IR light curve of VHS1256-1257b in 2018 & 2020 epochs Virtual Observatory Resource

Authors
  1. Zhou Y.
  2. Bowler B.P.
  3. Apai D.
  4. Kataria T.
  5. Morley C.V.
  6. Bryan M.L.,Skemer A.J.,Benneke B.
  7. Published by
    CDS
Abstract

The photometric and spectral variability of brown dwarfs probes heterogeneous temperature and cloud distributions and traces the atmospheric circulation patterns. We present a new 42hr Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Wide Field Camera 3 G141 spectral time series of VHS1256-1257b, a late L-type planetary-mass companion that has been shown to have one of the highest variability amplitudes among substellar objects. The light curve is rapidly evolving and best fit by a combination of three sine waves with different periods and a linear trend. The amplitudes of the sine waves and the linear slope vary with the wavelength, and the corresponding spectral variability patterns match the predictions by models invoking either heterogeneous clouds or thermal profile anomalies. Combining these observations with previous HST monitoring data, we find that the peak-to-valley flux difference is 33%{+/-}2% with an even higher amplitude reaching 38% in the J band, the highest amplitude ever observed in a substellar object. The observed light curve can be explained by maps that are composed of zonal waves, spots, or a mixture of the two. Distinguishing the origin of rapid light curve evolution requires additional long-term monitoring. Our findings underscore the essential role of atmospheric dynamics in shaping brown-dwarf atmospheres and highlight VHS1256-1257b as one of the most favorable targets for studying the atmospheres, clouds, and atmospheric circulation of planets and brown dwarfs.

Keywords
  1. exoplanets
  2. brown-dwarfs
  3. infrared-astronomy
  4. spectroscopy
Bibliographic source Bibcode
2022AJ....164..239Z
See also HTML
https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/AJ/164/239
IVOA Identifier IVOID
ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/AJ/164/239
Document Object Identifer DOI
doi:10.26093/cds/vizier.51640239

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History

2023-02-10T06:52:42Z
Resource record created
2023-02-10T06:52:42Z
Created
2023-03-29T13:17:06Z
Updated

Contact

Name
CDS support team
Postal Address
CDS, Observatoire de Strasbourg, 11 rue de l'Universite, F-67000 Strasbourg, France
E-Mail
cds-question@unistra.fr