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Retrieving the transmission spectrum of HD 209458b using CHOCOLATE: a new chromatic Doppler tomography technique

E. Esparza-Borges, M. Oshagh, N. Casasayas-Barris, E. Pallé, G. Chen, G. Morello, N. C. Santos, J. V. Seidel, A. Sozzetti, R. Allart, P. Figueira, V. Bourrier, J. Lillo-Box, F. Borsa, M. R. Zapatero Osorio, H. M. Tabernero, O. Demangeon, V. Zh. Adibekyan, J. I. González Hernández, A. Mehner, C. Allende Prieto, P. Di Marcantonio, Y. Alibert, S. Cristiani, G. Lo Curto, C. J. A. P. Martins, G. Micela, F. Pepe, R. Rebolo López, S. G. Sousa, A. Suárez Mascareño, S. Udry

Abstract
Multiband photometric transit observations or low-resolution spectroscopy (spectro-photometry) are normally used to retrieve the broadband transmission spectra of transiting exoplanets in order to assess the chemical composition of their atmospheres. In this paper we present an alternative approach for recovering the broadband transmission spectra using chromatic Doppler tomography based on physical modeling through the SOAP tool: CHOCOLATE (CHrOmatiC line prOfiLe tomogrAphy TEchnique). To validate the method and examine its performance, we use observational data recently obtained with the ESPRESSO instrument to retrieve the transmission spectra of the archetypal hot Jupiter HD 209458b. Our findings indicate that the recovered transmission spectrum is in good agreement with the results presented in previous studies, which used different methodologies to extract the spectrum, achieving similar precision. We explored several atmospheric models and inferred from spectral retrieval that a model containing H2O and NH3 is the preferred scenario. The CHOCOLATE methodology is particularly interesting for future studies of exoplanets around young and active stars or moderate to fast rotating stars, considering SOAP’s ability to model stellar active regions and the fact that the rotational broadening of spectral lines favors its application. Furthermore, CHOCOLATE will allow the broad transmission spectrum of a planet to be retrieved using high-S/N, high-resolution spectroscopy with the next generation of extremely large telescopes, where low-resolution spectroscopy will not always be accessible.

Keywords
methods: observational / methods: numerical / techniques: radial velocities / techniques: spectroscopic / planets and satellites: atmospheres

Notes
Based on guaranteed time observations collected at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) under ESO program 1102.C-0744 by the ESPRESSO Consortium.

Astronomy & Astrophysics
Volume 657, Article Number A23, Number of pages 12
2022 January

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Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa Universidade do Porto Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade de Coimbra
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia COMPETE 2020 PORTUGAL 2020 União Europeia