Search

The alkali metal sodium (Na) is one of the most commonly detected chemical species in the upper atmospheres of giant exoplanets. In this work we conducted a homogeneous survey of Na in a diverse sample of ten highly irradiated giant exoplanets using high-resolution transmission spectroscopy. Our sample includes nine planets with previous Na detections and one new detection. We confirm previous detections and assess multiple approaches for deriving Na line properties from high-resolution transmission spectra. The homogeneously measured sodium line depths were used to constrain the atmospheric heights ($H_{\text{Na}}$) with respect to the planetary radii ($R_{\text{p}}$). We assess an empirical trend describing the relative atmospheric height ($H_{\text{Na}}/R_{\text{p}}$) as a function of planetary equilibrium temperature ($T_{\text{eq}}$) and surface gravity ($g$), in which $H_{\text{Na}}/R_{\text{p}}$ decreases exponentially with $\xi \propto gT_{\text{eq}}$, approaching a constant at large $\xi$. We also report the sodium D2/D1 line ratios across our sample and find that seven targets have line ratios that are consistent with unity. Finally, we measured net blueshifted offsets of the sodium absorption lines from their rest frame wavelengths for all ten planets, corresponding to day-night wind velocities of a few km s$^{-1}$. This suggests that the broad sample of exoplanets share common underlying processes that govern atmospheric dynamics. Our study highlights a promising avenue for using high-resolution transmission spectroscopy to further our understanding of how atmospheric characteristics vary over a diverse sample of exoplanets.

Irradiated Jovian atmospheres are complex, dynamic, and can undergo temporal variations due to the close proximity of their parent stars. Of the Jovian planets that have been catalogued to date, KELT-9b is the hottest Gas Giant known, with an equilibrium temperature of 4050 K. We probe the temporal variability of transmission spectroscopic signatures from KELT-9b via a set of archival multi-year ground-based transit observations, performed with the TRES facility on the 1.5 m reflector at the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory. Our observations confirm past detections of Fe I, Fe II and Mg I over multiple epochs, in addition to excess absorption at H-alpha, which is an indicator for ongoing mass-loss. From our multi-year dataset, the H-alpha light curve consistently deviates from a standard transit, and follows a 'W' shape that is deeper near ingress and egress, and shallower mid-transit. To search for and quantify any seasonal variations that may be present, we parameterise a 'cometary tail' model to fit for the H-alpha transit. We find no detectable variations between the different observed epochs. Though a 'cometary tail' describes the H-alpha flux variations well, we note that such a scenario requires a high density of neutral hydrogen in the n = 2 excited state far beyond the planetary atmosphere. Other scenarios, such as centre-to-limb variations larger than that expected from 1-D atmosphere models, may also contribute to the observed H-alpha transit shape. These multi-epoch observations highlight the capabilities of small telescopes to provide temporal monitoring of the dynamics of exoplanet atmospheres., 19 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in AJ

A planet's orbital alignment places important constraints on how a planet formed and consequently evolved. The dominant formation pathway of ultra-short period planets ($P, Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, published in Nature Astronomy

At present, there exists no consensus in the astronomical community regarding either the bulk composition or the formation mechanism for the interstellar object 1I/2017 U1 ('Oumuamua). With the goal of assessing the merits of the various scenarios that have been suggested to explain 'Oumuamua's appearance and observed properties, we report a number of new analyses and provide an up-to-date review of the current hypotheses. We consider the interpretations that can reconcile 'Oumuamua's observed non-Keplerian trajectory with the non-detection of traditional cometary volatiles. We examine the ability of these proposed formation pathways to populate the galaxy with sufficient interstellar objects such that the detection of 'Oumuamua by Pan-STARRS would be statistically-favored. We consider two exotic ices, hydrogen and nitrogen, showing that the frigid temperature requirement for the former and the necessary formation efficiency of the latter pose serious difficulties for these interpretations. Via order-of-magnitude arguments and hydrodynamical cratering simulations, we show that impacts on extrasolar Kuiper Belt analogues are not expected to generate N2 ice fragments as large as 'Oumuamua. In addition, we discuss observational tests to confirm the presence of these ices in future interstellar objects. Next, we examine the explanations that attribute 'Oumuamua's properties to other compositions: ultra-porous dust aggregates and thin membranes powered by solar radiation pressure, among others. While none of these hypotheses are perfectly satisfactory, we make predictions that will be testable by the Vera Rubin Observatory to resolve the tension introduced by 'Oumuamua., Accepted to ApJ. 20 pages, 3 figures

The discoveries of two Interstellar Objects (ISOs) in recent years has generated significant interest in constraining their physical properties and the mechanisms behind their formation. However, their ephemeral passages through our Solar System permitted only incomplete characterization. We investigate avenues for identifying craters that may have been produced by ISOs impacting terrestrial Solar System bodies, with particular attention towards the Moon. A distinctive feature of ISOs is their relatively high encounter velocity compared to asteroids and comets. Local stellar kinematics indicate that terrestrial Solar System bodies should have experienced of order unity ISO impacts exceeding 100 km/s. By running hydrodynamical simulations for projectiles of different masses and impact velocities, up to 100 km/s, we show how late-stage equivalence dictates that transient crater dimensions are alone insufficient for inferring the projectile's velocity. On the other hand, the melt volume within craters of a fixed diameter may be a potential route for identifying ISO craters, as faster impacts produce more melt. This method requires that the melt volume scales with the energy of the projectile, while crater diameter scales with the point-source limit (sub-energy). Given that there are probably only a few ISO craters in the Solar System at best, and that transient crater dimensions are not a distinguishing feature for impact velocities at least up to 100 km/s, identification of an ISO crater proves a challenging task. Melt volume and high-pressure petrology may be diagnostic features once large volumes of material can be analyzed in situ., Comment: 23 Pages, 7 Figures, Published in PSJ

Using high-resolution ground-based transmission spectroscopy to probe exoplanetary atmospheres is difficult due to the inherent telluric contamination from absorption in Earth's atmosphere. A variety of methods have previously been used to remove telluric features in the optical regime and calculate the planetary transmission spectrum. In this paper we present and compare two such methods, specifically focusing on Na detections using high-resolution optical transmission spectra: (1) calculating the telluric absorption empirically based on the airmass, and (2) using a model of the Earth's transmission spectrum. We test these methods on the transmission spectrum of the hot Jupiter HD 189733 b using archival data obtained with the HARPS spectrograph during three transits. Using models for Centre-to-Limb Variation and the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect, spurious signals which are imprinted within the transmission spectrum are reduced. We find that correcting tellurics with an atmospheric model of the Earth is more robust and produces consistent results when applied to data from different nights with changing atmospheric conditions. We confirm the detection of sodium in the atmosphere of HD 189733 b, with doublet line contrasts of -0.64 $\pm$ 0.07 % (D2) and -0.53 $\pm$ 0.07 % (D1). The average line contrast corresponds to an effective photosphere in the Na line located around 1.13 R$_p$. We also confirm an overall blueshift of the line centroids corresponding to net atmospheric eastward winds with a speed of 1.8 $\pm$ 1.2 km/s. Our study highlights the importance of accurate telluric removal for consistent and reliable characterisation of exoplanetary atmospheres using high-resolution transmission spectroscopy., Published in MNRAS, 13 pages, 9 figures. Updated with proof corrections

We present the discovery of a highly irradiated and moderately inflated ultra-hot Jupiter, TOI-1431b/MASCARA-5b (HD 201033b), first detected by NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite mission (TESS) and the Multi-site All-Sky CAmeRA (MASCARA). The signal was established to be of planetary origin through radial velocity measurements obtained using SONG, SOPHIE, FIES, NRES, and EXPRES, which show a reflex motion of $K=294.1\pm1.1$ m s$^{-1}$. A joint analysis of the TESS and ground-based photometry and radial velocity measurements reveals that TOI-1431b has a mass of $M_{p}=3.12\pm0.18$ $\rm{M_J}$ ($990\pm60$ M$_{\oplus}$), an inflated radius of $R_{p}=1.49\pm0.05$ $\rm{R_J}$ ($16.7\pm0.6$ R$_{\oplus}$), and an orbital period of $P=2.650237\pm0.000003$ d. Analysis of the spectral energy distribution of the host star reveals that the planet orbits a bright ($\mathrm{V}=8.049$ mag) and young ($0.29^{+0.32}_{-0.19}$ Gyr) Am type star with $T_{\rm eff}=7690^{+400}_{-250}$ $\rm{K}$, resulting in a highly irradiated planet with an incident flux of $\langle F \rangle=7.24^{+0.68}_{-0.64}\times$10$^9$ erg s$^{-1}$ cm$^{-2}$ ($5300^{+500}_{-470}\mathrm{S_{\oplus}}$) and an equilibrium temperature of $T_{eq}=2370\pm70$ K. TESS photometry also reveals a secondary eclipse with a depth of $127^{+4}_{-5}$ppm as well as the full phase curve of the planet's thermal emission in the red-optical. This has allowed us to measure the dayside and nightside temperature of its atmosphere as $T_\mathrm{day}=3004\pm64$ K and $T_\mathrm{night}=2583\pm63$ K, the second hottest measured nightside temperature. The planet's low day/night temperature contrast ($\sim$420 K) suggests very efficient heat transport between the dayside and nightside hemispheres., Accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journal. 39 pages, 18 figures, and 4 tables

Ultra-hot Jupiters are defined as giant planets with equilibrium temperatures larger than 2000 K. Most of them are found orbiting bright A-F type stars, making them extremely suitable objects to study their atmospheres using high-resolution spectroscopy. Recent studies show a variety of atoms and molecules detected in the atmospheres of this type of planets. Here we present our analysis of the newly discovered ultra-hot Jupiter TOI-1431b/MASCARA-5b, using two transit observations with the HARPS-N spectrograph and one transit observation with the EXPRES spectrograph. Analysis of the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect shows that the planet is in a polar orbit, with a projected obliquity $ \lambda = -155^{+20}_{-10}$ degrees. Combining the nights and applying both cross-correlation methods and transmission spectroscopy, we find no evidences of CaI, FeI, FeII, MgI, NaI, VI, TiO, VO or H$\alpha$ in the atmosphere of the planet. Our most likely explanation for the lack of atmospheric features is the large surface gravity of the planet., Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A (14 pages, 13 figures)

Ongoing, extreme-precision Doppler radial velocity surveys seek planets with masses less than several M$_\oplus$; population-level studies to determine the distribution of planetary masses, however, remain difficult due to the required observational time investment, as well as challenges associated with robustly detecting the lowest mass planets. We outline a novel approach that leverages extensive, existing RV datasets to constrain masses of exoplanet populations: stacking periodograms of RV timeseries across many targets. We show that an exoplanet population may be statistically identifiable in the stacked periodogram, even when individual planets do not pass the threshold of detection. We discuss analytical, statistical properties of the stacked periodogram, perform simulations to demonstrate the efficacy of the method, and investigate the influence of semi-structured window functions and stellar activity. Analysis of the Lick-Carnegie Exoplanet Survey data set reveals a marginally significant ($1.6\sigma$) signal consistent with a population of exoplanets occupying $3-7$ day periods with typical $K$ between $1.6-5.1$ m s$^{-1}$. More detailed investigation of signals associated with stellar activity and yearly systematics may be necessary to confirm this result or detect other underlying Keplerian contributions., Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures, accepted to AJ

By controlling instrumental errors to below 10 cm/s, the EXtreme PREcision Spectrograph (EXPRES) allows for a more insightful study of photospheric velocities that can mask weak Keplerian signals. Gaussian Processes (GP) have become a standard tool for modeling correlated noise in radial velocity datasets. While GPs are constrained and motivated by physical properties of the star, in some cases they are still flexible enough to absorb unresolved Keplerian signals. We apply GP regression to EXPRES radial velocity measurements of the 3.5 Gyr old chromospherically active Sun-like star, HD 101501. We obtain tight constraints on the stellar rotation period and the evolution of spot distributions using 28 seasons of ground-based photometry, as well as recent $TESS$ data. Light curve inversion was carried out on both photometry datasets to reveal the spot distribution and spot evolution timescales on the star. We find that the $> 5$ m/s rms radial velocity variations in HD 101501 are well-modeled with a GP stellar activity model without planets, yielding a residual rms scatter of 45 cm/s. We carry out simulations, injecting and recovering signals with the GP framework, to demonstrate that high-cadence observations are required to use GPs most efficiently to detect low-mass planets around active stars like HD 101501. Sparse sampling prevents GPs from learning the correlated noise structure and can allow it to absorb prospective Keplerian signals. We quantify the moderate to high-cadence monitoring that provides the necessary information to disentangle photospheric features using GPs and to detect planets around active stars., 25 pages, 16 figures, accepted to AJ

The class of ultra-hot Jupiters comprises giant exoplanets undergoing intense irradiation from their host stars. They have proved to be a particularly interesting population for their orbital and atmospheric properties. One such planet, WASP-121~b, is in a highly misaligned orbit close to its Roche limit, and its atmosphere exhibits a thermal inversion. These properties make WASP-121~b an interesting target for additional atmospheric characterization. In this paper, we present analysis of archival high-resolution optical spectra obtained during transits of WASP-121~b. Artifacts from the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect and Center-to-Limb Variation are deemed negligible. However, we discuss scenarios where these effects warrant more careful treatment by modeling the WASP-121 system and varying its properties. We report a new detection of atmospheric absorption from H$\alpha$ in the planet with a transit depth of $1.87\pm0.11\%$. We further confirm a previous detection of the Na I doublet, and report a new detection of Fe I via cross-correlation with a model template. We attribute the H$\alpha$ absorption to an extended Hydrogen atmosphere, potentially undergoing escape, and the Fe I to equilibrium chemistry at the planetary photosphere. These detections help to constrain the composition and chemical processes in the atmosphere of WASP-121~b., Comment: 15 pages, 14 figures, submitted to MNRAS after addressing reviewer comments

The next generation of exoplanet-hunting spectrographs should deliver up to an order of magnitude improvement in radial velocity precision over the standard 1 m/s state of the art. This advance is critical for enabling the detection of Earth-mass planets around Sun-like stars. New calibration techniques such as laser frequency combs and stabilized etalons ensure that the instrumental stability is well characterized. However, additional sources of error include stellar noise, undetected short-period planets, and telluric contamination. To understand and ultimately mitigate error sources, the contributing terms in the error budget must be isolated to the greatest extent possible. Here, we introduce a new high cadence radial velocity program, the EXPRES 100 Earths program, which aims to identify rocky planets around bright, nearby G and K dwarfs. We also present a benchmark case: the 62-d orbit of a Saturn-mass planet orbiting the chromospherically quiet star, HD 3651. The combination of high eccentricity (0.6) and a moderately long orbital period, ensures significant dynamical clearing of any inner planets. Our Keplerian model for this planetary orbit has a residual RMS of 58 cm/s over a $\sim 6$ month time baseline. By eliminating significant contributors to the radial velocity error budget, HD 3651 serves as a standard for evaluating the long term precision of extreme precision radial velocity (EPRV) programs., Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomical Journal

We report detections of atomic species in the atmosphere of MASCARA-2 b, using the first transit observations obtained with the newly commissioned EXPRES spectrograph. EXPRES is a highly stabilised optical echelle spectrograph, designed to detect stellar reflex motions with amplitudes down to 30 cm/s, and was recently deployed at the Lowell Discovery Telescope. By analysing the transmission spectrum of the ultra-hot Jupiter MASCARA-2 b using the cross-correlation method, we confirm previous detections of Fe I, Fe II and Na I, which likely originate in the upper regions of the inflated atmosphere. In addition, we report significant detections of Mg I and Cr II. The absorption strengths change slightly with time, possibly indicating different temperatures and chemistry in the day-side and night-side terminators. Using the effective stellar line-shape variation induced by the transiting planet, we constrain the projected spin-orbit misalignment of the system to $1.6\pm3.1$ degrees, consistent with an aligned orbit. We demonstrate that EXPRES joins a suite of instruments capable of phase-resolved spectroscopy of exoplanet atmospheres., Accepted for publication in A&A, 20 pages, 22 figures

The EXtreme PREcision Spectrograph (EXPRES) is an environmentally stabilized, fiber-fed, $R=137,500$, optical spectrograph. It was recently commissioned at the 4.3-m Lowell Discovery Telescope (LDT) near Flagstaff, Arizona. The spectrograph was designed with a target radial-velocity (RV) precision of 30$\mathrm{~cm~s^{-1}}$. In addition to instrumental innovations, the EXPRES pipeline, presented here, is the first for an on-sky, optical, fiber-fed spectrograph to employ many novel techniques---including an "extended flat" fiber used for wavelength-dependent quantum efficiency characterization of the CCD, a flat-relative optimal extraction algorithm, chromatic barycentric corrections, chromatic calibration offsets, and an ultra-precise laser frequency comb for wavelength calibration. We describe the reduction, calibration, and radial-velocity analysis pipeline used for EXPRES and present an example of our current sub-meter-per-second RV measurement precision, which reaches a formal, single-measurement error of 0.3$\mathrm{~m~s^{-1}}$ for an observation with a per-pixel signal-to-noise ratio of 250. These velocities yield an orbital solution on the known exoplanet host 51 Peg that matches literature values with a residual RMS of 0.895$\mathrm{~m~s^{-1}}$.

High-resolution doppler spectroscopy provides a powerful means for chemical detections in exoplanetary atmospheres. This approach involves monitoring hundreds of molecular lines in the planetary spectrum doppler shifted by the orbital motion of the planet. The molecules are detected by cross-correlating the observed spectrum of the system with a model planetary spectrum. The method has led to molecular detections of H2O, CO, and TiO in hot Jupiters using large ground-based telescopes. Critical to this method, however, is the accurate removal of the stellar and telluric features from the observed spectrum, also known as detrending. Previous molecular detections have relied on specific choices of detrending methods and parameters. However, the robustness of molecular detections across the different choices has not been investigated in detail. We conduct a systematic investigation of the effect of detrending algorithms, parameters, and optimizations on chemical detections using high-resolution spectroscopy. As a case study, we consider the hot Jupiter HD 189733 b. Using multiple methods, we confirm high-significance detections of H2O (4.8$\sigma$) and CO (4.7$\sigma$). Additionally, we report evidence for HCN at high significance (5.0$\sigma$). On the other hand, our results highlight the need for improved metrics and extended observations for robust confirmations of such detections. In particular, we show that detection significances of $\gtrsim$ 4$\sigma$ can be obtained by optimizing detrending at incorrect locations in the planetary velocity space; such false positives can occur in nearly 30\% of cases. We discuss approaches to help distinguish molecular detections from spurious noise., Comment: 15 pages, 16 figures, Accepted for publication in MNRAS

The distortions of absorption line profiles caused by photospheric brightness variations on the surfaces of cool, main-sequence stars can mimic or overwhelm radial velocity (RV) shifts due to the presence of exoplanets. The latest generation of precision RV spectrographs aims to detect velocity amplitudes $\lesssim 10$ cm s$^{-1}$, but requires mitigation of stellar signals. Statistical techniques are being developed to differentiate between Keplerian and activity-related velocity perturbations. Two important challenges, however, are the interpretability of the stellar activity component as RV models become more sophisticated, and ensuring the lowest-amplitude Keplerian signatures are not inadvertently accounted for in flexible models of stellar activity. For the K2V exoplanet host $\epsilon$ Eridani, we separately use ground-based photometry to constrain Gaussian processes for modeling RVs and TESS photometry with a light-curve inversion algorithm to reconstruct the stellar surface. From the reconstructions of TESS photometry, we produce an activity model, which reduces the rms scatter in RVs obtained with EXPRES from 4.72 m s$^{-1}$ to 1.98 m s$^{-1}$. We present a pilot study using the CHARA Array and MIRC-X beam combiner to directly image the starspots seen in the TESS photometry. With the limited phase coverage, our spot detections are marginal with current data but a future dedicated observing campaign should allow for imaging, as well as the stellar inclination and orientation with respect to its debris disk to be definitely determined. This work shows that stellar surface maps obtained with high cadence, time-series photometric and interferometric data can provide the constraints needed to accurately reduce RV scatter., Comment: 24 pages, 12 figures, 5 tables, accepted for publication in AJ

We present the discovery of TOI-1518b -- an ultra-hot Jupiter orbiting a bright star $V = 8.95$. The transiting planet is confirmed using high-resolution optical transmission spectra from EXPRES. It is inflated, with $R_p = 1.875\pm0.053\,R_{\rm J}$, and exhibits several interesting properties, including a misaligned orbit (${240.34^{+0.93}_{-0.98}}$ degrees) and nearly grazing transit ($b =0.9036^{+0.0061}_{-0.0053}$). The planet orbits a fast-rotating F0 host star ($T_{\mathrm{eff}} \simeq 7300$ K) in 1.9 days and experiences intense irradiation. Notably, the TESS data show a clear secondary eclipse with a depth of $364\pm28$ ppm and a significant phase curve signal, from which we obtain a relative day-night planetary flux difference of roughly 320 ppm and a 5.2$\sigma$ detection of ellipsoidal distortion on the host star. Prompted by recent detections of atomic and ionized species in ultra-hot Jupiter atmospheres, we conduct an atmospheric cross-correlation analysis. We detect neutral iron (${5.2\sigma}$), at $K_p = 157^{+68}_{-44}$ km s$^{-1}$ and $V_{\rm sys} = -16^{+2}_{-4}$ km s$^{-1}$, adding another object to the small sample of highly irradiated gas-giant planets with Fe detections in transmission. Detections so far favor particularly inflated gas giants with radii $\gtrsim 1.78\,R_{\rm J}$; although this may be due to observational bias. With an equilibrium temperature of $T_{\rm eq}=2492\pm38$ K and a measured dayside brightness temperature of $3237\pm59$ K (assuming zero geometric albedo), TOI-1518b is a promising candidate for future emission spectroscopy to probe for a thermal inversion., Comment: 25 pages, 11 figures, accepted to AJ

The first interstellar object, 1I/2017 U1 (`Oumuamua), exhibited several unique properties, including an extreme aspect ratio, a lack of typical cometary volatiles, and a deviation from a Keplerian trajectory. Several authors have hypothesized that the non-gravitational acceleration was caused by either cometary outgassing or radiation pressure. Here, we investigate the spin dynamics of `Oumuamua under the action of high surface area fractional activity and radiation pressure. We demonstrate that a series of transient jets that migrate across the illuminated surface will not produce a secular increase in the spin rate. We produce 3D tumbling simulations that approximate the dynamics of a surface covering jet, and show that the resulting synthetic light curve and periodogram are reasonably consistent with the observations. Moreover, we demonstrate that radiation pressure also produces a steady spin-state. While carbon monoxide (CO) has been dismissed as a possible accelerant because of its non-detection in emission by $\textit{Spitzer}$, we show that outgassing from a surface characterized by a modest covering fraction of CO ice can satisfy the non-ballistic dynamics for a plausible range of assumed bulk densities and surface albedos. $\textit{Spitzer}$ upper limits on CO emission are, however, inconsistent with the CO production necessary to provide the acceleration. Nonetheless, an ad hoc but physically plausible explanation is that the activity level varied greatly during the time that the trajectory was monitored. We reproduce the astrometric analysis presented in Micheli et al. (2018), and verify that the non-gravitational acceleration was consistent with stochastic changes in outgassing., Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

An ancient Venusian rock could constrain that planet's history, and reveal the past existence of oceans. Such samples may persist on the Moon, which lacks an atmosphere and significant geological activity. We demonstrate that if Venus' atmosphere was at any point thin and similar to Earth's, then asteroid impacts transferred potentially detectable amounts of Venusian surface material to the Lunar regolith. Venus experiences an enhanced flux relative to Earth of asteroid collisions that eject lightly-shocked ($\lesssim 40$ GPa) surface material. Initial launch conditions plus close-encounters and resonances with Venus evolve ejecta trajectories into Earth-crossing orbits. Using analytic models for crater ejecta and \textit{N}-body simulations, we find more than $0.07\%$ of the ejecta lands on the Moon. The Lunar regolith will contain up to 0.2 ppm Venusian material if Venus lost its water in the last 3.5 Gyr. If water was lost more than 4 Gyr ago, 0.3 ppm of the deep megaregolith is of Venusian origin. About half of collisions between ejecta and the Moon occur at $\lesssim6$ km s$^{-1}$, which hydrodynamical simulations have indicated is sufficient to avoid significant shock alteration. Therefore, recovery and isotopic analyses of Venusian surface samples would determine with high confidence both whether and when Venus harbored liquid oceans and/or a lower-mass atmosphere. Tests on brecciated clasts in existing Lunar samples from Apollo missions may provide an immediate resolution. Alternatively, regolith characterization by upcoming Lunar missions may provide answers to these fundamental questions surrounding Venus' evolution., Comment: 23 pages, 7 figures, accepted to PSJ

Ultra hot jupiters (UHJs), giant exoplanets with equilibrium temperatures above 2000 K, are ideal laboratories for studying metal compositions of planetary atmospheres. At these temperatures the thermal dissociation of metal-rich molecules into their constituent elements makes these atmospheres conducive for elemental characterisation. Several elements, mostly ionized metals, have been detected in UHJs recently using high resolution transit spectroscopy. Even though a number of neutral transition metals (e.g., Fe, Ti, V, Cr) are expected to be strong sources of optical/NUV opacity and, hence, influence radiative processes in the lower atmospheres of UHJs, only Fe I has been detected to date. We conduct a systematic search for atomic species in the UHJ WASP-121 b. Using theoretical models we present a metric to predict the atomic species likely to be detectable in such planets with high resolution transmission spectroscopy. We search for the predicted species in observations of WASP-121 b and report the first detections of neutral transition metals Cr I and V I in an exoplanet at 3.6 $\sigma$ and 4.5 $\sigma$, respectively. We confirm previous detections of Fe I and Fe II. Whereas Fe II was detected previously in the NUV, we detect it in the optical. We infer that the neutral elements Fe I, V I, and Cr I are present in the lower atmosphere, as predicted by thermochemical equilibrium, while Fe II is a result of photoionisation in the upper atmosphere. Our study highlights the rich chemical diversity of UHJs., Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJL

The hot interstellar medium is an important part of the Galactic ecosystem and can be effectively characterized through X-ray absorption line spectroscopy. However, in a study of the hot medium using the accreting neutron star X-ray binary, Cyg X-2, as a background light source, a mystery came about when the putatively strong OVII Kalpha line was not detected in Chandra grating observations, while other normally weaker lines such as OVII Kbeta as well as OVI and OVIII Kalpha are clearly present (Yao et al. 2009). We have investigated the grating spectra of Cyg X-2 from 10 XMM-Newton observations, in search of the missing line. We detect it consistently in nine of these observations, but the line is absent in the remaining one observation or is inconsistent with the detection in others at a 4sigma confidence level. This absence of the line resembles that seen in the Chandra observations. Similarly, the OVI Kalpha line is found to disappear occasionally, but not in concert with the variation of the OVII Kalpha line. All these variations are most likely due to the presence of changing OVII and OVI Kalpha emission lines of Cyg X-2, which are blurred together with the absorption ones in the X-ray spectra. A re-examination of the Chandra grating data indeed shows evidence for a narrow emission line slightly off the OVI Kalpha absorption line. We further show that narrow NV emission lines with varying centroids and fluxes are present in far-UV spectra from the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph aboard the Hubble Space Telescope. These results provide new constraints on the accretion around the neutron star and on the X-ray-heating of the stellar companion. The understanding of these physical processes is also important to the fidelity of using such local X-ray binaries for interstellar absorption line spectroscopy.

Utilizing {\it ab initio} ultra-high resolution hydrodynamical simulations, we investigate the properties of the interstellar and circum-galactic medium of Ly$\alpha$ Blobs (LABs) at $z=3$, focusing on three important emission lines: Ly$\alpha$ 1216\AA, \heii 1640\AA\ and \civ 1449\AA. Their relative strengths provide a powerful probe of the thermodynamic properties of the gas when confronted with observations. By adjusting the dust attenuation effect using one parameter and matching the observed size-luminosity relation of LABs using another parameter, we show that our simulations can reproduce the observed \civ/\lya\ and \heii/\lya\ ratios adequately. This analysis provides the first successful physical model to account for simultaneously the LAB luminosity function, luminosity-size relation, and the \civ/Ly$\alpha$ and \heii/Ly$\alpha$ ratios, with only two parameters. The physical underpinning for this model is that, in addition to the stellar component for the \lya\ emission, the \lya\ and \civ\ emission lines due to shock heated gas are primarily collisional excitation driven and the \heii\ emission line collisional ionization driven. We find that the density, temperature and metallicity of the gas responsible for each emission line is significantly distinct, in a multi-phase interstellar and circumgalactic medium that is shock-heated primarily by supernovae and secondarily by gravitational accretion of gas., Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

Molecular species in planetary atmospheres provide key insights into their atmospheric processes and formation conditions. In recent years, high-resolution Doppler spectroscopy in the near-infrared has allowed detections of H$_2$O and CO in the atmospheres of several hot Jupiters. This method involves monitoring the spectral lines of the planetary thermal emission Doppler-shifted due to the radial velocity of the planet over its orbit. However, aside from CO and H$_2$O, which are the primary oxygen- and carbon-bearing species in hot H$_2$-rich atmospheres, little else is known about molecular compositions of hot Jupiters. Several recent studies have suggested the importance and detectability of nitrogen-bearing species in such atmospheres. In this Letter, we confirm potential detections of CO and H$_2$O in the hot Jupiter HD 209458b using high-resolution spectroscopy. We also report a cross-correlation peak with a signal-to-noise ratio of $4.7$ from a search for HCN. The results are obtained using high-resolution phase-resolved spectroscopy with the Very Large telescope CRyogenic high-resolution InfraRed Echelle Spectrograph (VLT CRIRES) and standard analysis methods reported in the literature. A more robust treatment of telluric contamination and other residuals would improve confidence and enable unambiguous molecular detections. The presence of HCN could provide constraints on the C/O ratio of HD~209458b and its potential origins., Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, published in ApJL