Bibcode
Leger, A.; Deeg, H. J.; Demangeon, O.; Samuel, B.; Cavaroc, C.; Fegley, B.; Rouan, D.
Bibliographical reference
EPSC-DPS Joint Meeting 2011, held 2-7 October 2011 in Nantes, France. http://meetings.copernicus.org/epsc-dps2011, p.755
Advertised on:
10
2011
Citations
0
Refereed citations
0
Description
In this presentation, we apply the Lava-ocean model that has been
proposed for planets of the class of CoRoT-7b, i.e. rocky planets at a
few stellar radii from their star, since Kepler-10b is a typical member
of this family. The model predicts that the light from the planet has an
important emission component in addition to the reflected one, even in
the Kepler spectral band. Assuming an isotropical reflection of light by
the planetary surface (Lambertian-like approximation), we find that a
plausible Bond albedo of ˜ 50% can account for the observed phase
amplitude, as opposed to a first attempt where an unusually high value
was found. We propose a test of this interpretation: future observations
of the planetary phases, in the near-IR, with instruments as JWST or
Echo. The predicted spectral dependence of the secondary transit is
clearly distinguishable from that of purely reflected light. The
measurements would permit the determination of the temperature
distribution at the planetary surface, which could be compared to the
predictions of the Lavaocean model, with significant details.