Debris Disks Can Contaminate Mid-infrared Exoplanet Spectra: Evidence for a Circumstellar Debris Disk around Exoplanet Host WASP-39
Journal article, 2024
The signal from a transiting planet can be diluted by astrophysical contamination. In the case of circumstellar debris disks, this contamination could start in the mid-infrared and vary as a function of wavelength, which would then change the observed transmission spectrum for any planet in the system. The MIRI/Low Resolution Spectrometer WASP-39b transmission spectrum shows an unexplained dip starting at ∼10 μm that could be caused by astrophysical contamination. The spectral energy distribution displays excess flux at similar levels to that which are needed to create the dip in the transmission spectrum. In this Letter, we show that this dip is consistent with the presence of a bright circumstellar debris disk, at a distance of >2 au. We discuss how a circumstellar debris disk like that could affect the atmosphere of WASP-39b. We also show that even faint debris disks can be a source of contamination in MIRI exoplanet spectra.
Author
Laura Flagg
Cornell University
Alycia J. Weinberger
Carnegie Institution of Washington
Taylor Bell
NASA Ames Research Center
Luis Welbanks
Arizona State University
Giuseppe Morello
Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment, Astronomy and Plasmaphysics
Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias
Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (IAA)
Diana Powell
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Jacob L. Bean
University of Chicago
Jasmina Blecic
New York University Abu Dhabi
N. Crouzet
Leiden University
Peter Gao
Carnegie Institution of Washington
Julie Inglis
California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
J. Kirk
Imperial College London
Mercedes López-Morales
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
K. Molaverdikhani
Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU)
Nikolay K. Nikolov
Space Telescope Science Institute
A. V. Oza
California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
Benjamin V. Rackham
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
S. Redfield
Wesleyan University
Shang Min Tsai
University of California
Ray Jayawardhana
Cornell University
Johns Hopkins University
L. Kreidberg
Max Planck Society
M. C. Nixon
University of Maryl
Kevin B. Stevenson
The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
Jake D. Turner
Cornell University
Astrophysical Journal Letters
2041-8205 (ISSN) 2041-8213 (eISSN)
Vol. 969 1 L19Subject Categories
Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology
Theoretical Chemistry
DOI
10.3847/2041-8213/ad4649