Title of programme: CHEOPS Phase Curves to Characterize the Clouds Composition of Hot Jupiters
Abstract: Observing and modeling efforts have recently been made to begin the atmospheric characterization of It is thought that clouds are ubiquitous in the atmosphere of Hot Jupiter. However, distinguishing between the different kinds of condensates is hard, as degeneracies emerge when analyzing photometric and spectral data. High precision optical phase curves can help disentangle these degeneracies as the peak offset of the optical phase curve is sensitive to the cloud's composition. We aim to observe two phase curves of the Hot Jupiter HIP 65A b and three phase curves of the Hot Jupiter WASP-77A b. HIP 65A b has anxa0equilibrium temperature of 1410 K, an orbital period of 0.98 days and a poorly constrained radius between 2.64 and 1.54 RJ.xa0 WASP-77A b has an equilibrium temperature of 1715 K, an orbital period of 1.35 days and a radius of 1.230 RJ.xa0 These observations will allow us to refine the constraints on the planetary radius (in particular for HIP 65A b), to constrain the geometric albedo and potentially to discriminate between different forming clouds. They will also be useful for the preparation and interpretation of future observations by JWST and ARIEL as well as characterizations by high spectral resolution observations by SPIRou or CRIRES.
Temporal Coverage
2023-09-15T20:59:57Z / 2023-09-18T11:34:00Z
Version
3.0
Mission Description
CHEOPS (Benz et al., https://doi.org/10.1007/s10686-020-09679-4) is a European Space Agency (ESA) mission in partnership with Switzerland with important contributions to the payload and the ground segment from Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
The satellite has a single payload comprising an ultra-high precision photometer covering the 330 - 1100 nm wavelength range in a single photometric band. Observations are made as part of the Guaranteed Time Observing Programme that is formulated by the CHEOPS Science Team, and the Guest Observers Programme through which the Community at large can apply for CHEOPS time.
