Average rating
Cast your vote
You can rate an item by clicking the amount of stars they wish to award to this item.
When enough users have cast their vote on this item, the average rating will also be shown.
Star rating
Your vote was cast
Thank you for your feedback
Thank you for your feedback
Author
Sheneman, Allyson C.Keyword
Research Subject Categories::NATURAL SCIENCES::Physics::Astronomy and astrophysicsAstrobiology
Exoplanets
Spectroscopy
Readers/Advisors
Langeveld, Adam B.Bartholomew, Amy
Term and Year
Spring 2024Date Published
2024-05
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Observing transiting exoplanets with ground-based telescopes and high-resolution spectrographs enables the resolution of individual absorption lines in the exoplanet transmission spectra. However, observing from the ground inherently introduces telluric contamination: spectral contamination from absorption due to molecules in the Earth’s atmosphere. We take high-resolution observations of a transiting exoplanet around a bright A-type star as a case study and use synthetic telluric molecfit models to remove contamination from water and oxygen molecules in Earth’s atmosphere. The quality of the telluric corrections was statistically assessed for several different telluric regions based on absorption depth and molecular absorption species. We find that corrections for shallow telluric lines are more robust than deeper telluric lines, though both depend similarly on airmass. Corrections for different molecular bands varied by region. Some regions demonstrate a higher dependency on airmass, potentially due to the wavelength, depth, or quantity of telluric lines. Finally, we determine that the most accurate corrections are performed at observations with airmass under 1.07 corresponding to a zenith angle of approximately 20.84 degrees. Whilst this is a somewhat limited airmass range, these results highlight the need for improving telluric models for future searches of water and oxygen features in Earth-like exoplanet transmission spectra with 30m-class telescopes. These results may assist in optimizing observations for retrieving and preserving more data in an exoplanet transmission spectrum, especially when absorption features from the same molecules–and potential biosignatures–in Earth-like atmospheres fall in these highly contaminated regions. Key Words: astronomy; astrobiology; exoplanets; atmosphere; spectroscopy; telluric contamination; telluric correctionsAccessibility Statement
If this SOAR repository item is not accessible to you (e.g. able to be used in the context of a disability), please email libraryaccessibility@newpaltz.eduThe following license files are associated with this item:
- Creative Commons
Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International