The GAPS programme at TNG

XXX. Atmospheric Rossiter-McLaughlin effect and atmospheric dynamics of KELT-20b^★

¹ INAF – Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Largo Enrico Fermi 5, 50125 Firenze, Italy
e-mail: [email protected]
² INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera, Via E. Bianchi, 46, 23807 Merate (LC), Italy
³ Anton Pannekoek Institute for Astronomy, University of Amsterdam Science Park 904 1098 XH Amsterdam, The Netherlands
⁴ Università degli Studi di Milano Bicocca, Piazza dell’Ateneo Nuovo, 1, 20126 Milano, Italy
⁵ Department of Physics, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK
⁶ INAF – Osservatorio Astrofisico di Torino, Via Osservatorio 20, 10025 Pino Torinese (TO), Italy
⁷ Centre for Exoplanets and Habitability, University of Warwick, Gibbet Hill Road, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK
⁸ INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, Via Frascati 33, 00078 Monte Porzio Catone (Roma), Italy
⁹ Astronomy Department and Van Vleck Observatory, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT 06459, USA
¹⁰ INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova, Vicolo dell’Osservatorio, 5, 35122 Padova (PD), Italy
¹¹ INAF – Osservatorio Astrofisico di Catania, Via S. Sofia 78, 95123 Catania, Italy
¹² INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo, Piazza del Parlamento, 1, 90134 Palermo, Italy
¹³ Department of Physics, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, 00133 Rome, Italy
¹⁴ Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Königstuhl 17, 69117, Heidelberg, Germany
¹⁵ Department of Astronomy, University of Geneva, Chemin des Maillettes 51, 1290 Versoix, Suisse
¹⁶ INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte, Salita Moiariello 16, 80131 Napoli, Italy
¹⁷ INAF – Fundación Galileo Galilei, Rambla José Ana Fernandez Pérez 7, 38712 Breña Baja (TF), Spain
¹⁸ INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Cagliari, Via della Scienza 5, 09047 Cuccuru Angius, Selargius (CA), Italy
¹⁹ INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste, Via Giambattista Tiepolo, 11, 34131 Trieste, Italy
²⁰ Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, CNES, LAM, Marseille, France
²¹ Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia Galileo Galilei – Università di Padova, Vicolo dell’Osservatorio 2, 35122 Padova, Italy

Received: 24 August 2020
Accepted: 16 March 2021

Abstract

Context. Transiting ultra-hot Jupiters are ideal candidates for studying the exoplanet atmospheres and their dynamics, particularly by means of high-resolution spectra with high signal-to-noise ratios. One such object is KELT-20b. It orbits the fast-rotating A2-type star KELT-20. Many atomic species have been found in its atmosphere, with blueshifted signals that indicate a day- to night-side wind.

Aims. We observe the atmospheric Rossiter-McLaughlin effect in the ultra-hot Jupiter KELT-20b and study any variation of the atmospheric signal during the transit. For this purpose, we analysed five nights of HARPS-N spectra covering five transits of KELT-20b.

Methods. We computed the mean line profiles of the spectra with a least-squares deconvolution using a stellar mask obtained from the Vienna Atomic Line Database (T_eff = 10 000 K, log g = 4.3), and then we extracted the stellar radial velocities by fitting them with a rotational broadening profile in order to obtain the radial velocity time-series. We used the mean line profile residuals tomography to analyse the planetary atmospheric signal and its variations. We also used the cross-correlation method to study a previously reported double-peak feature in the FeI planetary signal.

Results. We observed both the classical and the atmospheric Rossiter-McLaughlin effect in the radial velocity time-series. The latter gave us an estimate of the radius of the planetary atmosphere that correlates with the stellar mask used in our work (R_p+atmo∕R_p = 1.13 ± 0.02). We isolated the planetary atmospheric trace in the tomography, and we found radial velocity variations of the planetary atmospheric signal during transit with an overall blueshift of ≈10 km s⁻¹, along with small variations in the signal depth, and less significant, in the full width at half maximum (FWHM). We also find a possible variation in the structure and position of the FeI signal in different transits.

Conclusions. We confirm the previously detected blueshift of the atmospheric signal during the transit. The FWHM variations of the atmospheric signal, if confirmed, may be caused by more turbulent condition at the beginning of the transit, by a variable contribution of the elements present in the stellar mask to the overall planetary atmospheric signal, or by iron condensation. The FeI signal show indications of variability from one transit to the next.