Venus transit 2004: Illustrating the capability of exoplanet transmission spectroscopy

Hedelt, P.; Alonso, R.; Brown, T.; Collados, M.; Rauer, H.; Schleicher, H.; Schmidt, W.; Schreier, F.; Titz, R.
Referencia bibliográfica

Astronomy and Astrophysics, Volume 533, id.A136

Fecha de publicación:
9
2011
Número de autores
9
Número de autores del IAC
1
Número de citas
19
Número de citas referidas
16
Descripción
The transit of Venus in 2004 offered the rare possibility to remotely sense a well-known planetary atmosphere using ground-based absorption spectroscopy. Transmission spectra of Venus' atmosphere were obtained in the near infrared using the Vacuum Tower Telescope (VTT) in Tenerife. Since the instrument was designed to measure the very bright photosphere of the Sun, extracting Venus' atmosphere was challenging. We were able to identify CO2 absorption lines in the upper Venus atmosphere. Moreover, the relative abundance of the three most abundant CO2 isotopologues could be determined. The observations resolved Venus' limb, showing Doppler-shifted absorption lines that are probably caused by high-altitude winds. We demonstrate the utility of ground-based measurements in analyzing the atmospheric constituents of a terrestrial planet atmosphere using methods that might be applied in future to terrestrial extrasolar planets.
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