Hubble Space Telescope Transmission Spectroscopy for the Temperate Sub-Neptune TOI-270 d: A Possible Hydrogen-rich Atmosphere Containing Water Vapor

  • Mikal-Evans T
  • Madhusudhan N
  • Dittmann J
  • et al.
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Abstract

TOI-270 d is a temperate sub-Neptune discovered by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) around a bright ( J = 9.1 mag) M3V host star. With an approximate radius of 2 R ⊕ and equilibrium temperature of 350 K, TOI-270 d is one of the most promising small exoplanets for atmospheric characterization using transit spectroscopy. Here we present a primary transit observation of TOI-270 d made with the Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) spectrograph across the 1.126–1.644 μ m wavelength range, and a 95% credible upper limit of 8.2 × 10 −14 erg s −1 cm −2 Å −1 arcsec −2 for the stellar Ly α emission obtained using the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph. The transmission spectrum derived from the TESS and WFC3 data provides evidence for molecular absorption by a hydrogen-rich atmosphere at 4 σ significance relative to a featureless spectrum. The strongest evidence for any individual absorber is obtained for H 2 O, which is favored at 3 σ significance. When retrieving on the WFC3 data alone and allowing for the possibility of a heterogeneous stellar brightness profile, the detection significance of H 2 O is reduced to 2.8 σ . Further observations are therefore required to robustly determine the atmospheric composition of TOI-270 d and assess the impact of stellar heterogeneity. If confirmed, our findings would make TOI-270 d one of the smallest and coolest exoplanets to date with detected atmospheric spectral features.

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Mikal-Evans, T., Madhusudhan, N., Dittmann, J., Günther, M. N., Welbanks, L., Van Eylen, V., … Kreidberg, L. (2023). Hubble Space Telescope Transmission Spectroscopy for the Temperate Sub-Neptune TOI-270 d: A Possible Hydrogen-rich Atmosphere Containing Water Vapor. The Astronomical Journal, 165(3), 84. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/aca90b

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