Day-Night Temperature Differences on Extrasolar Planets


Team Members:

PI
Bradley Hansen (UCLA)
CO-I:
Joseph Harrington (UCF)
Drake Deming (GSFC)
Sara Seager (CIW)
Kristen Menou (Columbia)
James Cho (QMUL)
L. Jeremy Richardson (GSFC)
Statia Luszcz (UCB)

Papers:

The Phase Dependent Infra-Red Brightness
of the Extrasolar Planet upsilon Andromeda b

Public Outreach:

Press Release (NASA)
This above all: to thine ownself be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man
(Hamlet)


This paper describes the first result from Spitzer Observing Program GO-20101 , the goal of which is to explore the differences in brightness between the day sides and night sides of extrasolar planets orbiting the stars nearest the sun. This builds on the earlier spectacular Spitzer results (see here and here ) featuring direct detections of extrasolar planet light by measuring secondary eclipses. However, there are some important differences.

For a description of our method see here .

For a description of our current understanding regarding the structure of these planets, see here .

For a description of the current state of understanding of the upsilon Andromeda planetary system, see here

Frequently Asked Questions

This project would not be possible without the spectacular performance of the MIPS instrument, described here

This project is supported by a variety of NASA funding sources, including grants via the Spitzer Space Telescope (programs GO-3309, GO-20101), Office of Space Science (programs NNG04GK53G, NNG06GF55G) and the NASA Astrobiology Institute (Three separate nodes of the Institute are represented here, those at UCLA , Goddard and the Carnegie Institution).


Brad Hansen
hansen@astro.ucla.edu
Background image by Robert Hurt
hurt@ipac.caltech.edu