ARES. III. Unveiling the Two Faces of KELT-7 b with HST WFC3*

Abstract

Abstract We present the analysis of the hot-Jupiter KELT-7 b using transmission and emission spectroscopy from the Hubble Space Telescope, both taken with the Wide Field Camera 3. Our study uncovers a rich transmission spectrum that is consistent with a cloud-free atmosphere and suggests the presence of H 2 O and H − . In contrast, the extracted emission spectrum does not contain strong absorption features and, although it is not consistent with a simple blackbody, it can be explained by a varying temperature–pressure profile, collision induced absorption, and H − . KELT-7 b had also been studied with other space-based instruments and we explore the effects of introducing these additional data sets. Further observations with Hubble, or the next generation of space-based telescopes, are needed to allow for the optical opacity source in transmission to be confirmed and for molecular features to be disentangled in emission.