Transmission spectroscopy of the sodium doublet in WASP-17b with the VLT

Abstract

The detection of sodium absorption during primary transit implies the presence of an atmosphere around an extrasolar planet. WASP-17b (Anderson et al. 2010a) is the least dense known planet, with a radius twice that of Jupiter. It orbits an F6-type star, and its low gravity gives its atmosphere a very large scale height. The sodium transit depth is expected to be 4.1 -5.2 times deeper than for HD209458b (Seager & Sasselov 2000). We obtained 24 spectra with the GIRAFFE spectrograph on the VLT, 8 during transit. We measured the flux in the sodium doublet at 5889.95Å and 5895.92Å using bandpasses 0.75, 1.5, 3.0 and 6.0Å. We find a transit depth of 0.55±0.13% at 1.5Å (4.3σ). WASP-17b therefore has an atmosphere which is depleted in sodium compared to predictions. © International Astronomical Union 2011.