Stars, Planets, and ISM Seminar
Apr
22
2026
Apr
22
2026
Description
IGRINS at McDonald Observatory: Detector Electronics Upgrade and Ultra-Hot Jupiter atmospheres with High-Resolution Spectroscopy
High-resolution spectroscopy (HRS) of exoplanets can place more detailed and robust constraints on the dynamical and chemical properties of planetary atmospheres than low-resolution observations. Beyond the era of planet discovery, detailed observational studies of the atmospheric characterization of individual planets are underway, and HRS has become a key observational tool for this purpose. Recent HRS-based studies using IGRINS & IGRINS-2 at the Gemini Observatories have demonstrated that these spectrographs are well-suited for characterizing exoplanet atmospheres. These results suggest that IGRINS at McDonald Observatory can continue to have scientific impacts for atmospheric characterization. We introduce the results of the upgrade to the detector electronics system, including the development of new detector control software, performed to support this science with IGRINS over the long term by ensuring the maintainability of this 12-year-old spectrograph. In addition to upgrading IGRINS, we attempted to confirm whether exoplanet atmosphere studies are feasible on the 2.7 m HJST. We selected several Ultra-Hot Jupiters (UHJs) for which atmospheric signal detection is expected to be favorable as our initial targets. We present a detection of the molecular signal from a UHJ WASP-33 b by using the High-Resolution Cross-Correlation Spectroscopy (HRCCS) method. We confirm that on the 2.7 m HJST, IGRINS can detect molecules in the UHJ atmosphere using HRCCS if sufficient visits can be secured, and this is consistent with results from IGRINS-2 at Gemini North. Furthermore, we are conducting atmospheric retrievals for the UHJ in which molecular signals were detected. We expect to constrain the thermal structure and molecular abundances of the UHJ's atmosphere.
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