orbital inclination of the planetary system and the exact mass of the planetary companion.
Methods. We analyze high-precision, high-resolution spectra, collected over two half nights using UVES at the VLT/UT2, by way of data synthesis. We interpret our data using two different atmospheric models for hot Jupiters.
Results. Although a weak candidate signal appears near the most probable radial velocity amplitude, its statistical significance is insufficient
for us to claim a detection. However, this feature agrees very well with a completely independently obtained result by another research
group, which searched
for reflected light from τ Boo b. As a consequence of the non-detection of reflected light, we place upper limits to the
planet-to-star flux ratio at the 99.9% significance level. For the most probable orbital inclination around i = , we
can limit the relative reflected radiation to be less than ϵ = 5.7 × 10-5 for grey albedo. This implies a geometric albedo smaller than 0.40,
assuming a planetary radius of 1.2 RJup.
Key words: methods: data analysis / techniques: radial velocities / stars: individual: τ Boo / planetary systems
© ESO, 2010
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