S18B0117abst
S18B0117
With an effective temperature of almost 3300K, WASP-33b is one of the hottest planet’s known to date. Due to this high temperature, comparable to that of an M5V star, TiO is expected to be in the gas-phase. TiO is one of the main candidates for compounds that can cause inversion layers in hot Jupiters, since it has many spectral lines at optical wavelengths. Here we propose to observe the day-side of this planet at high spectral resolution with IRD to probe molecular composition of WASP-33b at near-infrared wavelengths, and directly determine whether an inversion is present. The near-infrared observations will enable us to directly probe a variety of molecules, especially water and methane, in the planet’s atmosphere, thereby providing a direct constraint on the abundances and atmospheric composition. As the SNR in individual lines is low, we will combine the signal from a large number of lines, thereby increasing the SNR, and enabling a robust detection of the targeted molecules. This will also provide a direct determination of the planet’s orbital velocity, and allow a direct measurement of the mass of both the star and planet. Finally, as we are looking at the day- and night-side rotating in and out of view, we will search for difference in the emission spectrum of the planet over time.
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