Rossiter–McLaughlin effect
The Rossiter–McLaughlin effect is a spectroscopic phenomenon observed when either an eclipsing binary's secondary star or an extrasolar planet is seen to transit across the face of the primary or parent star. As the main star rotates on its axis, one quadrant of its photosphere will be seen to be coming towards the viewer, and the other quadrant to be moving away. These motions produce blueshifts and redshifts, respectively, in the star's spectrum, usually observed as a broadening of the spectral lines. When the secondary star or planet transits the primary, it blocks part of the latter's disc, preventing some of the shifted light from reaching the observer. This causes the observed mean redshift of the primary star as a whole to vary from its normal value. As the transiting object moves across to the other side of the star's disc, the redshift anomaly will switch from being negative to being positive, or vice versa. This effect has been used to show that as many as 25% of hot Jupiters are orbiting in a retrograde direction with respect to their parent stars,[1] strongly suggesting that dynamical interactions rather than planetary migration produce these objects.
[edit] Further reading
- Ohta, Y.; Taruya, A. & Suto, Y. (2005). "The Rossiter–McLaughlin Effect and Analytic Radial Velocity Curves for Transiting Extrasolar Planetary Systems". The Astrophysical Journal 622 (1): 1118–1135. arXiv:astro-ph/0410499. Bibcode 2005ApJ...622.1118O. doi:10.1086/428344.
- Anderson, D.; et al. (2010). "WASP-17b: An Ultra-Low Density Planet In A Probable Retrograde Orbit". The Astrophysical Journal 709 (1): 159. arXiv:0908.1553. Bibcode 2010ApJ...709..159A. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/709/1/159.
[edit] References
- ^ Triaud, A. H. M. J.; et al. (2010). "Spin-orbit angle measurements for six southern transiting planets: New insights into the dynamical origins of hot Jupiters". Astronomy & Astrophysics 524: A25. arXiv:1008.2353. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201014525.
