Detection of Aerosols at Microbar Pressures in an Exoplanet Atmosphere
Formation of hazes at microbar pressures has been explored by theoretical
models of exoplanet atmospheres to explain Rayleigh scattering and/or
featureless transmission spectra, however observational evidence of aerosols in
the low pressure formation environments has proved elusive. Here, we show
direct evidence of aerosols existing at $\sim$1 microbar pressures in the
atmosphere of the warm sub-Saturn WASP-69b using observations taken with Space
Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) and Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3)
instruments on the Hubble Space Telescope. The transmission spectrum shows a
wavelength-dependent slope induced by aerosol scattering that covers 11 scale
heights of spectral modulation. Drawing on the extensive studies of haze in our
Solar System, we model the transmission spectrum based on a scaled version of
Jupiter's haze density profile to show that WASP-69b transmission spectrum can
be produced by scattering from an approximately constant density of particles
extending throughout the atmospheric column from 40 millibar to microbar
pressures. These results are consistent with theoretical expectations based on
microphysics of the aerosol particles that have suggested haze can exist at
microbar pressures in exoplanet atmospheres.
Authors
Raissa Estrela, Mark Swain, Gael Roudier, Robert West, Elyar Sedaghati, Adriana Valio